Ladybugs: helpful, sometimes pesky

October 2, 2005

By Madeline Bodin

Who loves a ladybug? Until recently, everyone did. These tiny beetles
gobble aphids and other soft-bodied insects that plague crops and
ornamental plants.

It is said that their name refers to the Virgin Mary, to whom our
European ancestors gave thanks for the beetles that saved their crops.
They are also called lady beetles. In Britain, they are called
ladybirds or ladybird beetles. For centuries, they were thought of as
bearers of good luck. In Iran, they are called "good news." As far as
we know, the name has nothing to do with feminine characteristics.
There are, indeed, gentleman ladybugs. Ladybugs share a basic body plan
with their fellow beetles, which includes the wings that let them "fly
away home." It's the hard forewings that give a ladybug its shell-like
covering. The large, membranous hindwings underneath unfold and are
used for flying.

The high-water mark for ladybug love may very well have been in 1977,
when the New Hampshire Legislature named the two-spotted ladybug as
that state's official insect. (Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee had
already made ladybugs their state insects.) In 1989, New York
designated the widespread and common nine-spotted ladybug as its state
insect.

There are some 450 native species of ladybug in North America and
several thousand species in the world. New Hampshire has about 60
native species within its borders, and Vermont has about 40. Almost
every one of those species is a beneficial insect, eating plant pests
that we might otherwise use chemicals to kill.

But sometime in the 1990s, the worm, or maybe in this case the larva,
began to turn. (Ladybug larvae are spiky-looking things, often equal in
size to mom and dad.) Ladybugs have always overwintered as adults in
large groups, sometimes even in people's houses.

As the 1990s went on, more and more people in the eastern, mid-western,
and northwestern United States were complaining about hundreds or
thousands of ladybugs entering their homes in the fall.

While the two-spotted, native ladybug had always done this to some
extent, the new culprit was the multicolored Asian lady beetle
(Harmonia axyridis), also known as the Halloween ladybug. This ladybug
is a tree-dweller, originally from Asia, and it comes in a variety of
shades, from yellow to orange to red.

This ladybug had been intentionally released time and again - in
Georgia, Ohio and Washington - throughout the 1970s as a natural
predator of crop pests. When few of these ladybugs were recaptured, it
was thought they were dying out. Instead, they had just flown away to
new homes. The good news is that these ladybugs did such a number on
the pecan aphids in Georgia that chemical pesticides are no longer used
for aphids there. The bad news is that every fall, Halloween ladybugs
find their way into American homes, sometimes in horror-movie-like
numbers.

Ladybugs don't eat while inside your house, and they don't reproduce
there. They are just seeking a warm place for the winter, which may be
a small solace when you find one doing the backstroke in your coffee.

The bugs can be kept out by tightly sealing your house, including
putting screens over all roof, attic and wall vents. If they are
already inside, ladybugs can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner that
has a nylon stocking inserted into the extension wand. The ladybugs
that get in your house are usually non-native and, quite obviously,
overabundant, so do with them what you will.

Just don't crush them. They stain. And don't eat them.

"They taste horrible, which is part of their natural defense and why
many of them are brightly colored - an example of aposomatic
(warning) coloration," says John Weaver, who, as an entomologist with
the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, I trust did not arrive at
this knowledge through his own experience.

He says that wine makers have found that when Halloween ladybugs get
harvested with the grapes, the crushed beetles taste so bad that they
can ruin the wine.

We won't be rid of the Halloween ladybug any time soon, but we may have
learned our lesson. Weaver reports that "the U.S. Department of
Agriculture seems to have adopted new guidelines in selecting lady
beetles for introduction, selecting species that are specialized
predators and not selecting species that are generalized predators."

Introduced ladybug species don't just bug humans. They have an impact
on other ladybugs as well. New York hasn't seen its state insect -
the nine-spotted - in years.

It's believed that a different introduced species, the seven-spotted
ladybug, may have done it in either by eating it or by out competing
it.

It's a little harder to love a ladybug these days, but it's a little
harder to be one, too.

END

"angelpet" wrote in message
oups.com...
Ladybugs: helpful, sometimes pesky

October 2, 2005

By Madeline Bodin

Who loves a ladybug? Until recently, everyone did. These tiny beetles
gobble aphids and other soft-bodied insects that plague crops and
ornamental plants.

