July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Lady bug ... fly away (10/13/03)
As I See It
Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home. Your house has burned down and your children are gone.
It seems that morbid little nursery rhyme has its roots in the Middle Ages. When farmers burn their fields in order to clear them of weeds or the debris left over from harvest, they also inadvertently burn quite a few ladybug homes. Sometimes the ladybugs and their alligator-shaped larva are also incinerated in the process. The nursery rhyme tells the story of the slaughter.
It only takes about a month for a ladybug egg to hatch and grow into an adult. The good news is that they don’t reproduce indoors. The other good news is that they consider aphids and scale to be delicacies.
While they do not sting, carry disease or infest food, they can become a nuisance this time of year. They are seeking a warm place to hibernate, and houses are ideal for them.
We have several that hitched a ride in with the houseplants this year. Gracie, the cat, loves ladybugs. The plants hate the little spotted beetles. It seems that no matter where Gracie spots the bug, it will head for the nearest window.
The problem is that the houseplants have taken over the prime spots in front of the windows. The cat will leap at the hapless ladybug and knock over as many houseplants as possible before giving up. The plants don’t appreciate having their soil scattered all over. Sometimes she catches the beetles in midair and tortures them for a bit before they escape or she eats them.
If you don’t remember ladybugs being so prolific years ago you are right. The kind that typically takes over the house in the fall is known as the Asian lady beetle, H. axyridis. The first specimens of this variety were recovered in this country in Louisiana in 1988.
They are yellow or orangish red. According to a paper put out by the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology, “Most specimens have a small, dark “M”-shaped marking on the whitish area directly behind the head.” Maybe that is why Gracie chases them. Perhaps she thinks they are cat candy.
Gracie may consider them to be tasty, but one of my co-workers doesn’t. One tried to commit suicide in her coffee the other day. She wasn’t paying attention and wondered why her coffee was crunchy. When she spit it out, she discovered a comatose ladybug with its wings spread. Now she always looks before she drinks.
The most common advice to avoid getting the tiny critters in the house involve sealing all the cracks and crevices that allow them to sneak in. This is ineffective for the ones that catch a free ride on anything being brought through the door.
Once they are inside there are limited ways to eliminate them. Most sources recommend vacuuming the beetles. It is not advisable to squash them because one of their defense mechanisms is to release an orange-colored fluid that tends to stain anything it touches.
Personally I prefer to either catch them and relocate them outside or let Gracie use them for batting practice. Once they settle down for the winter, I just let them be in hopes that they will control the scale insects that have been known to suck on the houseplants. Then in the spring they can go back outside and begin the cycle all over again.[[In-content Ad]]
It seems that morbid little nursery rhyme has its roots in the Middle Ages. When farmers burn their fields in order to clear them of weeds or the debris left over from harvest, they also inadvertently burn quite a few ladybug homes. Sometimes the ladybugs and their alligator-shaped larva are also incinerated in the process. The nursery rhyme tells the story of the slaughter.
It only takes about a month for a ladybug egg to hatch and grow into an adult. The good news is that they don’t reproduce indoors. The other good news is that they consider aphids and scale to be delicacies.
While they do not sting, carry disease or infest food, they can become a nuisance this time of year. They are seeking a warm place to hibernate, and houses are ideal for them.
We have several that hitched a ride in with the houseplants this year. Gracie, the cat, loves ladybugs. The plants hate the little spotted beetles. It seems that no matter where Gracie spots the bug, it will head for the nearest window.
The problem is that the houseplants have taken over the prime spots in front of the windows. The cat will leap at the hapless ladybug and knock over as many houseplants as possible before giving up. The plants don’t appreciate having their soil scattered all over. Sometimes she catches the beetles in midair and tortures them for a bit before they escape or she eats them.
If you don’t remember ladybugs being so prolific years ago you are right. The kind that typically takes over the house in the fall is known as the Asian lady beetle, H. axyridis. The first specimens of this variety were recovered in this country in Louisiana in 1988.
They are yellow or orangish red. According to a paper put out by the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology, “Most specimens have a small, dark “M”-shaped marking on the whitish area directly behind the head.” Maybe that is why Gracie chases them. Perhaps she thinks they are cat candy.
Gracie may consider them to be tasty, but one of my co-workers doesn’t. One tried to commit suicide in her coffee the other day. She wasn’t paying attention and wondered why her coffee was crunchy. When she spit it out, she discovered a comatose ladybug with its wings spread. Now she always looks before she drinks.
The most common advice to avoid getting the tiny critters in the house involve sealing all the cracks and crevices that allow them to sneak in. This is ineffective for the ones that catch a free ride on anything being brought through the door.
Once they are inside there are limited ways to eliminate them. Most sources recommend vacuuming the beetles. It is not advisable to squash them because one of their defense mechanisms is to release an orange-colored fluid that tends to stain anything it touches.
Personally I prefer to either catch them and relocate them outside or let Gracie use them for batting practice. Once they settle down for the winter, I just let them be in hopes that they will control the scale insects that have been known to suck on the houseplants. Then in the spring they can go back outside and begin the cycle all over again.[[In-content Ad]]
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