Posted by Suzanne McMinn on February 10, 2006
I used to love ladybugs. When I was a little girl, there was not much more exciting than catching a ladybug. I used to paint my nails in ladybug prints. I dressed my daughter in ladybug print outfits when she was a baby. I’ve bought greeting cards with ladybug prints. I have a picture frame with little ladybugs decorated all around the frame. Now when I look at that frame, I have to look twice because I’m sure the ladybugs must be real. (See the ladybugs crawling around the window frame in this photo?)
Several years back, the government brought in an Asian cousin of the ladybug to combat the aphids that plague pecan trees, soybeans and corn. Unfortunately, while that worked, these foreign ladybugs had no natural predators and states like Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia have become plagued by them. They come indoors for winter and they are attracted to light-colored buildings (like the farmhouse where I live). I WANT THEM ALL TO DIE HORRIBLE, TRAGIC, PAINFUL DEATHS BECAUSE I HATE LADYBUGS NOW.
Whew. Just had to get that out. What’s bugging you? Tell me, and a random comment number will be drawn on Monday to win an autographed book from my contemporary backlist! (And if you know how to kill ladybugs, let me know!) 
6:34
am
Oooh, terrible pun. What’s bugging me? A little twenty-one-month old who doesn’t like going to sleep at night. :zzz: Gah!
7:45
am
I’m in Ohio so I know what you’re going through! And this unseasonably warm winter has them showing up now.
My dad uses a wet/dry vac, fills the tank with water, sucks them up and then flushes them. :twisted:
8:21
am
What’s bugging me? SNOW, that’s what. We got 4 inches night before last and have more coming in tonight and tomorrow with up to 6 inches expected.Temps in low 30’s. I could get the call to go to my daughter’s fot The Blessed Event any time in the next couple of weeks. How can I get there if we have the white stuff? GO AWAY!!!!:hissyfit:
8:44
am
When I lived in our farmhouse we were infested with ladybugs and field flies. Drove me insane. There were so many I literally had to sweep them up daily! There are many so-called ideas to rid them, but the best I found was to have my entire house sprayed inside and out. A little costly but well worth it.
9:29
am
Wild turkey bug me:yuck: We moved inland from the Oregon coast 6 years ago into an area that is overrun(we didn’t know it then) with wild turkeys. They are the nastiest birds in the world–poop on my deck, even on top of the house. Either eat or scratch out every green spear that comes through the ground—AND THEY ARE PROTECTED!!:shocked:
10:17
am
Want to know what’s bugging me? WOLF SPIDERS, that’s what. They’ve come in from the cold and I’m going to die a horrible death, not from a bite but from heart failure.
Can we switch your lady bugs for my spiders?
10:19
am
What’s bugging me? That my mother has now decided that 3:30 a.m. is the time to get out of bed for breakfast. And she gets upset when I send her back to bed!
10:20
am
We get them in Alabama too. Dreadful creatures! I guess the only reason I’m not infested with them is that I have a dark brick house now. When we lived in a light gray house with siding, I’d have them everywhere. The exterior of my house would look like it had the measles.
Since I don’t have lady bugs to bug me, I’ll have to rant about something else: inconsiderate people. Was in WalMart shopping for groceries and a woman just stopped her buggy in mid-aisle while she perused the canned good. After a soft “ahem” she moved it and I passed. Next aisle, the same thing. And the next and the next. Ahem! Didn’t she get the message or was she just too wrapped up in herself to even care?
10:32
am
Funny, but my boss found a lady bug on her desk yesterday. We’re on the third floor and the windows don’t open.
10:40
am
Now I know the story behind my ladybugs. Every winter several ladybugs come to my bedroom to stay in their winter resort. They fly around the ceiling light while I read. They sit on my shoulder while I type. I was worried that they might not have anything to eat. My husband said they seemed fine and no, I did not need to order food for them. :mrgreen:It is obvious, I have no problems with the ladybugs.
What does bug me at times is this….
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:three teenagers.
10:54
am
We get lady beetles and those darn things can bite! Yuck!
What’s bugging me now? Fruit flies! I can’t seem to get rid of them. They showed up when I didn’t even have fruit. I find them inside sealed bread bags. *shudder* Make it stop!!
11:50
am
My beloved cat’s not well and that’s what’s bugging me.
LET THE LADY BUGS LIVE!
12:35
pm
What is bugging me, huh? Well, I could say the cold I have that won’t go away. Or I could say cats that decide to fight outside my window at 4 in the morning. Or I could say my migraine. There are several things bugging me right now.
We get the lady bugs here in Georgia too. In college, one of the hallways on the third floor in my dorm was infested with them. Just to get to the door to the stairs, you had to walk through the dozens of ladybugs that came in a supposedly closed window. Don’t know how to get rid of them though.
