Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Lady Bugs - Count The Dots, Before You Whack It, 0 by judycooksey

judycooksey wrote:
We have an infestation, they are everywhere, in the yard and in the house. They land on us outside and a few have found their way to the upstairs bedroom. These are orange colored Lady Bugs and this spring I read on a posting here on the Brug Forum that they are a plant eating pest, well maybe or maybe not, it depends on the number of dots.

These are the orange colored plant eating Lady Beetles:
Mexican bean beetle - 8 black dots on each wing cover
Squash beetle - 7 dots on each wing cover

Beneficial Lady Bugs can be white, yellow, pink, orange, red or black, and usually have spots. They are the natural enemies of many insect pests. A single lady beetle can consume as many as 5,000 aphids in its lifetime, so we sure don't want to whack them. The above information was from this webpage http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/fldcrops/ef105.htm

It's difficult (at least for me) to count the dots, so in the future I'm determined to leave them to their eating of insects unless I see leaf damage as shown on the web page referenced above.

Whack or not to whack, it's an important decision.

Judy