we have tower sites that get overrunn with them, so i feel your pain. LBs are a beneficial bugs, so try not to totally kill them. if you have any type of garden you WILL want the around outside. before the next fall season, make sure all your doors/windows are properly weather sealed, as well as the rest of the exterior of the house this will cut down on them some then.

my house gets overrun with crickets, literally thousands of them. they actually eat thru the weather stripping on the doors to get inside. at least yours are beneficial!

Ladybugs ARE beneficial, but the "lookalikes" are not! And these might be the look-alike (I forget their name!), which stink when squashed. Most people I know vacuum them up, and seal any points of entry.

Hi-goodness, how I hate those ladybugs. They are Asian ladybugs that hit the east coast of the US around 1983. They migrated across to our house in the NW. We were remodeling a bathroom on the southwest wall-had a window pulled out to replace. Within a few years we were overrun by them. Literally thousands everyday. My DH kept thinking they would die out. I finally did a lot of hard research and made a lot of calls. We had to have them fumigated two times before they were stopped. They get into the sw wall where it is warm. The can winter easily. They are very fertile. It did not cost much to have a few holes drilled into the outside wall and ? put in -sorry, that it something I do not remember. I do, however, remember reading at night and having them fly into my face, being in the shower and having them land on my body. Gross!!! AND not many people understand that this is not the cute little lady bug that helps your garden. These leave a yellow residue on your windows and woodwork and stink if you kill one-they smell like old dandilions. You can google "asian ladybugs" and find out about them. Call around but do not hire an exterminator unless he/she knows what you are talking about. But they will not go away on their own. Wow-I am finally an expert on something! Good luck with them-they won't hurt anything except your sanity!!

Oh-and they do not go outside when the season changes-they are in the walls or ceiling and that is their home not the garden like their nice cousins.

noodlesportland---
I'm hanging on your every word. Not only are we infested in our 1785 house, I now realize I am very allergic to them. (I just learned online that this is the newest big allergy to explode on the scene.) It's taken me eight weeks of feeling lousy to realize it.

Is there any way you can find out what your house was sprayed with--or was it baited? And was it only outside? Or did you treat inside as well. Our whole house is cracks and crevices. I have no idea how I can "seal the envelope", sigh....

We live in farm country, the field to the back of our property is planted with soy beans and these Asian beetles love soy beans so I feel your pain. We have been overrun at times. I take Dixie cups filled 1/2 way with a mixture of water, a little sugar and dish soap and set these on every window sill. The mixture catches hundreds and easy clean up. They advise not to use your vacuum to rid of them, apparently not good for your vacuum.

Hi again- we have moved from that house but I just remember that we used an "eco" type exterminator who KNEW what I was talking about vs about 3 other calls who had no idea. Google asian ladybugs-get educated-do NOT get talked out of your knowledge as in"aren't ladybugs cute and helpful" "just take them out to your garden" talk. I will see if I have any records but doubt it as it has been a leat 8 years ago. I am so sorry that they are bothering you-but for not all that much money you can get rid of them --it is just finding who in your area knows what to use. (and sticking to your guns-people think of ladybugs like pets).

If these things like sugar and light, you might try putting Boric Acid (from the drugstore not this pesticide that says it's pure boric acid) mixed with honey or sugar water. Make it into a paste and put some into a plate at night then turn on a light near the plate.

Bug bombs work. You can buy them at Walmart.

actually bug bombs will not work if they are inside the walls as our infetation was. There were seriously thousands of bugs a day-I actually stood and counted 100 in just 10 minutes as we were trying to vacuum them. They were new ending and I do not think anything short of getting something into the actual wall will rid you of them.

bug bombs will work if applied correctly, but the trick is you MUST use several and you MUST seal the house for at least 12 hours. this means turning off ALL pilot lights and eliminating the possiblity of any arcs. you shut off the gas AND electrical at the mains. you then set off twice as many bug bombs as the label calls for, be sure to put them in the attic and basement. this will kill all bugs in the house.

if you do not shut off the gas and electrical, you house could explode. no joke, any spark with this much aerosol in the air could be an instant explosion.

you have to air the house out for a few hours after returning.

personally, that is how i would handle it. some people can't/won't use that much chemicals, that is a matter of personal choice.

I too am an expert on these, and everyone is right when they say they are NOT ladybugs. They are Asian beetles and they stink and make your windows a mess. I did call an exterminator. They spray all window sills and all floorboards. This acts as a barrier they don't cross, with the exception of a few, and they die right away. The cost for our home was $175, and we need to do it every year, but I find it worth it. Nasty, nasty bugs.

It is called 'Bug Stop' and is made by Spectricide. You spray it lightly on your windows (inside and out) and windowsills. Also spray on your screens and screen doors. They will die right away and yes, you will have lots of dead ladybugs, but just know they won't be laying eggs. If you do this every fall (late when they are looking for a place to over-winter) you will have fewer and fewer each year.

It is the only thing we have found that really works.

