One ... I just turned my head the other way and pretended I didn't see itTwo ... this is not looking good
Three in one week ... okay we're outta here!!!
My dear Chatham friends will all know why I have such a strong dislike for these stinky bugs. After almost five years in the city and not seeing any of them I'm a little afraid what we're going to find in country this winter/spring. My only comfort is knowing that no house can possibly be as bad as our house on the farm was!!!
4 comments:
We have a lot here too:) and we live right next door to your new place.
That's it ... no way I'm going where there's more ... I'm unpacking today instead of packing!!!
Steph, its a lady bird isn't it? They are so cute. They are considered pets around here :)
Helen
These are Asian Lady Bettles -http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/lbeetle/ - not so cute, not so pets around here. Lady Bugs are cute and nice, although my like for them has been completely turned off since the Asian Lady Bettles infestation. And to be honest we don't see very many lady bugs around here.
The Asian Lady Bettles were imported some years ago as a natural way to control plant pests such as aphids. Except they have gotten out of control. In the winter they burrow under the siding of houses and then every warm day that the sun shines on the siding they start climbing out and you find them in your house or crawling up your window. How many you have depends on how good or bad the cracks and crevises are in your house. I have also been told they ahve an attraction to white sided houses (ahhhh, we're moving from a safe brick home to a white sided house in the country). Come spring they all wake up and come out in droves.
In our house on the farm we had the worst infestation ever, I would call it a plague. Each day I swept up and cleaned up 1000's of these bugs. Our windows were constantly covered with them. When I worked in the kitchen I had to whip my counter every few minutes to get them off. It was awful.
That sounds bad enough, but the even worse part is the stink they give off. If agitated they release a disgusting odor. I learned quickly that vacuuming them up was not a good idea as every time I turned that vacuum on for the next year it would absolutely stink (and I only vacuumed a few before I clued into this). I would sweep them off my counter and flush them down the drain and as they died they would give off the smell. If you stepped on one you would smell it. The best way to kill them was to spray fly/insect spray all over your window (couldn't do that on the counter) and then they would get it on their legs and would slowly drop of the window.
The website I listed above describes them pretty well and most of what I said ... I just didn't have to research it to know that :)
We had friends who redid the siding of their house during our worst winder with these bugs. They took the siding off and found a orange and black siding underneath ... asian lady beetles from top to bottom covered the house (they just had a good enough house that they weren't getting into the house so much).
So lets just say that after my experience with these bugs I have a very, very, very keen dislike for them. So I am not-so impressed to be seeing them around (we did not see them at all during our almost 5 years of living in the city) and hearing in the news that there's an infestation of them again this year.
But ah well ... the joys of the country ... and it isn't a problem yet so no worries. Like I said ... it is pretty much impossible for it to be any worse then our farmhouse. Nobody else we have ever talked to had them that bad ... that says something about the structure of that old farmhouse!
So ... enjoy your lady bugs and hope that Australia has learned form North America's mistake and leaves them in Asia where they belong.
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