A report I discovered from 15th August 1869

"Remarkable clouds of ladybugs came across  the English Channel and settled all over the southeastern counties."

From the Times of August 1869

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Originally Posted by: GezM

As a slight aside, I was only commenting over the weekend that there seem to be far fewer ladybirds around these days , compared to when I was a child back in the 1970s. Does anybody know why this might be?

The summer of 1975 was a good one for ladybirds and the summer of 1976 was exceptionally good for them. So it may be that, given the length of time that has passed , your memories are altered by those bumper years. We form the strongest memories from events that evoke the most emotion in us, especially positive emotions.  It's why you probably can't remember what you had for breakfast 3 weeks ago last Tuesday but can clearly remember events from your childhood.  I imagine that seeing a huge abundance of ladybirds as a child and adults around you commenting on the unusual ness of such a thing would create a strong impression. 

On a similar but different vein, I've always chuckled when people who grew up in the 60s reminisce about the wonderful long  hot summers they had as kids. They were much worse than the ones we have today.