Sometimes referred to as the Halloween lady beetle because of their orange coloring and coinciding occurrence in late October, the multicolored Asian lady beetle population has been a nuisance to Miami University students in past years - including this one.
Sophomore Maribeth Ramella had problems as a first-year with lady beetles but saw a significant increase this year.
"They infested my room, (and) they were on my bed," Ramella said. "They actually all left, and we don't know where they went."
Ramella said they entered through cracks between her windows.
"We had a lot more this year, we had a ton, probably like 50," Ramella said.
Junior Christina Miller recalls having the lady beetles in her dorm during her first year.
"We had a big problem with the ladybugs right around this time," Miller said. "We had no idea what was going on - we had never experienced anything like that before."
Miller said her resident assistant told them to turn off their air conditioning and they eventually just went away. Miller had no problems last year living in an apartment.
Ladybug is the more universal term for this insect, but either way these beetles' abundance (or absence) is unpredictable each year, according to Joe Boggs, horticulture specialist for the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and extension agent for Hamilton County.
"To be honest I don't know if we have all the answers to come up with a predictive model to be able to say this is going to be a bad year or not a bad year," Boggs said. "Some years (the beetles) are virtually not a problem, other years they are."
The United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service released lady beetles in several states including Ohio to control tree-destroying pests. They released approximately 1,800 lady beetles in Cuyahoga and Lake Counties during June 1979 and July 1980, according to the OSU extension fact sheet on multicolored Asian lady beetles. Now, lady beetles are well established in the U.S.
Boggs said he first became aware of the lady beetle problem 10 to 12 years ago after receiving phone calls from residents complaining about the beetles in their homes.
"The early phone calls that I got were unbelievable," Boggs said.
Boggs explained lady beetles overwinter, similar to how bears hibernate, causing distress to homeowners when they enter homes. He originally thought the phone calls were a "phobic response."
"In Asia they overwintered in rock crevices," Boggs said. "Homes appear to look that way to them."
At the end of summer and beginning of fall, Boggs said lady beetles binge eat to prepare for overwintering. They are cold-blooded and their metabolisms will begin to burn fat when warm - which is why they search for pseudo rock crevices in residence halls (in Miami students' case) and homes. When temperatures fall, the lady beetles can't move, but increasing temperatures can bring them back out.
"The ones that arrive at your house during this warm spell - those are going to be the ones that are going to be with you," Boggs said. "You can have a warm day in January and these things might start coming down the vents. (They are) not continuing to arrive at the home."
The lady beetles tend to congregate in dark, secluded corners inside the home (commonly in attics and basements), after they have slipped through cracks in windows or siding, according to the fact sheet.
There won't be a lot of beetles throughout the winter in residence halls, Boggs said.
"This (period of time) will probably be the worst," Boggs said.
Nevertheless, the lady beetles are at Miami, and there are things students can do to get rid of them.
The fact sheet advises using duct tape or vacuuming with a nylon sock instead of a vacuum bag to capture them. Insect trapping devices and interior pesticides are other options.
Boggs cautions these insects do have a foul odor.
"These are insects that eat other insects," Boggs said. "They do stink … their blood smells bad. If you smash them … it's a bad result."
Boggs said the university could work on sealing cracks in windows, but suggested it's not a priority expenditure with the limited budget.
"(They don't need to) suddenly spend a bunch of money because it's not a catastrophic event - it's a nuisance," Boggs said.
More information can be found at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hse-fact/1030.html.