OMG!!! LADYBUGS!! EVERYWHERE!! I'm telling you I hate these things. This is absolutely ridiculous. Everyone says "Oh they come out in the fall and they are harmless." That is horse manure. They are in my house. NOW. Millions of them, flying, beating off the windows, smelling up the house, causing me to go absolutely crazy. Here's the problem. I bought this house recently. Loved the area because it's in the woods but right in town as well. House is almost 100 years old. Picture this, town all around, woods in the middle, my house in the middle of that. Ladybug sanctuary! There is no way I can caulk every crack and crevice. But it's gotten to the point that I don't cook till night time (the downstairs has the kitchen/great room and the infestation) but after the light is on for awhile the fight is on to get it finished and race back upstairs behind the door to eat while sitting in the bedroom. I detest this. Please please any advice for a single mom whose income sucks? I'm not a ladybug lover. I will and want to kill these things. Before I lose anymore of my mind that's left!! Thanks

I am so sorry-they will just drive you nuts. First do not call them ladybugs or noone will give you any support. Call them Asian Beetles. I personally think the only thing to do (although other posters have other opinions) is to pay an exterminator and have the inside of the southwest wall treated. At least google asian ladybugs or beetles and educate yourself-otherwise a well meaning exterminator or hardware store could waste your money. They really are as bad as you are experiencing!

kim--
We're totally infested as you are, and are reluctant to use chemicals (health issues and pets). We did what sloz does--put small glasses with water, sugar and dishsoap on a windowsill in every room and it caught thousands of them. They're still with us in great numbers, but there's satisfaction in watching hundreds of them diving to their doom.

Experts say some years are worse than others and this is a bad one. We've decided to wait until next year to see if they lessen. If not, we're spraying or fumigating then. We have NO chance of sealing cracks in the outside of our 1785 home!
P.

We have the same problem. Our house is white hardiplank and I am told the white attracts them. They show up every fall and spring. This recent cold snap seems to have slowed them some.

I want to share with you all that it IS a ladybug. All ladybugs stink when squashed- it's a pheremone that they release to warn off the predator that squished one from future ladybugs. They ALL stain when squashed...it's their blood.

It is not a native species in most cases, however we have had native ladybugs infest around here- it's because they also have a pheremone to mark a great winter camping area for future generations. That is the most difficult part of this population over-run problem to fix: if your house is marked, they will focus on your area for the future.

I opened our bathroom window today to let out a dozen that had appeared overnight. It was warm enough outside, and I thought they'd leave on their own. I checked later and had a couple left and thought I'd come back in a minute to move them- the phone was ringing. I forgot until after dusk.

Imagine my surprise when I had a group of 2 or 3 dozen waiting for me in the closed room when I remembered to go back up! At least I'd closed the door because of the cats, or I'd have them throughout the house! It is on the South side...

Mine are Asian, but I am at this point still choosing to let them out myself. I'll have trouble patching this century-old house any more than we already have, but I'll work on it. Perhaps I can build a ladybug house like our bat house and butterfly house? Does anyone know if this will work?

If it comes down to it, we'll use the black light trap.

http://www.ladybuglady.com/infestation.htm

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2005/lady_beetles122205.htm
Cheers!

Here is a link that might be useful: Great official information

These Asian beetles are AWFUL, the biggest PITA that I can think of!! The only solution that I have found for our house is to vacuum them up. After it gets dark, they seem to accumulate in the corners of our southern rooms. I can smell them in our house but no one else in the family seems to be able to-- but they all hate them as much as I do. They are so bad this time of year when we get a warm sunny day!

One of our Boxers chases anything that flies.. she catches and eats flies, mosquitoes, bees -been stung too many times to count but it doesn't stop her- but she won't chase and eat the dang Asian beetles. They must taste pretty nasty!

We also had this problem a few years back. One time we came home from a vacation and there were about 100 on the living room walls. Gross!

The best thing we did was replace our windows. Our old windows were rotted. Our new vinyl windows really helped keep the buggers out.

We occasionally get a few here and there but nothing like a few years ago.

iasheff -- our cat also eats almost any bug in the house but won't touch one of these.

I don't care WHAT they are - I don't want them in the house. They come down our chimney and are almost impossible to block out. They stink and they BITE. The water-and-soap in the dish didn't work for me, so I resorted to some special dairy-barn-fly-spray that DH sells in his agribusiness. Spray, shut the room for an hour, then go in with the Dyson and vacuum them all up.

All those dead bodies - disgusting! But less disgusting than having them flying everywhere - in the shower, on your pillow in your bed, buzzing the lamps, crawling up the walls, etc. etc. etc.

The name of the bug you call 'ladybug' is no lady, the name is: Megacopta cribraria google that my friends and you find how destructive this beast is! It ate my wisteria, it is working on my lady banks roses. They like legumes (beans) so there you go. Now, we kill them.... how my pretty is a sensitive matter....I'm at ground zero in Gainesville, GA. it is in our surrounding area. If you are outside our zone, they are coming your way. You have NO idea how destructive these are and how MANY they make. SWARMS, I mean SWARMS. Nasty, they stick to you, bite and STINK (again NOT a ladybug)! Kill them at all cost! 7 doesn't keep them off, constant spraying isn't working.... we need something stronger (I'll keep checking to find it).