What are these Insects?
Alright, does anyone have these little insects crawling around their home right now? I do, I took the picture below earlier today.
One might think that these are cute little ladybugs, but with a closer look, they will see that they are actually Asian lady beetles.
Asian lady beetles are quite different then ladybugs and can quickly invade a home if they are not dealt with quickly.
How Can I tell if these are ladybugs or lady beetles?
Here are a few signs that you actually have Asian lady beetles instead of ladybugs.
The color of the lady beetles shell is a brownish orange and younger ones can be a bit red in color. They are usually not the vivid red color of a ladybug.- Lady beetles have a scent, and smell. When they fear danger, they let off this strong scent to warn other lady beetles that danger is near.
- Lady beetles multiply quickly. If you notice several quickly appearing in your home, it is most likely lady beetles.
- Lady beetles hibernate in the winter usually in the walls of homes. In very early spring (still very cold outside, in my case below freezing), they start to wake up and make their way indoors to stay alive.
- Ladybugs die off in the fall and lady beetles hibernate. If it is still really cold outside (Below 50ºF) and you are seeing insects that look like ladybugs, you most likely have lady beetles and not ladybugs in the home.
The color of the lady beetles shell is a brownish orange and younger ones can be a bit red in color. They are usually not the vivid red color of a ladybug.These are just a few ways to figure out which insect is in your home.
10 Ways To Get Rid of Ladybugs AKA Asian Lady Beetles
Getting rid of lady beetles can be somewhat challenging. Here are 10 natural ways to help you get rid of ladybugs AKA Asian lady beetles in your home.
1. Winterize Your Home – Lady beetles come in to the house most likely in the fall or even closer to winter. They then hibernate and when it starts to warm up in the spring they come out of hibernation and work their way into the homes to stay alive. In the fall, they will often find a place in the walls to sleep for the winter. By winterizing your home, be sure to seal your doors and windows. Caulk the windows, replace weather stripping if needed and make it hard for any creatures to essentially get into your home.
2. Act Fast – One of the most important things you can do when you notice these bugs in your home is to act fast. These bugs can quickly multiply! They are really good at communicating with one another with their scent and this quickly attracts more into your home. Act fast to get rid of them before the problem gets out of hand!
3. Choose A Dark Colored Home – Lady beetles are attracted to lightly painted homes. If you really have a problem, consider changing the paint on your home to a darker color. This will help keep them out of your home.
4. Start gardening – Lady beetles are great for your garden! They eat aphids, a little bug that can really harm your garden. Welcome lady beetles into your garden, they can really be beneficial!
5. Plant Mums – Lady beetles do not like mums. Be proactive and plant mums around the windows and around the entrance of the house. Did you know that mums are a key ingredient in flea powder as well. Protect your home from all kinds of insects with mums!
6. Vacuum Them Up – Using your attachment tools on your vacuum, vacuum up these lady beetles. Most of the lady beetles will survive being vacuumed up. If you have a garden, you can transfer them to your garden to help get rid of aphids. If you prefer to get rid of them all together, place the vacuum bag into a sealed plastic bag or you can burn the bag that they are in.
7. Use Diatomaceous Earth Powder – Diatomaceous Earth Powder can be spread around the base of your home. This will not only help prevent lady beetles from entering the home at ground level, but it will also help deter other creatures as well.
8. Remove The Lady Beetles Scent – This can be quite hard to do, as you often can not smell the scent unless the lady beetles senses danger. Lady beetles do not like citrus or citronella scents so use this scent liberally when wiping up after these bugs. Make a citrus spray with Wild Orange Essential Oil (You Can Buy It Here) diluted in some water. Spray liberally in areas you see the lady beetles in.
9. Use Cloves – Whole Cloves are another scent that lady beetles do not like. Place small bags of cloves in areas that are heavily infested. The smell will help in aiding these little insects to find a new home.
10. Use Bay Leaves – Whole Spice Bay Leaves, Whole can also be used to get rid of lady beetles. Lady beetles do not like the scent of bay leaves. Try making small pouches of bay leaves and cloves and place them around heavily infested areas.
With all of these tips, you will be on your way to get rid of ladybugs AKA Asian lady beetles forever! Got any tips for us? Feel free to leave them in the comment section below.
