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To: familyop

No, these are Asian Lady Beetles. They eat aphids. They are an invasive pest, as they seem to have no predators. I have been told, variously, that they came in on Chinese pallets, were released by the university ag services and I know that organic soybean producers released them in the past. They attempt to come indoors in the Fall, after swarming/mating and then they attempt to get out again in the late winter/early Spring. They die in the thousands in barns, attics, and windows of wherever they overwintered. When killed, they have an acrid stink and when disturbed, they bite, which is only a pinch, but annoying. Where they crawl mindlessly on windows, they leave a tenacious film.

My exterminator forecasts their swarming by the angle of the sun and it usually occurs in early October. Huge clouds of them will fill the air and crawl around windows and doors on the southern exposures of buildings. About all one can do is attempt to prevent them from entering by killing them on the perimeter. Still, a few get in even with application of a pesticide barrier. I know farmers who literally shovel trash bags full out of the barn and silos every Spring.


36 posted on 05/04/2007 5:19:25 AM PDT by reformedliberal
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To: reformedliberal

We’ve got them here in Southern Indiana too.

By the Gazillions!

Very annoying, but typically we’re only infested indoors for a week or two in both Fall and Spring.


53 posted on 05/04/2007 7:50:38 AM PDT by EEDUDE (The more I know, the less I understand...)
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