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 priority block
This is the most active way to participate in the Atlas. We hope many of you will adopt a block and survey it regularly.
- Full site surveys intentionally focus your efforts on a specific location or set of locations. Since we have selected priority blocks evenly across the different biophysical regions of Vermont, complete surveying of these blocks should yield a representative sample of Vermont’s Lady Beetle fauna over the course of the 5 year atlas.
- You will visit survey sites from spring through autumn and follow the protocols described in the easy to use manual to document lady beetles.
Steps:
- Review the manual we have provided. This manual will guide you through the rest of the steps.
- Choose and adopt one or more survey blocks using our online survey map viewer.
- 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.
Survey a site of your choosing
If you cannot access any of the priority blocks, 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 in a priority block.
- 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!