1:18
pm
How appropriate, btw, that your ads in the right column include one for how to be rid of ladybugs…:thumbsup:
1:26
pm
LOL! I just saw that! The google ads get hooked in by the topics on my blog. Should I start talking about naked men?
(Melissa–I hope your kitty is okay!)
1:30
pm
What’s bugging me? The setting of last night’s CSI.
Sparks is nowhere near Las Vegas and they kept going back there like it was only a short jaunt. I guess the writers couldn’t read a map. :rolleyes:
3:00
pm
My friend had a ladybug infestation in his house. He’d vacuum them up with the hose attachment and then stuff kleenex in the opening to keep them from crawling back out.
What’s bugging me right now: that I forgot to bring my lunch to work. Hungry!
3:22
pm
I’d rather have ladybugs than mozzies!!!!
The snow is bugging me–we have had WAY too much!!!!
3:33
pm
BTW, I don’t mean we have mozzies now!! They would be hardy!!
5:08
pm
Hey Toni, pardon my ignorance, but what are mozzies? That is a new one on me. By the way, I live in NC in a white house and have never had ladybugs. I live in the middle of a white pine forest and have been told that’s why They don’t bother me.:lol:
5:23
pm
“Should I start talking about naked men?”
Go for it Suzanne!!!
5:48
pm
At the moment it’s ants. I was eating my supper 2 nights ago and used some salad dressing on the somewhat tasteless “meal” I’d made for myself. Not wanting to try to sqeeze out from behind my desk, I decided to just put the bottle on the floor.
When I picked it up about 10 min. later to take it back to the fridge, :shock: I found little black spots moving all over it: several dozen. I wasn’t wearing my glasses so I had a closer look: ants…and as soon as I picked up the bottle, they began an upward climb to my hand. Luckily, the bathtub was pretty close so I pried the hot water tap open (can hardly move the cold) and let it pour down on the bottle and my hand.
Ouch, that was some hot water and the ants had the same idea about it. They started crawling beneath my sweatshirt. I think I managed to get them all off because I couldn’t feel any crawling over me later. Some had been washed up further in the bottom of the bathtub, but I think I got all those, too. It really is time to get an ant-trap. I’d noticed them crawling on the floor but this went TOO FAR.
I’m also wondering what’s making a gnawing noise at the pipes around 0200 when all decent creatures should be asleep. Any ideas other than rats?
Come to think of it, our ladybugs don’t look like they used to any more either. Have these cousins spread all over North America? I used to find them cute too. It seems it’s never a good idea to try to import something that will get rid of another insect.
We just seem to end up with another pest of some kind. What eats our regular ladybirds? Don’t they eat aphids?
BTW, I just had to start reading the PAX 2 and then 3–waiting library books or not. I’m really enjoying THIRD SIGHT so far. Since I’m
with headache, sore throat and sniffles, I’m somewhat slow in reading. Second cold this winter whereas I’ve had only 2 colds in the previous 20 years. Once the idea of having to move took hold, I forgot to do my regular routine of taking Vit. C daily. Another BAD thing to blame on that move.:yuck:
5:48
pm
Teenaged boys who leave 1/4 inch of tea in the bottom of the pitcher and 1/8 of a teaspoon of casserole in the pan so they don’t have to remove said objects from the fridge and WASH THEM!
Lazy spawn. :evil:
What good are they if they wont do chores?
Do they think I birthed them to sit around so I could admire ‘em? Don’t think so…..:talktothehand:
8:39
pm
“Take a nylon stocking and stuff it down the hose attachment of your vacuum cleaner leaving the cuff to hold on to, then vacuum the ladybugs up, the nylon saves the ladybugs from getting chopped up. Release them in another area, put them in the refrigerator until spring or give them to a friend with a green house. Ladybugs collected now will hibernate until mid spring between 33 and 40 degrees, if your milk doesn’t freeze or spoil over-nite the ladybugs will do just fine.” — Now finding lady bugs in my frige would bug me
9:47
pm
Nothing is bugging me. I got a book contract this morning so I’m happy.
10:32
pm
When we lived in Huntsville, Alabama, we used to get those dreaded lady bugs also! I can still remember the frustration with them. Don’t know why they call them ‘ladies’!
1:44
am
moths. The kind that get into oatmeal, cereals, bird seed and that kind of stuff. They have been really bad here this year.
1:48
am
One lady said to use bay leaves scattered around your windows to help reduce the number of them.
Here’s an article I found about them:
Prevention is the most effective step in managing lady beetles. Check the outside of your home for spaces and cracks that may allow insects easy entry. Make any necessary repairs by the end of September.
