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Is anyone getting ladybugs in their homes right now? I am sweeping up dozens everyday , they are coming in and then just dying. My mom told me to scoop them up and put them outside. I read somewhere that they leave pheromones and return the following year but how can they return if they die in my house? A home with ladybugs is a Godly home is what I heard
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The pheromones attract others, so more and more come in to hibernate in your nice warm house. Yes, they also attrcat them (and more) the next year if not cleaned well, and any gaps/holes filled to keep them out. This happened to a relative a few years ago. Most will die from dehydration due to lack of humidity. You can use a vacuum cleaner (shop vac is best) to suck them up and then release outside, and make sure to close up any openings that would allow them to come back in. Better yet, through the vacuum into the car and drive them off to the woods several miles away.
Need to research more but what i heard is these Asian invasives, not the sweet ones associated with our childhoods.
They.re all God.s creatures and outside they go. But i will kill other bugs (with paper sack, no pesticide).
They are Asian ladybugs that were imported to help control mites on crops, specifically soybeans, IIRC. They try to find places to overwinter, usually soon after the first frost or when the soy crop has been sprayed to kill the plant, leaving them with minimal food.
They are attracted to high contrast, like the light and dark from the laps on lap siding, where they attempt to get in crevices. Areas around eves are another problem area, as are loose fitting windows and frames. Usually they will swarm worst on sunny afternoons after a cold night.
Outside traps are ineffective. The best defense I'm aware of is a barrier spray of an insecticide called bifenthrin. It is fairly expensive but effective where other sprays are not. Mix the 9% concentration at 1 oz. per gallon of water and spray in a stream from a 2 gallon garden sprayer. Spraying as an aerosol will just waste spray and make the air contaminated with the insecticide - which you will soon regret. Aim at any visible cracks in the siding or house, underside of anything that might have an opening, weep holes in brick. On a single story home, figure a gallon per 50 linear feet.
I've had to do this for a few years, so I know the routine and timing. The spray wants to be done just prior to the biggest swarm. Look for a frost, then be aware of any scouts on the southwest side of the house in the afternoon. Once you see those scouts, you have anywhere from a day to three days before you need to spray, depending on the weather. Spray in the morning when the air is still. Also - when spraying I wear a turtleneck shirt, use rubber bands to seal nitrile gloves to the wrists of the shirt, wear a dust mask that has a moistened paper towel in it, leggings or long underwear and old jeans, old fabric shoes, and a hat. If I don't do this, my lip area will tingle and I have other challenges for a day or two. The moist paper towel grabs any of the spray that makes it through the dust mask. Immediately after spraying, everything goes in the wash and I take a shower.
Some years are far worse than others. Be aware that the pheromones are only part of what attracts them. If you live near a soybean field or a forest you'll have worse problems than someone in suburbia. I have photos from one year where there were about fifteen of them per square foot on my siding, all looking for a place to overwinter. They can nip you, they stink if crushed, and the odor does accumulate, so spraying and using a portable vacuum or one with a hose to remove them is important. They don't have offspring in the house, but if you have an infestation it can take months before the last of them are gone.
I wrote the sticky on home insect control in the house forum if you need help with other pest issues.
They are probably Asian lady bug/beetle. I haven't seen any lady bugs for a long time. Since the Asian varieties of TV every ladybugs have a more voracious appetite for aphids and crop destroying insects they shipped and dispersed a bunch and they seem to have taken over the niche our native ones did. I never seen the native ones in the large of numbers as the non native one. They must lay many more eggs
Warning about vacuuming those bugs. They stink and will ruin a good vacuum with their odor. Best to use a shop vacuum that can be cleaned up or a vacuum you don't care about. Empty right away. My sister had to throw out a good vacuum because she didn't clean it afterwards.
I read somewhere recently that the native 2 and 6 (not sure exactly) are becoming endangered and some group/should are trying to find native to breed and release to help bring up numbers.
In the PNW here and surrounded by commercial farms and forests. My residence is in a light coloured heat reflecting concrete high rise tower and it has been covered with thousands upon thousands of Asian ladybugs for the past 2 weeks.
Our roof top gardens and greenhouses and the ground level gardens, trees and lawns are crawling with them too. It's unavoidable to step on some of them but these ones don't seem to have a bad smell, at least not that I've noticed. Since the high rise is concrete there aren't many places where the ladybugs can gain entry into the building but they do come in through the lobby entrance doors every time somebody comes into the lobby, and they come in through open windows if there are no screens up. I don't use screens so any ladybugs that get into my place get vacuumed up in the evening if they haven't already left by sunset, but most of them do leave just prior to sunset.
Izzie - the Asian lady beetles do stink. I used to have nasty boxelder bugs until a tornado toppled a silver maple (that I didn't really want anyway). Boxelder bugs like certain trees.
Be aware that the sensitivities to smells can vary considerably from person to person and be oddly selective. Example: I can easily smell the odor of bedbugs, and although I cannot smell cat fleas their presence affects my level of energy (there is some thought that insects use their smells to make it easier for them to get blood meals from hosts). I also can only very faintly smell the odor of roses, while others luxuriate in the scent. It is entirely possible for two people in the same room to have completely different senses of the odors around. To me, the lady beetles do stink, but are only about a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10.
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