The Scourge of the Lady Beetle

My mom died in January 2004. My Aunt Rosie met me during a layover in Charlotte and we flew the rest of the way together. We rented a car and drove to the farm where we were met by two more of Mom’s siblings…my Aunt Peeps and my Uncle Bob. It’s a small farm house, as you have seen in the photos I have shared over the years. There are two bedrooms upstairs and one small room on the main floor where my grandparents slept. There was a rollaway bed in the “Girls” Room” so my Aunt Rosie and I bunked together.

When we arrived at the farm, Aunt Peeps matter of factly told us about a recent development. It seemed a non-native insect had been introduced to the US…the Asian Lady Beetle…in an attempt to gain control of a heretofore unnoticed over abundance of aphids. Aphids had never really bothered me as I didn’t raise roses and didn’t live in the country. But someone somewhere thought it was a good idea to bring these nasty creatures to this country and let them loose where they have proceeded to procreate into this yearly…scourge.

As we lay in the dark, we heard the “tic tic tic tic tic” of the little buggers hitting the ceiling above us. I don’t think we slept because we were afraid our mouths would gap open and one of them would fall in. It was awful. At this point, no one knew how to keep them out of the house short of a nuclear weapon, so the only recourse was to suck them up in a vacuum cleaner. Asian Lady Beetles have something in common with that other autumnal nemesis…the Stink Bug. When you suck these bugs up in a vacuum cleaner, they release a decidedly unpleasant aroma into the room. There’s nothing like it. Really.

The following morning, we gave each other a knowing look and said in unison… “I’m not sleeping here again.” We packed our bags back in the rental car and headed for mom’s house in town. The lady beetles are there, too…but not nearly in the numbers that they are in the country. Which brings us to today. The “Great Emergence” begins after there has been a period of very cold weather. On the first warm, sunny day that follows, you can’t walk outside in the afternoon without being covered with these bugs. And if they get down your shirt and get stuck in a skin fold, they will pinch the heck out of you!

In the late afternoon, with the sun shining behind them, there are literally thousands…hundreds of thousands…millions of them flying. I came home in the mid afternoon and was wearing a white shirt. By the time I got to the door, I was covered. Ugh!

I don’t like using insecticides, but these things have NO natural predators. Even the cat gags when she smells one. I have been told by my friends that if you spray around the doors and windows of your home during the first week of October, you can at least keep the inside of your house somewhat clear of them. And yes…I’ve tried essential oils and herbs and other natural remedies to no avail.

I love Indian Summer…but I’m telling you, I’ll be so glad when it gets cold and stays cold to keep these things under control. In the meantime, I am posting this video that I took a couple days ago. I wish I would have taken another movie yesterday because they were particularly impressive.