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Why Are Ladybugs Living in My Spare Bedroom? And What Should I DO With Them????

Q. Hello. I am well aware of the value of ladybugs as good predators. Each fall, however, they seem to all want to come inside my home. I have a sunroom and at times they cover the ceiling. Could this invasion be prevented if I were to place a ladybug house in my garden?           
---Ursula in Missouri

Is there anything you can do to get rid of ladybugs?  My uncle has them all over his back door—and everywhere else!   Thank you,
        ---Wanda in Delta, Pennsylvania (a small town on the Mason Dixon line)

A. I answer LOTS of questions this time every year about these pest eating girls—which, in most home invasion cases, are likely to be multi-colored Asian lady bugs (or Ladybird beetles, if you must be technical about it). Imported and released years ago to combat a pest they naturally dine on back home in the Orient, they were thought to have died out and been a failure.

Then they started appearing in droves again—but at private homes. In the fall, they gather on South facing walls of light colored homes for warmth, and then start looking for cracks or other ways to get inside so they can hibernate for the winter, just as they did in caves back home. It is not unusual to find hundreds—or even thousands—clustered in a high corner of an upstairs bedroom, all pressed together to conserve heat for the winter. I generally have suggested two things. One, to thank them for finding those holes in your insulation—because if they’re getting in, your precious heat is getting out. (“What are we? Heating the street?!”)  Do some caulking or repair the weather stripping or close the window more tightly where they entered.

Then I’ve been suggesting that people vacuum them up into a clean bag that contains some shredded leaves or raffia, mist it well and keep it in the fridge--misting occasionally--till Spring, and release them into the garden then. But I wondered—where and how do they overwinter if they can’t break into your home? IS it safe to vac them up and put them in the fridge? Or outside? Am I/was I/have I been, Mother-May-I-correct?

And so, I seized the opportunity to get in touch with one of my favorite insect experts, former beneficial insect specialist for the Canadian government, and now private IPM Consultant Dr. Linda Gilkeson, who lives on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia.
 
She explains that Lady beetles of all kinds overwinter—indoors or out—in their adult stage. Some—especially the Asian ladies (which you can easily identify by the fact that almost no two look alike) like to worm their way into caves or colonials. But native species will also come into your home if they can, and all ladybugs try and find a way to creep into some kind of crack, crevice or other protected place for the winter.

Linda—excuse me—DOCTOR Linda feels that it is “really important to get them back outdoors for the winter. In the warm dry conditions indoors, they will quickly use up their body reserves needed for the winter and will die in droves. They are quite tough and can be swept up or vacuumed with a small hand-held vac, and carried outdoors, where the cold keeps their metabolism slow until spring.”

I asked her what she thought of my advice to keep them lightly misted in the fridge till Spring. She says it COULD work, but “only if they end up in a household of dedicated ladybeetle-o-philes who would put their welfare foremost until spring. If someone slips up and they are allowed to dry out, they will die.” Most refrigerators, she adds, “keep the air dry as part of the defrosting function,” and she feels it might not be realistic to expect people to remember to provide moisture without fail all winter. And the reverse is just as bad: Too wet, she explains, and they could die of a fungal disease—especially when they’re all crowded together like they tend to do.

There is, however, a third option. If, like me, you bring a lot of plants indoors for the winter, and if, like me, you maybe might not get every single little aphid off (hey—I was busy, OK? What are you—a cop?!), you can try and carefully re-room some captured ladies to do a little aphid eating for you.  

Wait till its dark out and mist the plants down really well. Turn off ALL the lights in the room and then spread the ladies out on the wet, infested plants. They won’t fly away in the dark, and they’re very thirsty. Hopefully they’ll scour the plants for that water, encounter aphids, and do what comes natural. Bad for the aphids, good for your plants. Keep the room as dark as possible for as long as possible—they will cluster around lights. So if you can, screen off entrances to light fixtures—and tape over electrical outlets.

Linda warns that she “worked in a solar greenhouse where we released lady beetles to control aphids. The greenhouse became quite cool in the winter, and when fall came, the beetles disappeared into the woodwork (literally) and, most inconveniently, into the electrical outlets, so we couldn't plug anything in all winter without crushing beetles.”

And those houses I’ve always assumed were as worthless as the ones for butterflies? “They can be cute garden ornaments”, she says, “but they’re no more attractive to a lady beetle than any other painted piece of hollow wood. Beetles overwinter in leafy, mulchy areas, rockery, outbuildings…I personally cut my corn stalks down and lay them on one of my garden beds—you’d be surprised how many lady beetles go in there for the winter.

Although the multi-coloured Asian ones do seem to be looking for structures that remind them of rocky outcroppings,” she concludes, “native species enjoy overwintering in the hollow centres of plant material like corn stalks and bamboo stakes.”

You Bet Your Garden   Question of the Week ©2005 Mike McGrath

Helpful Products From Gardens Alive!
Try these Organic Solutions for Your Insect Pest Problems!

Sta-Home™ Lady Beetles
Stays longer in your garden!
Adult lady beetles and their larvae are an excellent, non-chemical way to control aphids, Colorado potato beetles (egg stage) and other insect pests in your garden.

Yellow Sticky Traps
Use indoors to protect houseplants
Trap fungus gnats, aphids, whiteflies and other small insects. Includes nine yellow 3-inch x 5-inch traps, precoated on both sides with Tangle-Trap.

BugPro™ Food for Beneficials
Helps beneficials reproduce!
Provides the protein beneficial insects need to induce egg-laying, when a natural insect diet is not available. Attracts lady beetles and lacewings and helps them settle in.