October 24, 2007
Are You Seeing Ladybug Infestations or Asian Lady Beetles?
Everyone knows what ladybugs look like, they are the adorable little red bug with black spots. Adorable that is, until you find yourself with a ladybug infestation. One ladybug, cute. Hundreds of ladybugs…not so cute. We’re currently seeing a huge infestation on our house in Massachusetts.
Why you might not know is the bugs that you are calling ladybugs aren’t actually ladybugs at all, they are multi-colored Asian Lady Beetles that look like ladybugs. But these Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetles do one thing that our cute ladybugs don’t…they swarm. What causes this and what can be done about swarming ladybugs?
I’ve explained that these bugs that look an awful lot like our beloved ladybug is actually the Multi-colored Asian Lady beetle but there are some differences. Our ladybugs are bright red with black spots. The Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetles range from pale orange to dark orange and come with or without spots. The other notable difference between the ladybug and the Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetle is the fact that the latter hibernates for the winter. There in lies the problem.
Lady Beetle Hibernation Leads To Swarms Of Lady Beetles
Since the Asian Lady Beetle hibernates, they try to find themselves an appropriate place for this come Fall. Their usual hibernation spots would include mountain faces and areas with cracked rock. Since rock is usually gray or light in color you will notice that the Lady Beetle will be attracted to lighter color houses and cars.
Around the end of October, Lady Beetles begin to look for places to spend the cold winter. They begin to swarm onto light colored houses and buildings looking for cracks that they can get into to spend the winter months hibernating. They are not dangerous, just annoying. I’m looking out my window right now and there is not one place that I look that I don’t see the Lady Beetles flying around.
More than just swarming on the outside of the house, the Lady Beetles work their way into houses through cracks or rips in screens. Before you know it you could have an entire inside window or wall full of Lady Beetles.
Dealing With A Lady Beetle Infestation
There is no magic solution to this problem. There are however a few things that you can do to try and deal with the swarms of Lady Beetles that are mounting on your home.
- Use Your Water Hose – if you happen to walk outside and notice that once side of your home is covered with the Lady Beetles…turn on your garden hose. Spray them off of your house before they can work their way inside your home.
- Seal Up Cracks and Spaces Around Your Windows And Doors – Although no ones home is airtight, it does help if you try and seal up the larger cracks and spaces around your windows and doors. It is these very cracks and spaces that the Lady Beetle utilizes to work their way into your home.
- Use Your Vacuum Cleaner – I have done this! If those little Lady Beetles do find a breach security and make their way into your home, they will have a tendency to stay in a group. What better way than to wipe out this group than by vacuuming them up. Just make sure you dispose of the bag outside or you pretty much make the whole effort null and void.
- Just Deal With It – the Lady Beetle infestation will happen about once per year…just deal with it. If you have used all of the techniques above and you are still having a problem with the Lady Beetles, what can you do except deal with it?
- Until the 1960’s there were no Lady Beetles in the United States, they were brought in as a way of controlling agricultural pests that eat things such as pecans and apples.
- As a defense against predators the Lady Beetles secrete a foul smelling, yellow fluid from their leg joints. Humans would most likely only smell this fluid when there are swarms of the Lady Beetles secreting it at once.
- Lady Beetles are attracted to illuminated surfaces such as the side of a house which is in the sun. They also are attracted to lighter colored house trim or the gutters of a home.
- They do not reproduce once they find a home for the winter (that’s a relief). The Lady Beetles you may see leaving your home in the Spring are the same little suckers which found their way in, in the Fall.
Some Facts About The Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetle
Since the only thing I knew about the ladybug before researching this topic was that if you killed one it would rain the next day…I figured I would list some facts about the infamous Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetle.
So there you are, just a few fun facts about our friend the Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetle. Like I said they are only around for a few days during the Fall so the most common sense thing would be just to deal with them. Hey, have you ever noticed a Ladybug in your home during the winter…wonder how that got there?
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Nick
11/12/2007 at 2:17 am
About sucking Asian lady beetles into a vacuum cleaner, it would appear that the heat and air flow would tend to dessicate them pretty quickly. Continuing to use the vacuum cleaner for a few minutes would expose the group to more airflow,let the heat build up, and add dust that would compete for moisture.
