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HAS YOUR HOME BEEN INVADED BY LADY BEETLES?
I've heard lots of complaining in recent weeks about "those pesky lady bugs" that seem to have invaded everybody's homes. One woman told me she had hundreds and hundreds -- too many to count -- crawling around her floors, windows and walls.
Every day I find three or four in our house and I have taken to moving them to house plants or to my many seedlings growing under lights in the basement. I think of them as my bug patrol that will keep my plants free from harmful insects.
The colorful little critters aren't the same "ladybugs" we all know and remember from our childhoods. Officially, these insects are called multicolored Asian ladybird beetles (Harmonia axyridis), and they're a relatively new addition to our lives.
This insect first arrived in Minnesota seven years ago, explains Jeff Hahn, University of Minnesota extension entomologist. They become a nuisance when large numbers enter homes during the fall. They may also be seen indoors during the winter and again in spring when they emerge from wall voids and other hiding places.
The Asian beetles were first reported in large numbers around buildings and in homes last fall. Although it is common for lady beetles to cluster together when they overwinter, they normally don't do so around buildings. However, that is not true now that the multicolored Asian lady beetle has arrived in Minnesota.
Lady beetles are harmless insects and, despite the circumstantial evidence, do not reproduce indoors, Hahn says. They can, unfortunately, occur by the hundreds or thousands. Once they get into walls and other nooks and crannies, there are no practical methods to prevent them from coming out into the interior of homes. Spraying has essentially no effect on their presence indoors, Hahn says. Once they are seen, the best control is to physically remove them by hand or with a vacuum.
One possible alternative, if you've totally run out of tolerance, is capturing the lady beetles with a light trap. Dr. Louis Tedders, a retired entomologist from the USDA, has developed two light traps designed to capture live multicolored Asian lady beetles found indoors. The H&T 120 is designed to be placed in a corner or along a wall where it radiates a black light at a 120-degree angle towards the center of the room. The H&T 360 is designed to be placed in the center of a room where it radiates black light at 360 degrees. Both traps are the same size, although the H&T 360 is more effective in capturing lady beetles.
The traps are designed to capture but not to kill the lady beetles. The traps are coated with talcum powder so the beetles fall more readily into the lower portion of the trap. To maximize the traps' effectiveness, it is necessary for the room to be completely dark so competing light sources do not distract the lady beetles. Also, room temperatures should be at least 68 degrees and ideally be near 75 degrees. If it is cooler, the lady beetles are less likely to fly.
The H&T 120 sells for $98.50 and the H&T 360 for $125, plus shipping and handling. For more information, call 912-988-9412 or 1-877-967-6777 or write to H&T Alternative Controls, Box 1546, Perry, Georgia 31069. You can also order the light traps online at http://www.critterridders.com/ladybeetles.htm
Garden Fever Seminar a Hit
We had a terrific turnout at Garden Fever III, the Carver/Scott Master Gardener spring gardening seminar in Prior Lake. Stan Tekiela, local naturalist (not naturist, which Stan explained is someone who practices nudity) delighted the audience with his humor and insights into wildflowers. I took home a copy of Stan's book, Wildflowers of Minnesota, because the beautiful color wildflower photos will help me identify all the native blooming plants I've seen all my life but can never seem to identify. Actually, I was taught that many of them are "weeds," but they do have flowers that, when you study them closely, are colorful, attract insects, and I suppose have just as many rights to sunshine and rain as the flowers I buy at the garden center.
Here are several examples: Wood anemome (Anemone quinquefolia) blooms in the wild areas of my property in May before the leaves come out. Smooth Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) has 3-ft arching stems and produces dark berries. I nurture it to grow amongst my hostas and other shade plants. And creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) seems to pop up everywhere in my yard even though I know I never planted it. I've discovered it's about impossible to eliminate so I've just decided to appreciate its soft, blue, bell-shaped flowers.
If you don't have a copy of Stan's wildflower book, pick one up at a bookstore and carry it along this spring and summer as you take your nature walks.
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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
$10 + $2 for shipping
by Cliff Johnson |
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