Once again I have ladybugs in my house not just a few but a lot and if it is like the past years it will eventually be jillions. My kids turn on the ceiling fans to see if they will fly off and how far away they end up. I read on another recent thread that they could be Asian Ladybugs, I was wondering if anybody else has them, or can explain why I have them.
Lisa
They're back.....
I noticed some on the side of the house near out front door yesterday. Last spring I had tons of ladybug babies born and molt into ladybugs there.
They are Japanese Ladybugs and they have only been in the US around 25 years and yes they do multiply. They do bite just a little sometimes but it's not that bad. They do seem to bother some locations more that others. We have friends just down the road and they have them by the thousands every year and we just have a few of them, go figure. It could be worse, you could have Locus. Ask bettydee about grasshoppers.
Actually more of a pinch or a nip. What I don't like is they stink! We don't have them at home but they are in town and in cold weather, we will find them crawling in the door frames of vehicles. If not careful, we will have them at home too! Grrrr ...
I don't remember them smelling. Maybe the smell of livestock overpowers their smell.
I didn't know that they bite. I don't really mind them just curious about them, my mom says they come to my house because they know they will be safe. But when we have jillions of them or they fall from the ceiling on to the kitchen table it can be a surprise. Does bettydee have locus in her house?
Lisa
I saw this thread and laughed because I went to my orchard yesterday and thought I was being attacked by bees or horseflies. Nope! It was ladybugs. They were in my sunglasses, up my shorts, in my hair and everywhere else in between. I guess it is better than the giant grasshoppers that eat everything, the wild boars that bulldoze everything or the cucumber beetles that destroy all new growth.
I wonder what would happen if Moses sent a plague of ladybugs on Egypt. It may have turned out to be a very different story.
The foreign lady bugs were imported for release in the soybean fields in the midwest. They eat aphids, or some such pest voraciously, thus facilitating a bountiful harvest. The theory was that the nasty winters in the midwest would curb the frisky little devil's reproduction. No such luck as they found they could get into houses via any crack or crevice possible. They soon multiplied out of control. In addition, some farmers were still ordering more when I left the midwest (around 2003).
There was an article describing the introduction and subsequent over population of these little guys in one of the local papers shortly before I left. I guess the farmers were trying to replace the use of some pesticides. A good idea in theory, now we need something to eat the imported bugs! They were always a big problem with the u-pick pumpkin farms in the fall in our area. According to the article, these foreign lady bugs are not the same insect as the lady bugs we grew up with (most of us grew up with I should say). For the life of me, I cannot recall the official name of this introduction--I held off posting as long a possible to try to remember. I'm sure someone else might know. A relapse of the flu is sucking my brain dry! I think this was in the Chicago Tribune or the Beacon News. Those were the papers I subscribed to back then.
This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where they purchased a bunch of snake eating gorillas to stop the snake explosion that they had in the town. When someone asks "What will we do with all the gorillas?", they said they would just freeze to death in the winter.
I thought we were the only ones getting bombarded! I have french (door) windows and three of them were covered with ladybugs, inside and out. My son and I spent a couple hours herding ladybugs into little containers and sending them on their way outside. I am still finding some here and there in the house. Never got bitten or smelled a thing. But this is the first year we have seen them like this.
We had several "kinds", some were yellow, some orange with one or two spots, some dark red with lots of spots, some with few. Are color and spots indicative of type? Have never had yellow ones before.
The few I've seen are a light brownish.
These are red. I haven't seen as many today. Last Christmas I had dinner at my house and the dumb things were landing everywhere. But when you have 3 pet rats and a rabbit that lives in the kitchen what's a few lady bugs? I went out to feed today and one of the guinea birds had 10 or so babies following her. I thought they were acting like they were setting but I have never seen chicks at this time of year, I hope they don't freeze to death. I will try to get a picture because they are cute for such a short time!
Lisa
Lisac, speaking of guinea birds, I am getting some when they are available in the fall. I think they are so cute all huddled together when they walk.
Fancy, I highly recommend earplugs. They are so loud. They are my exhusband's but when he moved they didn't want to go with him either. Before I left for the holidays we had 8 chicks and another nest getting ready to hatch (I have no idea why they had babies at this time of year). When we got back there were no babies I don't know what happened to them.