Though they were long thought extinct in New York, a participant in Cornell University’s Lost Ladybug Project has found a nine-spotted Ladybug on Long Island.

While none of the rare beetles have been seen in the Fulton and Montgomery County area yet, this summer CCEFM 4-H educators visited recreation sites and libraries teaching youth about Ladybugs and the Lost Ladybug Project.

The rare nine-spotted Ladybug (Coccinella novemnotata) is the official state insect of New York. While once very common, few have been seen in the Northeast over the last 20 years.  

On July 30, Peter Priolo of the Agricultural Stewardship Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County found a rare nine-spotted ladybug on a sunflower at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett. Priolo was participating in a Lost Ladybug Project ladybug hunt when he made the discovery at the organic farm.

The last of the local Lost Ladybugs lessons wrapped up August 17 at the Gloversville Public Library.

CCEFM educators also taught Lost Ladybug lessons this summer at the Fonda-Fultonville Youth Commission, the Walter Elwood Museum in Amsterdam, the Northville-Northampton Summer Youth Program, the St. Johnsville Recreation Program, the Gloversville Boys and Girls Club, the Amsterdam Free Library, the Frothingham Library in Fonda and the Fort Plain Free Library.

CCEFM educators this summer also taught Re-think Your Drink at various summer youth sites. Youth learned about personal drink choices, the amount of sugar in popular beverages and the importance of calcium and drinking milk. CCEFM taught Re-think Your Drink this summer at the Broadalbin Youth Commission, the Fulton County YMCA, the Canajoharie Youth Center, the Amsterdam YMCA in Hagaman, the Fort Hunter Library and the Catholic Charities Family Room in Amsterdam.

Caption: a youth participant decorates an origami ladybug this summer during one of CCEFM's Lost Ladybug summer enrichment programs