I hate the things! They have not yet shown up this year but in previous
years they have made using my front porch and yard impossible. The swarming
around is bad enough but they also bite. No one wants to use the front
door! It is still too early here for their invasion but in that past five
years they've never failed to arrive in HUGE numbers.

This ladybug had been intentionally released time and again - in
Georgia, Ohio and Washington - throughout the 1970s as a natural
predator of crop pests. When few of these ladybugs were recaptured, it
was thought they were dying out. Instead, they had just flown away to
new homes. The good news is that these ladybugs did such a number on
the pecan aphids in Georgia that chemical pesticides are no longer used
for aphids there. The bad news is that every fall, Halloween ladybugs
find their way into American homes, sometimes in horror-movie-like
numbers.

This year I plan to have a profession exterminator spray the outside of the
house and yard for these pests. I would have much rather have had the
chemical pesticides used in the fields versus my home and yard.
..

The bugs can be kept out by tightly sealing your house, including
putting screens over all roof, attic and wall vents. If they are
already inside, ladybugs can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner that
has a nylon stocking inserted into the extension wand. The ladybugs
that get in your house are usually non-native and, quite obviously,
overabundant, so do with them what you will.

While vacuuming inside is doable, outside is another story. It's like
trying to drain Lake Erie with a teaspoon.


We won't be rid of the Halloween ladybug any time soon, but we may have
learned our lesson. Weaver reports that "the U.S. Department of
Agriculture seems to have adopted new guidelines in selecting lady
beetles for introduction, selecting species that are specialized
predators and not selecting species that are generalized predators."

The jerks that introduced these obnoxious pests should be sentenced to live
in my home during the "ladybug season". Better yet, just dump a few
thousand in their homes and see how they like it.

It's a little harder to love a ladybug these days, but it's a little
harder to be one, too.

There is nothing to love about these pests! I hope the exterminator
eliminates them but they are so numerous here that I'm very discouraged.

END

I'm so depressed. I don't know what to do except pray they arent as
bad this winter (for the next six months). Last year I swear everyday
I must have vacuumed at least two hundred everyday. I'm going to go
bonkers if I have to do it again this year. I've called the
exterminaters and none of them can give a guarantee, at Home Depot they
told me there was nothing I could do about them and actually told me it
was good to have them in my house because they eat aphids. Well, thats
a really small consolation. This year I might plastic the windows.
Ladybugs are a disgusting nuisance. They smell like mildew and sting.
At night when I'm trying to sleep I can hear them knocking themselves
about the ceiling with their hard shells. I don't know what I'm going
to do really, I think I'm going to go insane within the next six months.

In article . com,
"angelpet" wrote:

I'm so depressed. I don't know what to do except pray they arent as
bad this winter (for the next six months). Last year I swear everyday
I must have vacuumed at least two hundred everyday. I'm going to go
bonkers if I have to do it again this year. I've called the
exterminaters and none of them can give a guarantee, at Home Depot they
told me there was nothing I could do about them and actually told me it
was good to have them in my house because they eat aphids. Well, thats
a really small consolation. This year I might plastic the windows.
Ladybugs are a disgusting nuisance. They smell like mildew and sting.
At night when I'm trying to sleep I can hear them knocking themselves
about the ceiling with their hard shells. I don't know what I'm going
to do really, I think I'm going to go insane within the next six months.

The only time I experienced a nuisance invasion they were restricted to a
living room picture window & easily managed. Their reputation for biting
is something that doesn't happen here; they're about as harmless as
anything can be. I delight in them & happy that they help keep toxic
chemicals unnecessary in the garden. I sometimes suspect they only become
bests in seriously "unbalanced" areas where the whole neighborhood's use
of every possible blend of pesticides has destroyed any hope of a
healthful environment with a useful balance of insect life.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

In article rio.net,
says...
This year I plan to have a profession exterminator spray the outside of the
house and yard for these pests. I would have much rather have had the
chemical pesticides used in the fields versus my home and yard.
If he times it right with a pyrethroid you may see good results by way
of fewer insects.
The bugs can be kept out by tightly sealing your house, including
putting screens over all roof, attic and wall vents. If they are
already inside, ladybugs can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner that
has a nylon stocking inserted into the extension wand. The ladybugs
that get in your house are usually non-native and, quite obviously,
overabundant, so do with them what you will.