Install tight-fitting door sweeps or thresholds at the base of all exterior entry doors. Gaps of 1/16 inch or more will permit entry of insects. Seal openings where pipes and wires enter the foundation and siding, for instance, around outdoor faucets, receptacles, gas meters, clothes dryer vents, and telephone/cable TV wires. Holes can be plugged with caulk, cement, urethane expandable foam, steel wool, copper mesh, or other suitable construction sealant. Caulk around windows, doors, chimneys and fascia boards, etc. using a high quality silicone or acrylic latex caulk. Repair gaps and tears in window and door screens. Repair screens in roof and soffit vents, and in bathroom and kitchen fans. Keep siding, eaves and soffits in good repair, replacing damaged areas if necessary, to keep the exterior walls as insect-proof as possible.
Frequently spraying the beetles that have landed on the side of a house with soapy water will reduce the population considerably. Physical exclusion can be supplemented with a residual insecticide barrier. For insecticides to be effective, they must be applied before insects begin to enter buildings, which is early- to mid-October for multicolored Asian beetles. Be sure the product you intend to use is labeled for use on the exterior of buildings. You may wish to consider hiring a professional pest control service. They have the experience and access to residual insecticides to control lady beetles effectively.
Remove lady beetles found indoors with a broom or vacuum. Indoor insecticide sprays are of very limited benefit. Once lady beetles move into wall voids there is no practical control to prevent them from emerging later during winter or spring. The only control is to remove them as they are seen.
6:10
am
Insulin needles, pill bottles, and checking my glucose 9 times a day. But I don’t want any of your lady bugs in exchange cause i hate them damn things.
C
6:26
am
My parents live in central Pennsylvania and get swarms of ladybugs every year. The only way they’ve found to get rid of them is the exterminator. Good luck.
12:50
pm
Thank you, Suz. My cat, Damian, is more important to me than life itself!
Yea, start talking about naked men.
1:53
pm
Started to read everyone’s comments and then started to get grossed out. I really don’t like bugs. When my boys were young I didn’t let on that bugs bothered me. (Didn’t want them growing up hyper about bugs.) They are fine about bugs, but I’m not. Grossed out about bugs,:fryingpan:.
4:15
pm
Ladybugs don’t bother me. I hate spiders! :yuck:
9:12
pm
Hey Suz I am still waiting for the naked men. You are falling behind here. Maybe tomorrow.:rotfl:
10:11
pm
LOL my sister’s house gets invaded with them in the Spring. They are all over. I’ll have to ask her.
1:06
am
I thought of something much worse than ladybugs, the lovebug season in FL. Huge clouds of black flying bugs joined at the butt. They swarm together in giant black clouds and especially enjoy waiting at your front door. They also ruin the paint jobs on as many cars as possible.
2:43
am
Well no bugs around here to complain about, but my wip is driving me nuts
9:41
am
Fanny–mozzies/mossies are mosquitoes!!!
10:32
am
Fannie, I don’t think google picks up on the comments–I think it picks up on words in the text of the blog posts, so I’ll have to save the naked men for Monday. Everybody be sure to check the google ads then, LOL.
10:40
am
Ack, I just realized some comments entering the contest had gone to spam. I’ve tried to recover them but I don’t know what I’m doing.
If you tried to comment before and it didn’t go through, please try again. I promise to check the spam filter more often!!!:yes:
11:48
am
:twisted:my neighbor who seems to think that she owns MY driveway as well and who had just told me how to shovel said driveway and where i should put the snow. I know where I want to put the snow…:twisted:
3:21
pm
“so I’ll have to save the naked men for Monday”
I can just imagine the post you could do…you ought to just title the post that and discuss something else to see if it will work. I noticed the ads changed once before when you were discussing the broken toilet.
Oh and I thought of another insect that bugs me…Camel Crickets…these are huge brown crickets that tend to like to jump on you (or at least me) in the middle of the night as you walk down the hall. I don’t know how they get in the house.
4:58
pm
I’m bugged by wild turkeys. We live in area overrun with the and they are protected.
5:15
pm
Ohmygod, don’t mention toilets again, LOL! I’ll have toilet ads!!
10:15
am
I’m bugged by all of this cold weather we’re having!
Hope I’m not to late to get in on the contest?
10:54
am
Damn the Spam!…heehee, get it? Damn the Man! OK, where’s Suz? Where’s the nekkid mens? Where am I?
Man, these and other important questions are BUGGIN’ me.
6:20
am
[...] him two weeks, I’m that nice. I just need a good hardship story to get him out here. I know, ladybugs! They’re coming… It’s that time of year. And if ladybugs aren’t a hardship, [...]