They’re on my monitor, crawling around on my Post-it notes and across the screen right where I want to click. They’re flicking against the light bulbs over my desk tink tink tink. They flit across my path as I walk through the house or yard and go bzzzztbzzzt when they land on my window blinds and my wall calendar and my pencil cup and my keyboard (ewwww). They distract my eye when they go crawling across my desk, and my repeated flicking, a hundred times a day, does not keep them away. I have to check my drink every time I take a sip (blech). They crawl up my legs, fall inside my shirt (uggggghhh), buzz my face, and land on my glasses (GAH!) They give me the squirming creepy-crawlies BAD. shiver There is no killing them, no stopping them, no rest, no peace. They are everywhere.
I used to enjoy Indian summer . . . Now I just spend it hating these little fuckers and waiting for winter to come and freeze their disgusting little asses.
Fifteen. Fifteen! Hell, on Sunday afternoon the whole lower half of the south side of my house was orange with them. There are at least 200 of ‘em crawling around on the living room ceiling. Going down the side walk they crunch underfoot. They are just awful. They taste foul, too. I got one in a handful of peanuts. Bitter, nasty little critters with no natural enemy. Nothing eats ‘em. You squash one it just leave a smelly orange stain. You kill one hundred with a soapy water spray and ten time one hundred march in to replace them. It is like a Chinese frontal attack. All they lack is bugles and artillery support.
The past couple years, we’ve managed to (mostly) keep them out of the house with insecticide, but I don’t remember what kind, except that you pour it in a bottle that attaches to your hose. As soon as they start swarming, we spray down the outside of the house, concentrating around the doors, windows and anywhere else they can creep in. We have drifts of dead beetles surrounding the house, but very few inside.
They’re really annoying… it was very warm here today, so they were back (in lesser numbers), but we hadn’t seen anything of them in the last week or so. Scarlett67, you might want to considering buying screens or something.
cckerberos is right, PlasticVirgil. What we’re talking about here are Asian Ladybeetles. They’re related to ladybugs, they eat aphids… they look a little different, which you can tell because they fly pretty low sometimes and bang into you. Irritating. Also, they bite - though not hard - which I’m told ladybugs don’t. These things are also annoying because there are just so damn many of them.
The ladybugs are pretty nasty, but they’re not as bad as those big red and black beetles we’ve been having a problem with around here. GROSS. Those bastards are an inch long each and they’re EVERYWHERE.
Or, for that matter, it’s not even close to as nasty as the tent caterpillar infestations we use to get back in the UP. One year was so bad, that when you drove, you could hear them popping on the road, while you were still inside your car. When you stopped the car, the road would CONTINUE MOVING.
The little bastards feed on an aphid the is a parisite on soy beans. The local urban legend is that they were deliberately introduced as a green alternative to pesticides. They are prolific. If you live anyplace close to a harvested soy bean field you have them. As annoying as they are I suppose they are preferable to wading around in insecticide.
Irritating. Also, they bite - though not hard - which I’m told ladybugs don’t. These things are also annoying because there are just so damn many of them.