Have you tried this and verified they tend to survive the vacuum cleaner experience?
Nick
volks73
03/20/2008 at 11:11 am
Regarding sucking lady beetles into a vacuum cleaner: I’ve found that putting some mothballs into the vacuum cleaner bag helps kill of any insects (not just lady beetles but fleas from pets, as well) who get sucked into the vacuum cleaner. The house may smell like moth balls after vacuuming but it should help keep pests a bit more under control.
Don Aspinall
09/08/2008 at 2:01 pm
Hi,
We live in the country b(Toano, VA) near Williamsburg and for the past two or three weeks we are getting a bug similar to a Lady Buy but different in color. It;s yellow with black dots and almost a “V: in the middle of it’s back,
Can’t find it on line.
We’ve looked every place including beetles.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Don Aspinall
Justin
10/20/2009 at 9:14 pm
Hey, answering Don’s question about the bugs with the V on the back, I’m not positive but they sound like the Box Elder Beetle. They live in the Box trees around your house, and in the fall tend to migrate into your warm abode. We have those as well as lady bugs, and we just constantly spray the whole house with bug spray, inside and out.
Margaret Ramirez
02/27/2009 at 12:03 pm
HELP!!!!!
My living room has been overun. I am seeing spots everywhere. I have tried the sealing, the vaccumm, the smaking, the flicking and even the Raid.
I am at my wits end. My grandson has eaten them and brought them to me. I need either mental help to deal or find a new house. Since the latter is toooo expensive, anyone with mental help available would be appreciated.
In California we do not have this issue, now in Kentucky I am finding I would rather not deal with obnoxious with these darn critters.
Help.
thanks,
margaret
Shini
03/06/2009 at 10:57 pm
No matter where I live, be it the midwest or New England (I’m in Maine) I face an infestation of the pests ^^; I’ve leanred to live with them and if you don’t get up in arms, they’re not going to do you any harm. One of them just flew and landed on my finger a few moments ago and all I did was gently urge it off. They don’t hurt a thing, and if they get to be a trouble inside, just keep on vacuuming.
colleen
05/05/2009 at 11:03 pm
I lived in WI with an infestation of them… all winter, it was a dark colored house with lots of windows. They smell they secrete attracts them, so if you squish one, you will get three more in the spot where you killed it.
Vacuuming really is best, even if you do have to do it three times a day. I have a dirt devil wind tunnel and I never had a problem with them crawling back out.
I’m wondering about the life cycle of the Lady Beetles, I never see “baby” beetles just adult and dead ones. Perhaps there is a way to kill they problem before it matures.
jenna noller
06/17/2009 at 12:33 am
so i live in colorado and my brother went to the store when he returned there were thousands of lady bugs all over the car have no clue why or where they came from now there coming in the house and my kids are freaking out lol
Kelly Hannah
06/18/2009 at 12:39 am
We are in Pueblo West and woke up this morning to lady beetles everywhere! All over the house, car, ground- everywhere. I’ve lived in Colorado 32 years & never remember anything like this?! I’m absoulutely phobic about miller moths though- so from what I’ve read about the lady beetle – I guess I can grin & bear it! (Besides the flying ants will be coming soon-HA!
A Ladybug’s Picnic
09/28/2009 at 5:29 am
[...] consulting the interwebz, it seems what we saw were not native ladybugs, but the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle, Harmonia axyridis, which unlike our native ladybugs, swarm at the end of summer to find cracks and crevices in which [...]
Pat Beason
10/21/2009 at 4:14 am
October 10, 2 days after the first frosty morn here in Williamsport Indiana. Up until 2 days ago we saw only the occasional lady beetle here on the edge of the woods. WHOA, what a difference since then. I live in a board and batten barn house. The critters find their way in everywhere. Every fall I have been having an exterminator spray the outside of the house. Looking about the outsides of the house are thousands of dead, stinky bodies. Even once they get in, I often have hundreds on the floors near entrances.
Also haven’t seen anyone mention that they bite too. Here’s hoping for a fall without lady beetles.
