Wanting to learn how to get rid of Asian Lady Beetles is a common problem for many people this time of year.
Looking for a comfy place to wait out the winter, they often gather in large swarms around your home and sneak in by any nook and cranny they can shuffle through.
Because these Ladybug look-a-likes can be a menace (and they bite), this guide outlines exactly what this little beetle is and steps you can take for how to get rid of Asian lady beetles.
How To Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles: Asian Beetle Prevention Steps
If you have ever endured an all-out invasion and don’t want to experience it again, then you have to beetle-proof your house by following these easy steps.
- Inspect every inch of the exterior of your home for gaps, cracks, holes, or crevices larger than ⅛ inch and seal them with cement, foam, or silicone
- Fix door sweeps to the bottom of doors
- Seal around garage doors, windows, and entrance doors and fit screens where possible as a further precaution
- Any cables protruding from walls or plumbing pipes should also have a fresh silicone seal placed around them
While all these preventative steps won’t stop all Asian Lady beetles from getting inside, they should cut down their numbers significantly. But how to get rid of Asian Lady beetles once they have sneaked past all your defenses?
How To Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles: Pest Control for Asian Lady Beetles
Asian Lady beetles can quickly become a major annoyance in your home. If they invade your sanctuary as a horde in the hundreds or thousands, they can be a problem if you suffer from allergies or just don’t like bugs creeping and crawling in your kitchen, where they will eat your food, or in your bedroom, where they will snuggle up to you under the covers on cold nights.2
Using a vacuum is your starting point if you want to understand how to get rid of Asian Lady beetles, but just remember that when you’ve finished cleaning, take the vacuum outside to throw away the bag or empty the canister, or they will just crawl out and saunter back into your dwelling.
But there are a couple of homemade pest control tricks you can pull out of your sleeves, or the cupboard, to be more exact.
Homemade Spray To Kill Asian Beetles
There is something about the smell of lemons that Asian Lady beetles just don’t like.
The use of lemon wipes to clean surfaces will repel them, as will the scent of lemons from the Lemon tree in your backyard.
Purchase cleaning products with a lemony scent, burn oils, and mix water with lemon juice to use as a spray to help wipe them out.
How To Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles: Does Vinegar Kill Asian Beetles?
Part of the problem with Asian Lady beetles is that they create pheromones that lure more bugs to where they are currently hanging out and, even worse, encourage their buddies to return the following year. To mitigate that scent, vinegar mixed with water will erode those pheromones in the air and kill the beetles on contact.
When To Call Exterminator for Asian Lady Beetles (Lady Bugs)
Property owners are always concerned about exterminator prices when, after all their homemade efforts to eliminate their bug infestation, the little critters are still alive and well and don’t appear to be diminished in the slightest. Sometimes, the trick of how to get rid of Asian lady beetles needs to be left to trained specialists.
Not only will they resolve your ladybug problem, but they can also make you aware of other buglike interior space invaders such as silverfish, clover mites, pillbugs, June bugs, or earwigs. In one fell swoop and course of treatments, they can get them all.
Before hiring an exterminator, check their certifications and how long they’ve been in business, and ask for references.
You need to be assured that the consultant you contract to clean your home follows all the necessary Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), is a Board Certified Entomologist (BCE),3 or has the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) certificate.
If they have both that’s better. Having a recognized certification for your state is great too.
The more qualifications they have, the better. The products they will use will be more potent than whatever you can concoct yourself, and they will locate exactly where the best place is to administer them for maximum effect.
They will spray insecticides around all access points, recommend hanging insect light traps to attract and kill them before any more can enter in the future, and offer follow-up services. They charge anywhere from $100 to $300 per visit, but on average, the cost is in the region of $250, depending on the level of infestation.
How To Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles Permanently
Finding the right treatments for how to get rid of Asian lady beetles becomes harder the longer they are allowed to thrive.
Vacuuming is an instant and direct method, but it is very rarely a permanent solution.
For a few hundred dollars, you can hire a professional with years of experience dealing with all types of household pests, recognized certificates, and the know-how of the habits of these household invaders to clear your house of pests.
The Asian Lady Beetle
This species of ladybug was first introduced into the United States in about 1916, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that they were brought over in large numbers from Asia. They were imported to help control the population of aphids, scales, mealybugs, and other pests that were ruining the crops of hardworking farmers.
Unfortunately, other ladybug species, of which there are about 5,000 in the world, hopped on board the transport vessels uninvited and helped themselves to the buffet of feasting insects who were their prey. Insatiable, the small bugs did such a terrific job that very soon they outnumbered the surviving pests and became a nuisance themselves in rural areas when they started to spread far and wide across the country in the 1990s.
Asian Lady Beetle
(Harmonia axyridis)
- Description: They are oval with black patches on their red, orange, or yellow bodies, and are about ¼ inch long.
- Natural Habitat: They typically reside in forests, fields, woodlands, and backyards.
- Locations: The beetle is native to Asia but can be found in Canada, North America, Africa, and Europe.
Image Credit: jhenning (beauty_of_nature)10
As predators, they are generally seen as beneficial to the environment as they are a bio-method of eliminating harmful pests without causing any environmental damage or contributing to greenhouse gas emissions like the use of pesticides would. But, when the summer season comes to an end, the beetles get on the move as a marauding horde in late autumn and become even more of a nuisance as they search collectively for places to overwinter.
And your house can often be an easy target. And that’s when they become even more annoying.
Asian Lady Beetle Infestation
Asian Lady beetles hibernate as adults between the middle of September and the end of October, congregating in large numbers on the south sides of buildings and structures to soak up the last rays of sunlight before autumn.1
When the temperature outside drops in the autumn, these pests seek out any gaps in the shelter structure, and once inside, they settle down until the next spring.
