The Plague of Ladybugs

Nov
4

Of course, what I’m talking about is not really a ladybug. Not even this kind of ladybug.
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It’s this kind of ladybug:
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They are the plague, easily recognizable because they aren’t the rich red of our friendly ladybug. You know, the one who flies home because her house is on fire and her children are alone.

This is the bad kind of ladybug, that isn’t a real ladybug at all. It’s certainly no lady. Though it is a bug.


I dug up this old photo of the plague on the windows of the Slanted Little House. They love old houses, and white houses. Who are they? In case you don’t know–

Several years back, the government brought in an Asian cousin of the ladybug to combat the aphids that plague pecan trees, soybeans and corn. Unfortunately, while that worked, these foreign ladybugs had no natural predators and states like Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia have become plagued by them. They come indoors for winter and they are attracted to light-colored buildings.

Some years are worse than other years. A few days ago when I had a repairman crawling under my house, they were flying around my head and getting caught in my hair. One time last week when I was in Ohio, I felt something in my pants. I reached all the way down my pants to almost my knee and pulled out, you guessed it, an Asian ladybug. IN MY PANTS.

This is looking to be a bad year for them here. You?

*****

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Comments

  1. DancesInGarden says:

    And they BITE. And when they die in little piles everywhere, they stink.

  2. tractor57 says:

    They never left here but are now here in much greater numbers to join their partners in crime the stinkbugs.

  3. smiledarlin says:

    I visited my friend outside of Clarksburg about 10 yrs ago. She told me what was swarming the front of her white colored house. She said they would bite and STUNK if you killed them. She was told you couldn’t hire an exterminator because the Govt placed them there.
    She found the best way to rid them was a vacuum with bags, and then out to the burn pile with that bag.
    Well sure enough, we woke up that night to bites and found those mean ladybugs.
    We came home and told friends, who don’t believe us, and we would have to google “Japanese Lady bugs” and prove to them.
    Good luck, and buy an old Hoover.

  4. outbackfarm says:

    They are here in Ga. too. Last week it was AWFUL! They were everywhere. It didn’t help that I had spilled 3 gallons of honey in the back of my Trooper and had all kinds of bees and wasps here too,during the lady bug invasion. So it was quite an interesting bug week. I’m not seeing as many today, thank goodness. We have had some really cold nights. But warm days. I hope yours go away soon.

  5. fowlers says:

    For whatever reason, they like my upstairs bathroom…hundreds of em….I keep the vacuum armed and ready to attack at any given moment…nasty little stinky things ? Still no clue what’s so special about my upstairs bathroom? Could be the Charmin? Could be the assortment of hygienic products? Who knows….?

  6. Leck Kill Farm says:

    Yep, Asian beetles. This year is especially bad. I have had to become an “expert” on these as we are positively infested with them.

    According to our exterminator, they love white, there is nothing one can really do to prevent them aside from sealing up your house 100% (like that could happen with an old house) and cool nights with temps of 60+ degrees during the day calls them into action.

    My husband has completely lost his mind and paces around the house loudly complaining about them as he sucks them out of the air with the Dyson.

  7. ladybird_1959 says:

    Go to Greens Feed and get Suspend. Spray around your house, windows, doors, any cracks you can find where they might come in.

  8. City Kid says:

    It must be a bad year here in Minnesota, too. I’ve had a few Asian beetles in the house and generally I don’t have any. I think there’s too much competition from the BOX ELDER BUGS that invade. Our house is surrounded by box elder trees and we get the bugs by the thousands. They’re natives, but I don’t think they have any natural enemies, either. Or else anything that does eat them is sick to death of them! At least the box elder bugs don’t bite, and they don’t seem to stink, but they POOP and leave brown spots all over everything.

  9. pulsk1 says:

    We have LOVE BUGS. I had thousands of them this year. They cover the screens, doors and cars. Swept up piles 2″ high. Yuck.

  10. Louise says:

    They are in North Alabama and Tennessee too. They travel in big swarms. One year we were vacuuming them in the house as they were flying around after cleaning up the piles on the floor. Awful. And you are all right they bite and stink.

  11. nursemary says:

    I am scratching my head just thinking about this. Suzanne, for the love of God, please check the box carefully before you send my books back. :bugeyed: If get one of those things I am sending you a box of earwigs and millipedes. It’s only fair. :yes:

    I hate bugs.

  12. MMHoney says:

    If you want God to laugh just mess with Mother Nature!!!!!!
    Good example is the wolfs that man introduced to WV…. What can we do about them?????
    Think before you mess with Mother Nature.
    Love to one and all.

  13. Journey11 says:

    We’re only a stone’s throw from you, so about the same here. Probably the worst they’ve ever been. They’re all over everything on my porch on the north-facing side of my house, which I hadn’t seen them do before (normally they go for the warmer south-facing side.) I’d seen so few of them the past couple of years that I really hoped they were on the decline, but I guess not. 😕

  14. brookdale says:

    Yes, we have them here in Maine too. This year doesn’t seem to be as bad as other years, though, maybe they’ve moved South!
    And they DO stink bad when you squish them. They get between the windows and the screens and die there; I clean out lots of dead dehydrated ones in the spring. They seem to be able to get in anywhere.
    I wonder if they have any natural predators now? Birds or squirrels or something? You would think SOMETHING would like them, they say everything has a predator.