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I enjoyed–and appreciate–all the helpful comments. (I needed a good laugh, and the “burn down the house” comment was a hoot!) I’ll try all the suggestions–as many as necessary–to get rid of these aggravating insects!
I found a fun but slow method that also involves my grandkids. Take your pellet gun, hide the pellets. Pump it up with 2 pumps of air. Place the muzzle of the gun 1-2″ away from the ladybug and slowly squeeze the trigger. Ladybug is vaporized!!!! No mess no fuss. Make a big deal about it and let the grandkids go nuts!!! Remember to keep the pellets hidden ( very important, I’m speaking from experience! )
Back to my pellet gun method for removing ladybugs, I have done some more experiments and have found: Extremely effective for house flies, wasps, etc… even cats that jump on your furniture. Only took one shot of air to keep Fluffy off the couch. Now i store the pellet gun on the back of the couch, and it truly is amazing how smart cats are. Still working on research for removing fleas from dogs, but I haven’t seen Sluggo in a couple of days. If you see him tell him I’m sorry, and to please come home, for more research. Love you Sluggo!!!
Ron! That’s hilarious!
Thanks for the great laugh; I needed that!! Awesome!
Had a loud whistle in my ear, thought it was one of these beetles, turned out to be a stroke. Equally annoying yet very costly. Concentrated Lemon water (allow lemons to soak in water overnight then pour into spray bottle) worked very well getting rid of these bugs can also be sprayed on walls and ceilings without staining.
My sister lives in an old farmhouse that is over 120 years old. She is infested with these Asian beetles. She has a nice sized bathroom upstairs and she said that she could not even see her ceiling because of so many bugs. Her kitchen ceiling has them all over it as well. she vacuums everyday and empties the sweeper canister outside. I googled how you can get rid of these pests and everyone has great ideas. I have already called her to tell her to get her cloves and her bay leaves out. Also the lemon candle. I will have to let you know if this works at all for her.
thanks for the great ideas.
How do you treat the bites, especially when you are allergic to them?
I found that burning whole bay leaves like incense really works to keep them away 🙂
I really hope some Of these ideas work, these beetles are making me a crazy lady. I spend 2-3 hours a day on these things. I’m obsessed with them, cannot stand to be in a room with them crawling all over the walls and ceilings. People laugh and joke with me about it, however after days of this and not sleeping due to beetles it becomes way less funny to me. Can’t wait to try bay leaves and cloves. Wish me luck!!!
I am going to try some of the suggestions on this site. We have had problems with these little bugs for many years. We had them in Maryland and then we have them here in Tennessee. Never have been able to get rid of them. Now we also are having problems with stink bugs. Got rid of having mice in my kitchen by putting peppermint oil in around the drawers and shelves. Hope that the cloves will help with the lady beetles. My daughter gets sick when she smells oranges so can’t try that. Love the idea of the pellet gun, if only I had one. Some of my grandchildren would love to do that to the beetles.
Ok – I’m confused. You said they hibernate in Winter, but then you said they die off in Fall. So which is it???
Ladybugs die off in Fall; Lady Beetles hibernate.
It sounds like ‘LadyBugs’ (the red ones) die off in the winter, but the ‘Asian Beetles’ (the orange ones) hibernate throughout the winter. I know this is true, because a few years ago, when we remodeled, we replaced some windows and removed some of the sheet rock on the surrounding walls…. well, we never saw anything like it! the space between the 2 x 4’s was ‘packed’ tight with the Asian beetles…. several areas of beetles, areas of 1 – 2 square feet of ’em and as thick as the 4 inch wall…. they were ‘camping-out’ like insulation themselves. That must be why when you kill one, 10 more ‘come out of the woodwork’!!
MUMS???? The lady beetles around here live in them!!
Every Fall…and I got excited because we hadn’t seen them yet, and then, there they were all over the windows on Oct. 29th…screaming “let me in”… Nasty nasty annoying critters”. Go out the door, they bombard you. Our house is white, they love it. I love the “burn down the house” comment….but I think I will try the bay leaves, cloves, and lemon candles. Vacuuming doesn’t cut it.