The AM Forum

Came home from work to find the house covered with these annoying little buggers, the most I have seen yet since living here.

Right along with the ones who re-introduced white-tail deer to this region.

There are thousands of them on the outside of our building today. I went outside to grab some parts from a friend and they landed on me for a free ride back inside. They are larger this year.

Yep, same here.  There are so many covering the (white) house right now it's set a record here.  I was gonna take a picture.
They're getting inside and meeting with a vacuum cleaner.

What color is your house, Bob?  I hear they like light colors, esp white.

Interesting we're all in Cornecticut.

T

Interesting.  Lots of them at home but none at the shop just over a mile away...

T,
The house is light gray and with white trim. They love light colors.  I walked out back but got attacked. I should have known better not to wear a light shirt out back. 

The back of the house faces south and they're all over the place. There are so many they're coming to the shaded side of the house. Never seen this many before.  I taped up the doors in back because they were finding small gaps to get in. Guess those doors are not as air tight as I thought. Taping them will slow them down but they still find a small opening to get in somewhere.  It drives me nuts. Then when the weather cools they'll find gaps in the siding in come through interior penetrations. I'll be dealing with them all winter but I have a plan.....

They definitely are not all in CT- a lot of them seem to really like IL.

I mowed for what I hope is the last time this year and they were swarming everywhere.  It also made picking the last of the apples miserable work.  I have a white house and it is covered but they don't discriminate because when I left my dark gray pickup parked in the driveway for an hour they were all over it again. Both the Japanese beetles and Asian ladybugs are far worse this year than last.

Apparently none of our domestic predators like the taste of either.

What a plan we have: outsource our manufacturing to Asia and bring their pests (ladybugs, beetles, ash borers, etc.) back home...

We didn't have to much of a problem with rice box (jap) beetles this year surprisingly. This year it seems the lady bugs are the worst in the 7 years I've been here. Naturally, the local news channel 'painted' these buggers on a favorable note. They like them, I'd be more than happy to collect a few 10's of thousand and ship them to Hartford.

Got a picture of these critters?

video!

go to the last third of it for the damn bug.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgqMNeyAd1c

Unfortunately, no. I would have grabbed the camera but the swarms were so big I didn't want to go out back. Just going in from the vehicle into the garage I removed a half dozen or so. I'll try tomorrow. I think I'll need a bee suit. The temps are expected to be higher.  Should be interesting. I might start a big leaf fire and smoke them out.

They start going somewhere else at dusk but the dots on the steps are the ones still hanging out.  A couple of hours ago they also covered the walls.

Rodger WQ9E

In the previous years I had a number of these who would collect inside my hour, usually in the kitchen!

This year, I think I saw two, wondered what up.
Guess they all moved south!

last year we had minimal so less it wasn't a concern that we thought we'd have a reprieved this year. WRONG. They're tripled the amount from 2 years ago.  Where do they come from?  There has to be something (life cycle/catepiller stage/larvae/pupa) that indicates they're out there waiting to go nuts.

They eat other bugs so they are the good guys. I hope they all make it inside and spend the winter at work.

They were out yesterday here in central PA also.    I think they were imported to control some other bug.    They seem to find their way inside no matter how tight the house is.   People in older homes get inundated with them.

only a few out there today.

None in Saratoga NY.

Noticed today that they are covering the walls at work (outside) but there are none at home, only about 7 miles distant. Odd.

Apparently they are in WV, too. Several people have come into WalMart asking for Bug Stop saying they have been invaded by Ladybugs. I haven't seen any here in Rock Cave.

i came home the other day to swarms of them on my house.
the good side is they go great in a salad, more crunchy than bacon bits!

Not really a tasty critter.

More info on this little beast:

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Harmonia_axyridis.htm

The ones that we see here are green or dark yellow color, not regular red lady bugs.  Don't seem to be too many this year, but we have had them in past years.  They get inside any way they can and can be annoying to say the least.

73,  Jack, W9GT

They've made their way to Oakville, Ontario -- the cats are going crazy chasing them around the house.

Saw what I thought was a small pool of water the window-sill, with dead ladybugs in it.  Turns out it was some kind of slime that these things emit. 
We were under the impression that these things are dropped intentionally from planes, to kill off bad insects.   And they came all of a sudden.  Zillions of them.   

Afternoon Folks,

 Naaa it's the time of the year again...They're a PIA...


73
Jack.

I was just outside walking between buildings and they are all gone.
It must be 65 out there today.

Still got em here but have found most of the holes in the homestead that they're getting through.  Minimal in the house now.  So happy. Those little buggers bite. I never knew that until a few crawled up my legs.