A guy on TikTok, @arkeslo, bought 100 million ladybugs for $75 and then released them in New York’s Central Park as part of what he called a “Ladybug Raid 👹.” Now, he’s fled the country for Colombia, evading house arrest and an environmental lawsuit. However, it might all be a hoax.
On April 18th, a TikToker named Arke posted a video where he revealed that it only cost $75 to buy 100 million ladybugs. If enough people in the comment section spammed, “Ladybug Raid 👹,” he would release that many into New York City’s Central Park as part of a ladybug invasion, seemingly for no reason.
People in his comment section obliged his request. One commenter stated, “please do it bro. even 100k or 200k is enough. that would make headlines. ‘hundreds of thousands of bugs invade and mate in NYC.'” This comment specifically prompted him to actually do it. In his next video, posted on April 22nd, he released, “Swarm 1,” of 250,000 ladybugs in Central Park. The video showed thousands of ladybugs sprawled on top of rocks.
His followers and others subjected to the video on their “For You” pages reacted to his decision en masse. Some, like TikToker metabeats, said, “Bro is committing environmental war crimes,” earning roughly 34,200 likes for their comment.
Two days later, on April 24th, Arke posted another video that responded to metabeats’ comment, stating, “Someone really filed a $350,000 lawsuit against me for releasing ladybugs 🐞🤨.” The video included a screenshot of a legal document supposedly levied against Arke that stated he had, “The intent to Environmentally-terrorise New York in a vigilante matter.”
Arke tried to fix the situation in an obtuse way, posting a video on April 25th of himself at a cricket farm, stating that if he released the same amount of crickets in Central Park they’d eat all the ladybugs. In the video, he also revealed he was going to escape the country, including a screenshot of a flight from New York to Colombia.
However, Arke never made it to Colombia and was instead put on house arrest for the stunt. His account went silent until the start of May when he posted a video on May 1st of his leg in bed with an anklet on it.
His house arrest didn’t last long though. On May 8th, he posted a video of him cutting the anklet, boarding a flight and fleeing the country. He stated in his latest video, “Colombia is my new home and I will be here for the next 5 years.”
Although it’s not confirmed yet if the story is real or fake, the buzz surrounding it spread to Twitter amid the fleeing-the-country development. Twitter user @Simp4Sluts was one of the people who reposted it to the platform, stating in their tweet, “how is this real LMAO.”
In the end, the story might be a hoax after all. The account of wishlist18, which posted the same Ladybug Raid video back in December 2020, uploaded a video in late February 2021 that revealed himself as TikToker @h1t1. This 2022 Ladybug Raid is mostly likely the same creator, just using a new handle to fuel a more successful publicity stunt.