While vacuuming inside is doable, outside is another story. It's like
trying to drain Lake Erie with a teaspoon.
Always use the stocking trick with the vacuum...the odor will be
smelled every usage when they get inside the unit.

--
Lar

to email....get rid of the BUGS

"angelpet" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm so depressed. I don't know what to do except pray they arent as
bad this winter (for the next six months). Last year I swear everyday
I must have vacuumed at least two hundred everyday. I'm going to go
bonkers if I have to do it again this year. I've called the
exterminaters and none of them can give a guarantee, at Home Depot they
told me there was nothing I could do about them and actually told me it
was good to have them in my house because they eat aphids. Well, thats
a really small consolation. This year I might plastic the windows.
Ladybugs are a disgusting nuisance. They smell like mildew and sting.
At night when I'm trying to sleep I can hear them knocking themselves
about the ceiling with their hard shells. I don't know what I'm going
to do really, I think I'm going to go insane within the next six months.

I hear and empathize with you. When the pests get here they make my home
look like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One afternoon last
fall I became so incensed I was running around the front porch and also
climbed out a window onto the porch roof with several cans of Raid muttering
profanity and trying in vain to kill everyone of the blasted things I could.
If anyone had seen me they would have sworn I was insane and at that moment
they would have been right. Whoever pens those inane article about
vacuuming them just does not understand the magnitude of the problem.

In article rio.net,
"LAH" wrote:

"angelpet" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm so depressed. I don't know what to do except pray they arent as
bad this winter (for the next six months). Last year I swear everyday
I must have vacuumed at least two hundred everyday. I'm going to go
bonkers if I have to do it again this year. I've called the
exterminaters and none of them can give a guarantee, at Home Depot they
told me there was nothing I could do about them and actually told me it
was good to have them in my house because they eat aphids. Well, thats
a really small consolation. This year I might plastic the windows.
Ladybugs are a disgusting nuisance. They smell like mildew and sting.
At night when I'm trying to sleep I can hear them knocking themselves
about the ceiling with their hard shells. I don't know what I'm going
to do really, I think I'm going to go insane within the next six months.

I hear and empathize with you. When the pests get here they make my home
look like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One afternoon last
fall I became so incensed I was running around the front porch and also
climbed out a window onto the porch roof with several cans of Raid muttering
profanity and trying in vain to kill everyone of the blasted things I could.
If anyone had seen me they would have sworn I was insane and at that moment
they would have been right. Whoever pens those inane article about
vacuuming them just does not understand the magnitude of the problem.

No idea about this but perhaps you can catch more insects with honey
then with poisons. Maybe a trap could help? Would have to be large
and warm and ???

Consider the alternative Flame Throwers.


Bill

--
Garden Shade Zone 5 S Jersey USA in a Japanese Jungle Manner.39.6376 -75.0208
This article is posted under fair use rules in accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and is strictly for the educational
and informative purposes. This material is distributed without profit.
Sam Adams-- "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds"

"William Wagner" wrote in message
...
In article rio.net,
"LAH" wrote:

"angelpet" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm so depressed. I don't know what to do except pray they arent as
bad this winter (for the next six months). Last year I swear everyday
I must have vacuumed at least two hundred everyday. I'm going to go
bonkers if I have to do it again this year. I've called the
exterminaters and none of them can give a guarantee, at Home Depot
they
told me there was nothing I could do about them and actually told me
it
was good to have them in my house because they eat aphids. Well,
thats
a really small consolation. This year I might plastic the windows.
Ladybugs are a disgusting nuisance. They smell like mildew and sting.
At night when I'm trying to sleep I can hear them knocking themselves
about the ceiling with their hard shells. I don't know what I'm going
to do really, I think I'm going to go insane within the next six
months.

I hear and empathize with you. When the pests get here they make my
home
look like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One afternoon
last
fall I became so incensed I was running around the front porch and also
climbed out a window onto the porch roof with several cans of Raid
muttering
profanity and trying in vain to kill everyone of the blasted things I
could.
If anyone had seen me they would have sworn I was insane and at that
moment
they would have been right. Whoever pens those inane article about
vacuuming them just does not understand the magnitude of the problem.

No idea about this but perhaps you can catch more insects with honey
then with poisons. Maybe a trap could help? Would have to be large
and warm and ???

Consider the alternative Flame Throwers.

I like the flame throwers idea!

