Every lady beetle counts — from the common to the rare. Even if you lack experience with these insects, you can contribute to the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas. Whether you help with full surveys or just find a few beetles while doing other outdoor activities, It's easy to report your sightings to the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas on iNaturalist.
No matter what your participation level is, join the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas on iNaturalist and upload your Lady Beetle observations there.
Incidental Encounters
This option allows you to document lady beetles wherever and whenever you find them – you do not need to visit a specific site.
Steps:
- Take several clear photos of the Lady Beetle(s) you find, wherever they are.
- Upload your photos to the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas on iNaturalist.
Full Site Surveys
Adopt a Historic Site
This is the most active way to participate in the Atlas. We hope many of you will “adopt” a region where missing lady beetle species were historically recorded (see more information below) and survey it often. You can just upload incidental encounters in these sites, but we hope that you will actively survey in these areas for lady beetles.
- Active historic site surveys intentionally focus your efforts on a specific location or set of locations. Since we have mapped out sites were missing native species were historically recorded, we hope that increasing survey efforts in these regions will determine whether these species are still present in Vermont.
- You will visit you historic survey site(s) of choice from spring through autumn and follow the protocols described in the easy to use manual to document lady beetles (see below).
Steps:
- Review the manual we have provided. This manual will guide you through the rest of the steps.
- Choose historic sites for selected species (follow link here to view locations of historic sites by species).
- Visit your site(s) and record the lady beetle species found there while following survey protocols.
- Submit your data to the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas on iNaturalist. If possible, print, fill out, and email us datasheets (PDF link here) or submit your data through the Google Form version of the datasheet (link here).
Survey a site of your choosing
If you cannot access any of the historic sites, but you can access a site that you can regularly survey, that is okay! This is still valuable data.
Steps:
- Review the manual we have provided. You will still follow these survey protocols, just not at a historic site.
- Visit your site(s) and record the lady beetle species found there while following survey protocols. Print, fill out, and email us datasheets (PDF link here) or submit your data through the Google Form version of the datasheet (link here).
- Submit your data to the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas on iNaturalist.
Download the Manual for Participants (PDF) and get ready to help us discover lady beetle life!
