Our cold, wet weekend was followed by several very lovely, warm, sunny days, with the temperature reaching an unseasonable, but very welcome, 20 degrees (68F). The warmth roused an army of ladybugs. By mid-afternoon, the south side of the house was polka-dotted with the little beetles. They were also swarming on the ceiling of the greenhouse-stable, with dozens of ladybugs milling and flitting about. These ladybugs aren’t native, but rather Asian Ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis). Asian ladybugs were introduced to North America to control aphids on commercial crops and are now considered an invasive species, threatening the 450 to 500 species of ladybugs native to the continent. Large numbers of Asian lady beetles infesting homes as they seek overwintering sites were first reported in the early 1990s.
Asian Ladybugs are variable in color and are sometimes known as the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle. These couple of photographs illustrate some of the different colour morphs. Asian ladybugs can be differentiated from native species by their rounder shape (native species tend to be more oval) and white markings that typically define an “M”- or “W”-shaped black area behind the head.
The little children’s rhyme, “Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home” isn’t as cute when it’s your home they are flying to! However, althought they are capable of biting when provoked, they are mostly just a nuisance.
I’ve noticed they tend to like (at least here) the room above my carport which is higher than my house, hmmm. . . Do you have the brown marmorated stink bug where you live? We don’t here yet, but my brother does who lives about an hour and a half from me. They come into your house like the Asian ladybug does, but in a much stinkier package!
Ladybugs are cute, but swarming ladybugs… not so ladylike. I know it’s not rational, but swarms of anything give me the willies!
Nasty little buggers.
Very succinct, Louise!
Eyegillian, I agree, one or two are nice aphid-eaters. A crowd is creepy.
Shanda, I don’t know anything of brown marmorated stink bugs, so I guess no, we don’t have them here. It’s nice of your brother to keep them at his place!
Great Blog! You can thank the Gov. for the Asian Ladybugs, back in the early 60’s the Lima bean farmers cryed wolf or Aphids in this case and the gov’s solution was to import thousand and thousand of asian ladybug it took care of the aphid problem but created a new set of others like instead of migrating to the mountains like native species the asian ladybugs like to live in people’s homes.
The Asian lady bug is out of control around here. They climb all over the south side of the house and look for minuscule cracks to slide through into the house.Although we have not had as many as the past few years I know that they will come back with a vengeance soon. It appears that we try to solve one problem in nature by introducing a non-native species and end up with a worst problem than before. And, the worst part is that we don’t seem to learn any lessons from this so-called solution. — barbara
Thanks for the background, Laisseraller. As Barbara says, our short-sighted solutions to one problem just create another. Thanks Barbara, couldn’t agree more.
And besides, we’ve still got aphids. Humph.
For local Native Lady Bugs the season March 1st to Aug.31st. Ladybugs are just one insect which eat aphids, their are others, sounds like you have Asian Lady bugs?