What looked like a pocket of precipitation east of Los Angeles on Tuesday was actually a huge swarm of ladybugs, according to the National Weather Service.
The ladybug bloom appeared on the NWS radar as a green blob Tuesday evening.
The large echo showing up on SoCal radar this evening is not precipitation, but actually a cloud of lady bugs termed a "bloom" #CAwx pic.twitter.com/1C0rt0in6z
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) June 5, 2019
Meteorologists believe the bloom was about 80 miles by 80 miles wide and that the insects were spread across the sky.
It’s unknown exactly what type of ladybugs they were, but there are about 175 species of ladybug that live in California.
Farmers and gardeners see ladybugs in a positive light because they eat plant-eating pests like aphids. In fact, a ladybug can eat up to 5,000 aphids in its lifetime.
Click here to learn more fun facts about ladybugs from the UC Master Gardener Program.