During this phase, they don’t reproduce or lay eggs inside structures, so there’s no need to worry about them endangering humans, animals, or the house itself. However, they often go on walkabouts when a ladybug infestation is out of control and can often be found crawling up and down the inside of your windows, your walls, and even your ceilings if they start to feel at home.
Not dangerous to humans or pets, unless eaten accidentally, their presence can be annoying, and they need to be handled with care, or you will get a little warning that feels like a pinprick to leave them in peace. Keep bothering them or accidentally squashing them, and they can release a strong, unpleasant odor and leave a slimy, yellow smear that will stain anything it comes into contact with.
If this substance gets on your hand, avoid touching your eyes, as it has been known to cause conjunctivitis, and in some sensitive people, allergies can break out, so if handling them at any stage, immediately wash your hands before doing anything else.
Ladybug Look Alike (Bug That Looks Like a Ladybug)
The Asian Lady beetle can be recognized by a distinguished M on the nape of its head, and there are dozens of look-alike species in North America alone that can pass as the original and legendary aphid-hunter at first glance.
Here are some of Ladybug look-alikes.
- Seven-spot ladybird
- Two-spot ladybird
- Eyed ladybug
- Transverse ladybird
- Convergent lady beetle
- Thirteen-spot lady beetle
- Fourteen-spotted ladybug
- Pink-spotted lady beetle
- Twenty-spotted lady beetle
- Ten-spotted ladybird
Homemade treatments are fine and may work for some time, but if you need to know how to get rid of Asian lady beetles permanently, you can contact a professional.
Frequently Asked Questions About How To Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles
Do Ladybugs Bite?
If you’re wondering do ladybugs bite, the answer is sort of. Although they can give you a little nip if manhandled or surprised, it very rarely breaks the skin and feels just like a pinprick when these ladybugs bite.
Are Asian Lady Beetles Harmful?
No, Asian beetles are not harmful, but they can bite.
Is Diatomaceous Earth Effective Against Ladybugs?
Diatomaceous earth is an effective product when looking for substances for how to get rid of Asian Lady beetles for good.4 It is a powder that essentially absorbs moisture from the ladybugs so severely that they quickly die off.
References
1Frank, D. (2023). Asian Lady Beetles. WVU. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from <https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/pests/asian-lady-beetle>
2University of Puerto Rico SEPA STEM Asthma Awareness Program. (2023). Insects and Allergies. NATSCI. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from <https://natsci.uprrp.edu/sepaasthma/2023/04/19/insects-and-allergies/>
3Unity Environmental University. (2023). How To Become An Entomologist. UNITY. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from <https://unity.edu/careers/what-is-an-entomologist/>
4Schuh, M. (2023). What is diatomaceous earth? UMN. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from <https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/what-diatomaceous-earth>
5Hippodamia tredecimpunctata Enka Photo by Alciphron-Enka / CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Resized and Changed Format. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved January 4, 2024 from <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hippodamia_tredecimpunctata_Enka.jpg>
6Twenty-spotted Lady Beetle (Psyllobora vigintimaculata) Photo by Ryan Hodnett / CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed | Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Resized and Changed Format. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved January 4, 2024 from <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Twenty-spotted_Lady_Beetle_(Psyllobora_vigintimaculata)_-_Guelph,_Ontario_02.jpg>
7Asian Lady Bug How To Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles Photo by Skyler Ewing. Resized and Changed Format. Pexels. Retrieved January 4, 2024 from <https://www.pexels.com/photo/wet-harmonia-axyridis-ladybug-sitting-on-green-plant-stem-6333325/>
8Pest Control How to Get Rid of Asian Lady Beetles Photo by Arjun MJ. Resized and Changed Format. Unsplash. Retrieved January 4, 2024 from <https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-white-t-shirt-and-blue-denim-shorts-with-blue-backpack-walking-on-green-grass-792-GkRUtes>
9Homemade Spray to Kill Asian Beetles How To Get Rid of Asian Beetles Photo by CDC. Resized and Changed Format. Unsplash. Retrieved January 4, 2024 from <https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-white-long-sleeve-shirt-and-blue-denim-jeans-sitting-on-brown-wooden-fence-during-wz3ijPHvL54>
10Asian Ladybug Insect Leaf Photo by jhenning (beauty_of_nature). (2021, June 25) / Pixabay Content License. Cropped and added text, shape, and background elements. Pixabay. Retrieved February 16, 2024, from <https://pixabay.com/photos/asian-ladybug-insect-leaf-6364162/>
11Seven-spotted Lady Beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) Photo by Victor Heng / CC0 1.0 DEED | CC0 1.0 Universal. Cropped, Resized, Changed Format. iNaturalist. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from <https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/139007876>
12Two-spotted Lady Beetle (Adalia bipunctata) Photo by Victor Heng / CC0 1.0 DEED | CC0 1.0 Universal. Cropped, Resized, Changed Format. iNaturalist. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from <https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/139197577>
13Anatis ocellata (Oogvlek-LHB) on leaf 02 Photo by Pudding4brains / Public Domain. Cropped, Resized, Changed Format. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anatis_ocellata_(Oogvlek-LHB)_on_leaf_02.jpg>
14Fourteen-spotted Lady Beetle (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata) Photo by ruebezahl / CC0 1.0 DEED | CC0 1.0 Universal. Cropped, Resized, Changed Format. iNaturalist. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from <https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/111497431>
15Adalia-decempunctata-18-fws Photo by Francisco Welter-Schultes / CC0 1.0 DEED | CC0 1.0 Universal. Cropped, Resized, Changed Format. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adalia-decempunctata-18-fws.jpg>