Randy
10/21/2009 at 6:58 pm
Went to Reading, PA yesterday (10/20/09) to see the Historic Pagoda on the hill/mountain overlooking Reading, PA – there were thousands of lady bugs swarming the white marble pagoda, it was wild. They did not bite but were everywhere.
beans
10/21/2009 at 7:19 pm
Wow-just left my sisters in central NY(Marcellus). Her house was covered with these things. It was incredable. Just walking to the car-they were flying all around me, landing on me. I live within the city common, but have a great garden/yard. I collected some and brought them home. I’d love to have these around next spring when we get the aphids on mu locust tree
sohni
10/21/2009 at 9:17 pm
Okay we are having the same problem- thousands of them on the high arches of our windows and we live in a Chicago suburb. But my main question is whether anyone here is getting a few in the mix that almost look like a long horn beetle? I don’t think its that but surrounded by all the ladybugs i am noticing a few flying insects with very long legs and long antenna. They are pretty nasty looking. Anyone know if they happen to be related to the ladybug (asain beetle) problem??
Bill
10/21/2009 at 10:34 pm
Ladybugs cured my aids
heather
10/21/2009 at 11:13 pm
i live in pa today oct 21 i found hundreds of lady bugs all over my front door this morning .never had this happen before .kind of cool and kind of a pain too my daughter keeps trying to eat them
Patti
10/22/2009 at 6:06 am
We’ve got ladybugs EVERYWHERE! Don’t mind them so much but the box elder beetles are making me crazy. Living in the Finger Lakes in western NY you get used to bugs but this year’s been crazy. My 5yr.old thinks the ladybugs are great but not the box elders. BTW box elders are black with a red “V” have long legs, long antenae. Look like they could do some harm but are as harmless as ladybugs. I know…. OH, YAY
Melanie
10/22/2009 at 9:48 pm
Glad to see I am not the only one with a lady bug problem. Here in PA I have gone from noticing one or two in the house to hundreds in my laundry room in a matter of days. I don’t have the heart to vacumn them up though!
gnome
10/23/2009 at 8:40 am
i’ve always found that crushing them up in mac & cheese is an effective way of killing them — as well as a delicious, protein-rich snack.
for more recipes, visit bugzfoods.com
elfakowhamo
10/24/2009 at 8:24 pm
MORE LADY BEETLES !
LESS PEOPLE !
Denny
10/27/2009 at 4:37 am
I live in northeast ohio and have this problem also. Want to get rid of them there is a product call viper. You mix half an ounce to a gallon of water in a garden sprayer and spray the side of the house where they are. This stuff not only kills them but works for days. Go to http://www.bugspray.com and check it out. This stuff works on all insects no matter kind of insect it is.
Joe
11/02/2009 at 9:17 pm
The ladybugs here in Memphis, TN have taken over. I am allowed to leave my home once a day, and return. They have a leader, and he speaks English, which is good because I do not speak ladybug. I do not appreciate the insect squatters invading my home, but I seem to have no choice. They promise to leave in March, and I fully intend to hold them to that.
Wish us luck.
Loopo
11/03/2009 at 6:12 am
We have been attaqched In Arkansas, They have been swarming and crawling everywhere! if you see sun shining on a outside surface of my gray colored vinyl siding you also see a ka-zillion red polka dots of Lady Bugs! They have made it into the area between my screens and windows, they have made it in the opening and closing of doors into the house, where ever a light is turned on you find a LadyBug also. My friends in Oregon are saying gather them up and come out here and sell them to make some money, cause they sell them back there in the stores. Well we sure do not have a shortage of them here!
Jessica
11/06/2009 at 10:10 pm
I am doing a research paper on the causes for the Japanese lady beetle. I was wondering why the USDA decdied to release it when we already have the North American ladybug?
Patti
11/07/2009 at 12:06 pm
Ya know Jessica, my husband and I have wondered the same thing for a very LONG time! Because we farm organic we receive a ton of literature all the time and Asian Ladybugs are always featured. Never bought them. Never had to.We have however seen a huge increase in the Asian variety, the North American, not to much. Are they overwhelming our north american?