Madeline, I found your article interesting and informed and would like your permission to reprint it on my gardening website - a similar article entitled
'Ladybugs, Ladybugs, Come to My Garden' already exists on my site. To view how your article might look, vist the site at http://www.handales.com/displayarticle.php?304/1/26

Contact me with your 'About the author' and website link info if you are interested. Email me at lavbee(at)handales.com ... Change the (at) to @

"angelpet" wrote in message
oups.com...
Ladybugs: helpful, sometimes pesky

October 2, 2005

By Madeline Bodin

Who loves a ladybug? Until recently, everyone did. These tiny beetles
gobble aphids and other soft-bodied insects that plague crops and
ornamental plants.



Ladybug infestations are only to be outdone by boxelder bug invasions and we
had them both at the same time every fall. When the ladybugs got into the
house they communed in a tight wad at the very peak of our vaulted ceiling,
a harmless but unsightly writhing mass that was impossible to remove.
Keeping screens tight and doors shut was the best defense but they still got
in by clinging to our clothing as we had to negotiate the flying swarms to
walk to the house. The garage attic became a graveyard for both critters as
they found their way in but never got out. We swept out thousands. Even
without squishing them they left stains on the windowsills and woodwork that
was difficult to remove. I will not soon forget the sight of the redwood
trees coming alive as millions of boxelder bugs burrowed and crawled through
cracks in the bark.

Well, MY ladybugs don't stay in the attic, we checked last year. They
definately like human company in my house, they are particularily fond
of our screen doors and kitchen windows. They also my livingroom
windows and familyroom windows, and they LOVE hanging out in the
bathrooms. The only windows and rooms they dont like are my master
bedroom (THANK GOD), and the computer room (THANK GOD). Like I said in
an earlier post, I plan on plasticing my windows after Thanksgiving.
Hopefully it is not as bad this year as last year, I vacuumed twice a
day everyday for six months no exageration(sp?).

BTW, Boxelder Bug sounds scary.

Well here is what I did and it seems to have worked!

Put about a cup of liquid Tide in the hose end sprayer and add 1 tbl spoon
of liquid Diazinon concentrate. Spray the house! concentrate on the windows,
doors, and the foundation... I believe that the soap sticks to the surface
and the bugs and when they try to clean it off.....

Had the south and west walls covered with Boxelder bugs AND Asian Ladybugs
.... gone but for a few no and then! At one point they were about 1/2 deep on
the ground by the foundation!

BTW: I think that the Asian Ladybug has given a bad name to the original
native Ladybug that we used to add to the garden for pest control...they are
NOT the same!!!

Ron H. in West Central Wisconsin!





"angelpet" wrote in message
oups.com...
BTW, Boxelder Bug sounds scary.





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I'm definitely going to give this a try. "Here ladybug, ladybug, ladybug."
she says in a deceptively sweet manner all the while sporting an evil smile.
g

"Ron H" wrote in message
...
Well here is what I did and it seems to have worked!

Put about a cup of liquid Tide in the hose end sprayer and add 1 tbl spoon
of liquid Diazinon concentrate. Spray the house! concentrate on the
windows,
doors, and the foundation... I believe that the soap sticks to the surface
and the bugs and when they try to clean it off.....

Had the south and west walls covered with Boxelder bugs AND Asian Ladybugs
... gone but for a few no and then! At one point they were about 1/2 deep
on
the ground by the foundation!

BTW: I think that the Asian Ladybug has given a bad name to the original
native Ladybug that we used to add to the garden for pest control...they
are
NOT the same!!!

Ron H. in West Central Wisconsin!





"angelpet" wrote in message
oups.com...
BTW, Boxelder Bug sounds scary.





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x-- 30+ Days Binary Retention with High Completion
x-- Access to over 1.9 Terabytes per Day - $8.95/Month
x-- UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD

Strange.....one month into my annual ladybug infestation and I have had
only a few inside my home. I found a couple inside my son's mouth ( I
guess he was REALLY hungry or something because I thought they were
supposed to taste bad. LOL), but really I am quite pleased as I have
had no problems so far this season. When I open my screen door there
are maybe ten of them huddled together within the casing but they are
inactive. What could have happened? I don't know if these things are
related or not but my trees did not turn red this year either. Most of
the leaves (maple) are a greeny-yellow at best and most are still in
tact.....