The great ladybug slaughter of 2013
Seems the Smoky Mountains had some sort of invasive species appear in the mountains. On some day when the National Park Service wasn’t busy putting up barrycades and harassing park goers, they decided to release untold millions of ladybugs into the parks. Apparently, the ladybugs eat the same food as the invasive species (which name escapes me). So, now, the ladybugs are leaving the cold mountains and heading to the warmer The City (My The City). For the last week, when I come home, my screened porch looks like this:
Actually, today was pretty light. It’s usually 3 times as bad. I get my shop vac that has a few inches of water in it and proceed to suck the little bastards up. I figure, they go in the vac, hit the water, get stuck and drown.
October 30th, 2013 at 4:52 pm
Where’s the cutie with the Bug-A-Salt?
October 30th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
These ladybugs – have you considered just leaving them be? They are great killers of plant pests, and having them around should be welcomed, not with a wet death, but with a smile.
Ladybug, ladybug fly away home,
Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
All except one,
And her name is Ann,
And she hid under the baking pan.
October 30th, 2013 at 5:00 pm
“have you considered just leaving them be?”
No. Too many of them trying to get in the house. Also just discovered they bite.
October 30th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Aphids. They eat Aphids.
October 30th, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Are they ladybugs or asian lady beetles?
October 30th, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Asian Lady Beetles. They are Asian Lady Beetles.
October 30th, 2013 at 7:53 pm
Asian -Lady- Beetles, yet some are actually male.
My word, it’s like Cobra Gold 2002 all over again…
October 30th, 2013 at 9:39 pm
NPS claims it does not and has never released ladybugs or Asian lady beetles in the smokies. I’m 400 miles away, and noticing the same glut of ladybugs, so I suspect it is just a seasonal and weather thing.
October 30th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Wow, I did not know lady bugs bit but I still think you’re lucky. The Department of Natural Resources released 10 million yellow jackets this year in Eastern WA where I live. The stated purpose was to control pine beetles. Come August you could hardly go outside without getting stung.
October 30th, 2013 at 11:31 pm
Ladybug infestations are seasonal in Appalachia. What is new is the stinkbugs, which also swarm like ladybugs, but being non-native have no natural predators.
Be happy it is ladybugs.
October 31st, 2013 at 12:07 am
Here in middle Tennessee we have equal parts ladybugs and boxelder bugs.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:47 am
I live in a porous old farmhouse in eastern PA that is a bug haven. The screens in my attic windows look like that at some seasons every year. I get boxelder beetles and invasive Chinese stinkbugs every year too, but the boxelder beetles mostly stay outside. In general I don’t bother doing anything about any of them. When ladybugs get in my way, I pick them up and toss them outside. I have never been bit.
To kill them a little more mercifully, put a little detergent in the water in the shopvac, to break up the surface tension. That way they won’t spend a long time floating on top. Works in any kind of bug-water situation.
A friend only a few miles away buys ladybugs to release into her garden and theoretically protect her roses. Apparently they all go to my house, she never sees them after the release.
October 31st, 2013 at 9:30 am
In Michigan a few years ago we had a bad lady bug or lady bug-like infestation; especially along the coast of Lake Michigan. My sister who lives near the shore has pictures of neighboring houses were you can’t see the siding along one exterior wall because they were so thick. My niece wouldn’t sleep in her room that summer, because she had a small whole in her dry-wall and the bugs had somehow gotten inside the interior walls, and started to come out the whole one night when she went to bed. This poor five-year old girl was to terrified to be in her bedroom alone.
October 31st, 2013 at 9:32 am
Dang-it, I meant “hole” not “whole”. I wish you had an edit feature! π
October 31st, 2013 at 9:40 am
I buy thousands every year to eat the aphids that kill our fruit trees. Now I know you’ve been killing them.
π
October 31st, 2013 at 9:43 am
Yes, if they bite they are Asian, and were imported a-purpose by some greenie or another. Oops.
In near-Michigan Other Ohio, I have not seen a real ladybug in years. I did see a real honeybee or two this summer, and rejoiced. Hadn’t seen any in a long time. There’s a bias: honeybees (and earthworms) are once-upon-a-time foreign imports, too. Like starlings, and carp.
October 31st, 2013 at 10:06 am
Okay, now I understand why someone could ever possibly want to have a screen on the porch.
November 3rd, 2013 at 2:35 pm
OK, “LADY BUGS”.
A “lady” is a succubus that sucks the life out of you and throws your corpse and wallet away when done sucking them dry.
A “lady bug” sucks the life out of aphids. Aphids are bad.
Sheesh, why would you kill lady bugs?
As a rose lover and two time loser in the lady department, I just had to add this.