Got lady beetles in your house? Check this site out:
http://cnf.ca/beetle/guide.html
look at their FAQ page for more info on your house guests.
:) :D ;D :D :)
Thanks SD!
Mine just started "waking up" a week or two ago. :-/
DanG I hate these things in the house! >:(
Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire, your children will roam.
Except little Nan,
Who sits in a pan,
Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.
Here in Minnesota, they brought in the Lady Bug to eat aphids in the soybean fields. That works pretty good until they harvest the soybeans and then the Lady Bugs don't have a home anymore and head for gardens and houses.:-) We had a bunch of 'em this year, but not inside my house.
I think that most of the infestations we have been having is actually the asian lady beetle.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/lbeetle/
My observation so far has been, if you gotta be infested with a bug, this is the bug I would pick. We just clean em up with the shop vac. :)
Can you imagine what is going through a ladybug's mind when a shop vac plucks her from the base-board and propels her through 8 feet of twisting hose and jetisons her into a big, dark, noisy can with such force as to knock her silly when she hits the bottom? Disney's never come up with a ride that good. :D :D
Furby:
I have them too and its only been in the last 7 or 8 years since they were released in the US. I did not kow they were originally introduced 80 years ago untill reading this FAQ. We were told about 8 years ago to expect them in the house. I hang traps that effect their nervous systems, as with other insects. Stops them up dead and not as prolific in those rooms of the house. Its a CIL product only available in Canada and I forget the exact name on the product and its not labled on the trap.
Here is some suggestion for control in the US
http://www.pestproducts.com/ladybugs.htm
regards
Tommy boy:
Your up to your usual hijinks I see ;)
:) :D ;D :D :)
Don't bust a stitch ;)
Jeff:
Yup its the asian variety. I can count the little black dots ;D. When I found that website and FAQ I had to go look at one. hahahhaha
We don't have problems with native lady bugs. You wanna see millions of'em just walk through a ripe wheat field in August. Or look at the storage bin on the combine during harvest. Who do you think raises the protein content of your wheat test at the mill? :D :D :D
mmm mmm good
The first webref didn't mention them biting. The 2nd said they might 'pinch' exposed skin. They *do* bite. Otherwise I wouldn't mind them in *small* numbers. lw
When I was a kid, I dont remember a lot of lady bugs. I do remember when you found one it was an event and you had to go find a sliding matchbox so you could keep it as a pet for awhile. Nothing better the a lady bug in a match box.
Well, except a lightning bug or 3 in a mason jar. :)
L Wakefield:
Yeah I read that too. But, I've never been bitten by a beetle of any variety. Not even a sawyer beetle but I know they bite. I sometimes have some of those ground beetles in the house during their mating season and they have biting mouth parts, but they never bother me. You only see them at night or under wood piles and such outta the sun. My ground beetle problem has only been recent, never was bothered by them before. But I think its from throwing my wood in the cellar so early and they hatch out. Gonna stop that, I hope with some CIL traps. ;)
Swampdonkey, will that trap work for Boxelder bug too?
Frank
Yup the CIL trap will even knock out wasps that get in the house in the fall too. I had a room I kept vacuuming up yellow Jackets from September until October last fall. The trap was originally designed for around milk houses to keep stable flies in check. The trap only affects insects, its non toxic.
I really don't mind the lady bugs that much, the smell is pretty bad though. I do hate what they leave behind, it just takes a lot of scrubbing to get rid of.
Many, many years ago we would go over to my grandparents house and find "nests" of lady bugs in some of the tree trunks. These were red lady bugs, and it was a real treat to find hundreds of them at a time. Now I find it's pretty rare to find a red one around here, almost all are some shade of orange. Makes me think that one speices is running out another.
I'm also wondering how many populations are from lady bugs that were bought by gardeners and released? While the bugs are "good" bugs, doesn't it start to upset the balance after a while?
SD, I could use a few of those traps. I have the lady bugs, yellow jackets, flies (I still need to figure that one out), and another bug that I have not yet got around to getting an I.D. on.
Furby you most likely have both the dermestid (5 -8mm long, black with a light brown or white band laterally across the back of the wings) and the ground beetle (jet black with large thorax plate and large mouth parts, 20-30 mm long, short antenae, females are larger). Both are harmless. For some reason, I've noticed the trap killing powder post beetles too, which can be harmful to wood leaving tiny pin holes. They have 'feather-like' antenae which can be seen with 10x lens. Dermestids feed on food crumbs and dead skin, thus their name. Ground beetles are predacious on other insects. As far as smell from lady beetles, I only smell it when I go squish!! They are no where as bad as stink bugs, stringent little buggers. Fhew!! ;)
A close friend of mine works with the Southern Pine Beetle, and Hemlock edelgid at Virginia Tech. He also worked with hemlock luper and budworm at Forestry Canada and jointly published an article. He helps maintain VT's entomology website. I'm quite well up on insect ID myself as I've studied it in University to a lesser degree, and collected specimens for the University. If you purchase Peterson's Insect Field guide it is good. It also has a section that defines insect parts so you can refer to it if you don't understand the terms.
cheers
We've been cooking maple syrup this week, and found the woodpile behind the sugar shack to be full of hibernating lady bugs. I've been told that the true lady bug hibernates, but the asian does not, all the adults die in the fall. Is this true? Seems like the past two years we've been getting more of the asian variety coming into the house in the fall. I accidentally ate one in a sandwich and let me tell you something, it's a nasty, bitter tasting bug. I think I'll get my protein from a steak instead.
Asian's also hibernate, only in warmer places like your house. :)
That explains why they all want to come into the house. To snuugle up for a long winter's nap.
I had no idea those sweet lady bugs could be a problem!
Does anyone have a nice website on bug?
Thanks,
Fabíola
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/e615ladybeetles.html
http://dnr.ohio.gov/dnap/publications/newsletter/fall2002/beetles.htm
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/marinette/ag_hort/Pest_mcalb.html
http://www.hcclibrary2.net/chronicle/bugs.html
Thanks Charlie, I will check on those website and see if I can find the on I am studing on my research.
Fabíola
Hard to find a vacant house or cabin in Central PA that doesn't have a ton of them at least once a year. Sweep 'em out and your safe for another year. :-)