Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Asian Ladybugs

We're getting swarmed by them this afternoon. Just the past few hours, there are 1,000's and 1,000's of them looking for a place to hibernate for the winter. Go outside and you'll have 5-10 of them landing on you at a time. Don't believe them when you hear that they don't bite.

I sprayed close to 20 gallons of a residual bug spray on the house and outbuildings. This is the worst I've seen them in about 10 years.

Now I'll have to wash all the windows next week.

I figure that if I thin down their numbers while they are walking around on the outside of the house, that's all the less that will find their way inside. And they will, trust me. I don't know how, but they do.

We have not been hit with them yet this year. We get hit hard every year at about the time the soybeans come out of the fields. It has been too wet to combine much this year. In previous years we have had to sweep ourselves into the out buildings. Sometimes the floor has them an inch high for the first five or ten feet into the building. Besides that, they stink. They story I have heard about how they were introduced here is that a government agency introduced them in order to control aphids in the soybeans. Not sure if that is true, but there seems to be no natural enemy to them.

Bite AND stink is right!

Bayer Suspend SC is what I use. Yes they lose their ass all over as they die leaving squiggly tracks of poo/pee all over.

I spray spring and fall (for flies as well) and figure 10 gallons or so to do 3 large buildings. Used to hire it done now I do it myself with 10oz or less of product.

Several years back with our old house we had some of the vinyl siding off to replace a window. Talk about bugs it was chock full of dead beetles and flies. Another reason to hate vinyl siding.

"Knock on wood", we haven't seen any asian beetles so far this fall but on Saturday we had small number of box elder bugs on our living room windows.

I hope they aren't out yet up at our farm. I sprayed and sprayed last year. Seemed worse on the south side of the barn, but they were everywhere.
I'm really hoping that some of the spraying I did last fall, and this spring will keep their numbers down this fall.
They were active from about now, until late spring.

Just stink bugs here. Although so far it's less than last year.

Haven't seen hardly any bugs this year. What's up with that?

A couple of flies, a few bees of various flavors, a few fruit flies, maybe a spider or two, but not a skeeter all year. Well, I did see one, but it never joined me for lunch.

Could have something to do with Da Planes!

Oh yeah, Got a letter from the owners of the apt's I live in and had to sign an addendum to my lease contract about bedbugs. Apparently, they are making their way to greener pastures from the UK and such to enjoy God's Country in the USA.

Had to sign the addendum that I have never been exposed or in contact with bed bugs. They say they are being proactive on this and hope it never happens, but it's $1,300.00 per apt to get treated and there are 12 apt's in my building.

So, read between the lines, If someone else in my building gets these, I'm out $1,300.00, just to be on the safe side.

We would fog our travel trailer at the land 6 times a year to get rid of Asian beetles...nothing ever really worked.

We had a few nights of frost last week, and today the temps jumped into the low 70's. They really started flying after noon. No beans that I know of within 1/2 mile. Either corn or peppermint.

There's lots of dead ones now, but we're getting the rain tonight and tomorrow so I might have to spray again. And I winterized the sprayer today too....

Very few skeeters all year here too. More in the past 2-3 weeks than all summer. I keep saying I'm bringing the ThermaCell with me to the deer stand and I keep forgetting. I'm kicking myself that I forgot it about sundown......

Yellowjackets were bad over the weekend too.

We get the Asian Beetles pretty thick here as well...more or less from year to year. So far this year has been lean, but it's not over yet either.

And I think you're right...nothing eats them. Not even our chickens, and those things will eat ANYTHING.

I've never paid much attention, but I can't remember seeing anything eating them either. If they swarm again I'll catch a handful that haven't been sprayed and see if the pond fish are interested in them.

Lady beetles taste bad, thus the warning coloration.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/ladybug/

Nobody likes their flavor. Try one yourself and you will be convinced. Don't swallow, though.

Dwight: Thanks for the warning about not swallowing, just wish you would have mentioned it earlier!!!

Ladybugs bite?
Never had any bad experience with these things. Down here we welcome them to rid us of aphids on plants. Garden centers sell them for this purpose? Had no idea they were a problem..... Learn something new every day



Pat W

The introduced Asian lady beetle has become a problem and even eat apples. They do bite.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard...an-lady-beetle/

Rah
I guess that they have enough bugs here to eat that they are not a pest down here like they are up north. I try not to use toxic things around the home when I can use other less toxic measures.. We get a lot of stinkbugs down here that ruin tomatoes and other things by stinging ( actually) sucking the moisture out of the veggies. Soap work wonders on them, wonder if it would stop them some

Pat W

I judge the safety of pest control measures by the toxicity of the product and how it is used, rather than if it "seems" safe. We (my wife) have raised and sold tomatoes and other vegetables at farmers markets for over 20 years, so we go by the science. We do not treat for Asian lady beetles because they are really just a nuisance to us, rather than actually causing any harm. They also act as beneficials by eating pest insects.

I guess they flock to warm surfaces in the fall, prefer white colored buildings on the sunny side of the building. I do wonder if someone could put white styrofoam or PVC decoys of some type in the pond and encourage the swarm to the pond and let the fish pick them off? Maybe a decoy plus a suction fan that blows them into the water like other commercial insect feeders available for pond owners?

I can't imagine a fish could taste the bug enough to choose not to eat them, especially if they were trained to snap things off the surface already (via a feeder or bug light)?

Where do the swarms go at night? Glad that we don't seem to have a problem with these in our area. Stink bugs are bad enough

RAH, I agree. This year they swarmed in such great numbers that they'd be a nuisance all winter long. I usually don't do a thing about them, but in the numbers that were there this year, I had to.

Now for a silly question.

If the native ladybugs eat the same thing as the asian ladybugs, why are the asian ladybug population that great? Why don't the native ladybugs out compete the asian ladubugs?

Introduced species often do not have the biological controls in place that native species do. It takes time for species within an ecosystem to adapt to a new resource. Evolution and ecology is pretty cool, and yes I am a science nerd.