Dead ladybugs now litter my house. They are everywhere. Although a few of them are still crawling about, it is more than clear that they have come out too early this season. Way too early. Not only are they dying prematurely, but they also have not lived long enough to lay their eggs for the next season. The ladybug population will suffer, at least in the short run. It will take a few seasons for it to find a new equilibrium. Assuming the climate will not keep changing as dramatically as this season, of course. And that seems to be a brave assumption. The way things are going, changes may well pile up, and the ladybug population may be battered now one way, now the other. They will hatch too early or too late, depending on the season, and their numbers will dwindle. As an index of climate change, this one is dramatic enough. But indices of this sort are likely to multiply. And keep multiplying, until we forget about ladybugs.