Ladybugs living in our home from generation to generation and there is nothing we can do about it. They love our perfect environment!
Ladybugs Have Moved In!
I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of technical info. You can look that up anywhere on the web. What I am going to tell you is that we have the perfect environment for the continuation of generations of asian ladybugs. Thanks to the US Forest Service and some well thought out government plan to help gardeners across America cope with aphids and mites without using nasty pesticides we’ve got these friendly little critters moving in with us every fall.
And anytime it warms up a little outside they get faked out into thinking it is really Spring and out they come to explore the warmest and most humid areas of our house. Out comes the vacuum and the stink they leave behind when the get sucked up. Not because they die, but because we scared the little buggers into a near-death experience and that my friends makes them bleed yellow blood and that is what stinks. They also leave yellow blood stains on everything when they have a sense of danger and being so small and vulnerable they get stressed out and scared rather easily. So they leave a trail of yellow blood wherever their scared little legs carry them in our house.
We’ve actually got the perfect environment to perpetuate generations of our little ladybug friends. I’ll list our perfect ladybug hotel accommodations.
- South facing house in New England with a mountainous terrain.
- Adequate flora and fauna to attract them.
- Light colored house… yellow actually… they love yellow… hell they bleed yellow!
- Lots of cracks, holes and crevasses to crawl through and into… we have an old house. It doesn’t even keep out the furry critters out let alone the little yellow bleeders!
- Humidity and warmth. We’ve got them both. Under insulated and we humidify the house so we can breath. Apparently they love us even more now!
- We put up with them? Can’t beat ‘em so we tolerate them and we are aphid and mite free and will be for generations to come.
So… when Spring comes and it is almost here they will begin to come out of hibernation in masses looking for ways OUT of the house. Now why don’t they just use the path they came in on and not decorate all our windows with their yellow debris because they get stressed out trying to find a way into the gardens outside. Hello? It’s NOT OUR FAULT! Use your little brains and … oh never mind… we have the vacuum cleaner (SHOP VAC for the mass assaults) ready and waiting and some nose plugs for the stink they are going to put out when they see us coming.
I guess we have to remember they are good for the gardens and if you have indoor plants you may even reap the benefits of the little aphid eaters too. Besides it is a well though out Government initiative that both generations of ladybugs and generations of humans will have to live with until the next great experiment.
