Its ladybug harvest season. Yes... there is such a thing as “Ladybug harvesting”.

The red and black beetles are used for pest control in organic gardens and they eat bad bugs. Ladybug harvesters collect them in the fall and sell them during the spring gardening season. It’s a lucrative business but its technically illegal and the reason is complicated.

http://www.abc10.com/mobile/article/news/local/the-illegal-ladybug-trade/503067482

Cobb’s research reaffirms that the large-scale die-offs seen with sudden oak death — a disease that’s killed millions of trees along the Northern California coast — and the bark beetle infestations in the Sierra Nevada that are turning huge swaths of pine trees brown, have been increasing in severity and frequency across the world.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article195028789.html