Nebraska checking in. We have them, too. Mine are in my enclosed front porch. I spent half an hour gathering the little dears in a cup and taking them outside before giving up. There are just too many of them and they are too high to reach easily. At least they aren’t in my laundry room like they were a few years ago.
I’ve had some success keeping them out by spraying insect repellant around the windows and doors where they crawl in. I have Off! Skintastic brand, but YMMV. BTW: I managed to find the answer to something I’ve wondered: What happens if you spray insect repellant directly on an insect? Answer: for asian ladybugs at least, they die within a minute.
Ya gotta love the press for screwing up the facts and sending people into a panic.
Send the bugs to Florida. I mean down there the place is an ecological nightmare already, what with released monkeys, boa constrictors, piranha, African Snails, strange green frogs, those ever popular huge lizards (I forgot their name), Water Lilies, Australian Pepper Trees, Australian Pine Trees, fire ants, ferrets, Texas Armadillos, and assorted exotic birds.
Plus a whole lot more.
Besides, the whole state seems infested with more bugs than anyone can catalogue. A few more shouldn’t hurt.
Off! won’t do any good at all sprayed around your doorways, unless you have really funky-smelling doors… It’s not strictly a repellent, it’s a masking agent. The idea is to mask the natural body odors that biting insects home in on (mostly carbon dioxide and lactic acid, as I recall).
As for the biting, are you folks sure that these are ladybugs, and not some other similar-looking species? I’ve never heard of ladybugs biting anything larger than themselves.
I think the info on the link was that these may be Asian ladybugs.
I haven’t seen the ladybugs of my childhood for years. We have look-alikes nesting around the base of shrubs – they’re more pink than ladybug-red. And they damage the shrubs – chew right into the wood.
And this latest influx – they’re a dull orange, and bigger than a “normal” ladybug, and yes, they bite.
Auntie Pam and others who have seen unusually colored ladybugs - Is this the bug you are seeing?
Its a Mexican Bean Beetle. The link takes you to some good info on them but doesn’t say whether or not they bite. It does however say that these are pests and I’m guessing that means you can kill them.
[hijack] Lovebugs - Has anyone else ever heard of lovebugs refered to as ‘telephone bugs’? My husband (born and bred southern boy) calls them telephone bugs. His grandparents called them that, too. Anybody else? Anybody know why?
[/hijack]
Everytime I kill one of these accursed demon-spawn beatles, I pop it’s head off and put it on a toothpick. I have well over a thousand of them now around my porch as a warning to the others. Unfortunately, I think I’ve pissed off the other 4 million or so in my yard. I can hear them whispering and plotting, just waiting for me to let my guard down. Well it won’t work! You hear me?! Just go away! Nobody else has to get hurt. You hear me?! Just leave me alone. Please, just leave me alone.
Let’s not even mention the fact that if you don’t clean them off quickly, the nasty things can ruin your paint job. I was at my parents 3 weeks ago (South Louisiana), and they were the worst I’ve ever seen. The front end of my white F-150 was almost black, and I was cleaning them out of the cab for a week.
Chicago suburbs here, ladybugs everywhere. They wouldn’t bother me that much if they weren’t so damn stupid! I swear, they FLY INTO YOU as you walk. I had an itch so I pulled my shirt out to scratch, and BOOM in flies a ladybug. I mean c’mon, at least make an effort to live. Whenever they’re not flying suicide missions into humans, they’re content just to sit in one spot for hours it seems. I don’t get these things at all.
I’ve been besieged with these ladybugs for the last three days. Imagine trying to make caramel-coated popcorn balls with those damn things flying aroung your kitchen. I swear if one landed in that caramel, it will be forever preserved.
Thought you might get a chuckle from a call I received today at the paper office. An older man from way out in the sticks called in to complain about the ladybugs. He asked when i would be doing a story on them. I kind of hemmed and hawed around, I mean, we all have them, right? Anyway, he proceeds to launch into this 15 minute diatribe about how the government/CIA/DNR (you pick) have been dropping them from planes along with several very serious virus contaminants. Said he has proof and that I should call my congressman to get the full story. I know it’s a full-moon and all but really now. . . .