The ladybugs are here

Every fall we start getting ladybugs all over. I've heard the Asian ones bite but I've never been bit by one. They're not swarming quite yet but they will be.

Bite? Do they swarm everywhere?? Seeing one of two is fine, but if I see a bunch of them....

By the way...how can you tell if it's Asian or not??

The Asian ones are evil! We are getting them too. They swarm to things that are white and of course our house is white Not only do they bite, badly, but they have an aweful stink! I HATE them!

I haven't seen a native ladybug since I bought 200 of them some years ago for my roses.

Wow, one accidentally got into our apartment last night and got fried by one of our lights. Tiger was chasing it though! I could tell it was a ladybug but not if it was Asian or native.
I've never been bitten by one and I used to hold them all the time! I liked the ones that are black with red spots.

I'm glad you posted this thread! I knew there was something I'd been missing!! I haven't seen a one so far this fall, and usually I'm having to vacuum them off my ceilings by now! Maybe the heat and drought we've had has burned them out. Gosh...I hope so!! They are sooo aggravating!

They are all over our house and it's not making me very happy since we just redid the whole exterior of the house. I've been seeing boxelder bugs too.

Oh well, at least the cats will have something to play with over the winter?

That's right, it is about that time. I think the heat has delayed them for us also. We seem to get a lot that just have 2 spots on each wing. I heard somewhere that they aren't real ladybugs, but something else. Any idea? And, these do stink.

Originally Posted by rachelh1018

By the way...how can you tell if it's Asian or not??

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Native American ladybugs are deep orange/red. The Asian ones are golden and their spots differ from bug to bug. I've even seen ones with no spots at all! Curiously, I haven't seen a native ladybug for several years, did the Asian ones eat them or what?

They come in my house but I just let them be. They only want to hibernate for the winter and don't do any harm to you or your house. In the spring they will just go outside again. I like them personally and never do harm to them. I really don't get that many so I really don't mind at all if they want to come inside. I always heard that killing a ladybug would bring you bad luck.

Meijers [a big box store in my area] actually sells wooden ladybug houses [for the bugs to hibernate in during the winter].

Well I've seen two so far (natives). One was crawling up the window and another made a huge racket when it bumped into the cieling. It's still there. They don't get that bad, but my friend lived in the country and they swarmed at the windows and everywhere, it was awful. She's been afraid of ladybugs ever since!

I like the real ladybugs, haven't quite made my mind up about the Asian ones since I don't know enough about them.

Ladybugs eat the dratted aphids off my rose bushes so they are very welcome at our place.

I don't mind a few ladybugs, but when they swarm they do give me the heebie-jeebies

We once had a rental house that would be swarmed with them as soon as it got colder. I didn't care that it was ladybug central in the attic, but when they started crawling around my kitchen ceiling