  15. DeniseS says:

    We have had the Japanese lady bugs here in Illinois too.
    Last year I used bug spray all along the outside of my sliding glass door by the base. I also sprayed a small amount in the track of the sliding glass door. I don’t have any pets and since I am on the 2nd floor no chance of harm coming to any outside,furry critters. Found some dead Japanese lady bugs on the balcony and left them there as a warning for the others. Have not seen any this year, but I never had them in the amounts others have commented on.

  16. LauraP says:

    They were thick at my son’s in Alabama last week and not so bad now in Missouri now . . . Finally! I hate the mean, nasty things. The bites leave such welts.

  17. Imperious Fig says:

    They seem to be bad up in Tyler County too. We painted our house brown a few years ago and that seems like it cut down on the numbers. (instead of millions – it must only be a few thousand. LOL) They are such an annoyance and they seem to find every nook and cranny in our old farmhouse.

    My husband hates the ones that dive-bomb his head when he is eating. He sits right under the light and they LOVE flying around the fixture (and sometimes drop onto his plate).

  18. Imperious Fig says:

    Forgot to add that I should be getting my copy of the book soon! :shimmy:

  19. pmckee says:

    I live in Ponca City Oklahoma(which is in northern Oklahoma) in the country and they are awful thousands of them and they do bite, when you kill them they stink like dirt they are just a nuisance, I have to keep my sweeper ready. We have tried about every remedy possible to try and kill them and seems nothing works

  20. Peculiar Cat Mama says:

    Yeah, we’ve had those since we got the farmhouse in October 2002. It’s got white siding. They come in on the mud porch and the upstairs bedroom, where they really congregate. I lie there and count them sometimes for fun. The most I counted one warm afternoon was somewhere in the 60s! They don’t really bother me or the cats; they mostly hang out on the walls and curtains. I consider them a blessing, a good omen. It’s the wasps and spiders that I consider a curse! Nothing worse than knowing a wasp is in the bedroom and not being able to find it! “Oh, the horrah!”

  21. Peculiar Cat Mama says:

    Oh, yeah, I forgot – they congregate at our cabin in northern Arkansas, too. It has to be warm for them to come out. Same with the stupid wasps. ;>)

  22. yvonnem says:

    Haven’t noticed many of them here this year (so far), but we sure had our share of stink bugs!

  23. The High Altitude Tea Duchess says:

    My mom is being invaded and we live in Colorado. If it’s the same bug, they are expanding their territory.

  24. Joell says:

    :happyflower:
    They are EVERYWHERE! We have friends in various parts of the country and they all seemed to be plaged with them. A couple years back one of our neighbor whose home has white siding couldnt even get into the back door of his home. They stink, they bite, why do we even have them? This time of the year if I am going ourside to work, I do a quick spray with OFF that seems to help somewhat.
    What ever you do, if you find them in your home, dont pick them up with your vaccumn cleaner–a friend found out the hard way.

  25. odell says:

    Here in IN. we have gazillions of them. We suck em up with the dust buster. I have heard 409 kills them, but haven’t tried it. I hate the smell of 409. Will have to get hubby to squirt some under the siding in the spring.

  26. Jen says:

    We’ve had them here in northwest Arkansas. I think it’s been too cold for them this fall though. I notice they are their worst on warm fall days when the sun shines bright. We haven’t had a lot of sunshine or really warm sunny days lately.

  27. abbygirl says:

    I am in WV too. We aren’t having ladybug problems but we are having stink bug problems. I found one in my exercise pants last week and yes I was wearing them.

    ooh I hate stink bugs

  28. rurification says:

    We have them all over in southern Indiana. Last year we caulked [with clear caulk] around every single window and door frame and it made a huge difference in the number of bugs getting in the house. This year they’re congregating in the cracks around the actual doors, so every time you open the door, they come in. Car doors, too. I battle them with a vacuum. The vacuum always wins.

  29. Amerayl says:

    Well that explains why the ladybugs around here aren’t red, but more orange or yellow. Ick.

  30. joykenn says:

    I had an invasion of wasps. I sealed everywhere and they still came into the house. I think they were in the walls. I’m allergic so it was really upsetting. These bugs aren’t so bad.

    The USDA has a fact sheet on the Japanese Lady Beetle . They suggest sweeping or vacuuming them up and putting them outside since they are beneficial and eat aphids. Evidently they are attracted to light so you could kind of trap them. I suspect if you put a light behind a white sheet they’d cluster there and you could sweep them up and toss them outside. Birds don’t like their taste but maybe something will discover a taste for them like some people like stinky cheese.

  31. razzintaz says:

    My mom has these on one corner of her house here in Washington state. Those darn things come back year after year no mattèr. And they STINK!

  32. Augustlace says:

    My MOM has them in PA and Her house is not white! Maybe they can only see White!! I had just finished my last sip of Java and realized something in that sip! Sure enough there was a Ladybug that had been on the lamp shade crawling around earlier !! :hissyfit: We have stink bugs here in DC area but no ladybugs!! I hope they stay North and South!

  33. LCirce says:

    We have them here in Newfane Vermont, too, piles of them.
    I went to the Green’s Feed website to look for Suspend as recommended by ladybird_1959 in post #& re this topic. Nothing by that name on the Green’s website. What is it?
    Thanks

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