Asiatic ladybugs seek shelter in Southeast Missouri

The recent influx of ladybugs in the area is their normal, seasonal migration.

"They're the Asiatic lady beetle," said Anthony Ohmes of the University of Missouri Extension, "so they're an imported ladybug that was brought in for aphids and other soft-body insect management."

Ohmes said the insect shows up around October each year all over the state, looking for a safe, protected place to hibernate.

Lady beetles gather on the garage window at Jamie Burgfeld-Hefner's home Thursday in New Wells. (Glenn Landberg)

"Basically they will find a building, a barn, a house, whatever, and during the sunny parts of the day ... they will congregate on the roof or along a screen or window because they're attracted to light and warmth."

Overnight, and as the weather gets colder, the ladybugs will congregate in large numbers in a building's crevices, he said.

The extension's website says the ladybugs do not bite, sting or carry human diseases.

Jamie Burgfeld-Hefner of New Wells said she has felt them "pinch" her.

Although her house is only three years old, Burgfeld-Hefner said, the ladybugs still are coming in at the windows.

"And my whole front porch is just crawling with them. It looks like my porch is moving," Burgfeld-Hefner said. "It's pretty creepy."

Ohmes said the ladybugs are not harmful and are not setting up permanent housekeeping.

"They don't reproduce during the winter, so they're not laying eggs or anything in a house or structure," Ohmes said. "They are strictly looking for a place to stay."

To make a building a less desirable place for them to hibernate, Ohmes said to seal off openings around windows and roofs and cracks and crevices in walls or attics.

"You don't want to do it now," Ohmes said, so as not to seal the insects in.

Instead, seal off crevices in June through August.

The extension's website recommends using a quality silicone or silicone-latex caulk and checking to make sure window screens have no tears and fit snugly in the window frame. Insect screening can be installed over attic and exhaust vents.

Ohmes said the ladybugs leave by late April.

This year's swarm is not necessarily larger than normal, Ohmes said. He added the number fluctuates naturally from year to year.

"There's not a lot of natural reduction in the population other than just mortality from some of them not making it into an overwintering structure," he said, adding some larvae or eggs may not make it. The ladybugs do not have many natural predators, he said.

Ohmes said handling or crushing the ladybugs that get into a home is a bad idea. Their only defense mechanism is an astringent, yellow fluid they release, he said.

"That can stain walls," Ohmes said. "... So in a house if you're seeing them, it would not be recommended to smash them into your furniture or on your walls because it will leave yellow stains."

Ohmes said the best way to remove the ladybugs is to vacuum them up and dispose of the bag or contents of the canister immediately. If the insects die inside the bag, the fluid will be released and cause the vacuum cleaner to emit an odor every time it's turned on, he said.

kwebster@semissourian.com

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