LADYBUG TERRORISTS - Beetles Attacking Rural Houses

(10/18/2006)

It is the US Government's gift to homeowners. The multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (ladybugs) will likely have a record year, annoying to no end the country dwellers of West Virginia. "It appears they will be worse than last year," said Berry Crutchfield, plant and pest biologist for the state Department of Agriculture. Berry says there is still time to take action, but other ladybug "experts" say they have already crawled into houses a couple weeks ago. Once they're inside, there is little to do. It's best to seal all the cracks in the summer, but there may still be time before the pests make their way indoors. Spraying the outside of the structure with an insecticide before they arrive is the best prevention. Commercial bug killers charge about $100 to bug-proof a house for winter. Insecticides recommended: Suspend SC, Ortho Home Defense, or Spectracide Bug Stop. The Asian variety was released in the 1980s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to control pecan aphids in the South, though no release was made in West Virginia. They still arrived. The beetles dwell in trees during the summer. When frost arrives and leaves fall, they begin a search for warmth and crawl through the smallest cracks and crevices to enter houses, remaining dormant in winter. Once they arrive on the sunny side of a house, they release a chemical odor that attracts more beetles. During the peak heating of a house, they crawl out and swarm, inside.

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