Good Question: What's Going On With All The Ladybugs?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Over the weekend, you might have been hit by a swarm of ladybugs. They were at golf courses, parks or just hanging out on the outside of homes.
There were so many outside on Saturday and Sunday that several of you emailed us wanting to know: What's going on with all of these ladybugs? Good Question.
"They would fly into you, they would land on you, they would be on your golf cart, they'd land on your golf ball," Kent Emerson of Oakdale said. "You name it, they were there."
Technically, the ladybugs flying around in large groups during the beautiful weekend are called multi-colored Asian lady beetles. They can be identified by the distinctive "M" marking on the top of their body.
"People who are really nerds call them beetles," Val Cervenka, a forest entomologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said. "The rest of the world calls them ladybugs."
Asian lady beetles were introduced to the southern United States in the 1960s through 1980s. By 1994, they made their way to Minnesota. Unlike native ladybugs, this invasive species tends to aggregate in a large numbers. During the warmer months, they feed on aphids, which threaten soybean plants.
"There's no predator for them, even birds won't eat them," Mike Misk with Rainbow Pest Experts said.
When the weather starts to cool, the Asian lady beetles make their way towards people's homes. They generally live in the insulation, walls and attics of houses during the winter.
"It's a trigger mechanism," Misk said. "With the colder nights, they know it's time to start looking for ways to come up into the structure."
But this past weekend's weather threw them for a loop and they went back outside – en masse – to catch those last few days of warmth.
"Can't blame them for that," Emerson said.
The Asian lady beetles can bite, as Emerson found out on the golf course in Hudson, Wis.
"It's more like a pinch," Cervenka said. "They're just seeing if you're edible or not."
When the first frost hits, the beetles go almost dormant while inside your home. Some will live and others will die there. For the most part, they're relatively harmless because they don't reproduce in the winter and don't eat your walls or wood.
"They are a nuisance pest, they do not damage our homes," Misk said. "The problem with them is that they just keep multiplying."
