A neighbour mentioned the other day that they were swarming. I hadn`t noticed, but it didn`t take long to figure it out. He was talking about ladybugs.
Officially, I guess it would be lady beetles. One website I was checking put it this way.
Ladybugs eat harmful garden pests, don`t congregate in large numbers, don`t bite and don`t try to get in your house when it start to get cold outside.
Asian lady beetles also eat harmful garden pests. But they do congregate in large numbers, they will bite and they like to spend winter inside. They can also be toxic to pets.
Actually, both could be toxic to pets, but since one of them does not gather in large groups and the other does, eating large quantities of one would be much easier.
Then there`s the biting. And the slimy stuff they can leave behind. That`s the beetles, not the bugs.
Near as I can figure, if you come across the lady bug, you can simply say, “Do I smell smoke?” and said bug will fly away home. The similar looking beetle may fly away home, but first it will bite you, slime you and make the trip easier by making it’s home in your house. So they can be a bit of a pain.
This particular neighbour mentioned the bugs because of my dog. My dog does not usually care about bugs. Except wasps. She tries to eat wasps. I keep telling her she`ll get stung one of these days, but she ignores me and continues to try to eat wasps. Thankfully, she`s not very good at it.
We talked about the lady beetle situation. I`m not sure she understood, but she did not look like she was about to eat anything, so maybe we`re okay.
But I still don`t want them in my house.
