About this time last year, my house was overrun with Asian Lady Beetles. Thousands and thousands of the little buggers were living in our walls, having landed on our east-facing wall en masse one day the previous October, and hundreds emerged each day to bash themselves against the windows, fill our light fixtures with their carcasses, crawl on us while we slept and turn up in our laundry, food, and lace our carpet with their crunchy exoskeletons. Worst of all, they bite and they’re allergy-inducing among 50% of the population. They all disappeared in a single day come spring.
This time around, I was not willing to suffer through them again. I talked to the extension agency in September and spent hours researching how to do battle with them. They swarmed the house on October 31. I requested advice, hatched a plot, and put it into effect the following day. Now that it is March, I can crow that my defense against the lady beetles was entirely effective — I can count on two hands the number of live lady beetles I’ve seen in the house.
Here’s what worked:
- Covering the entire east-facing wall of the house (the sunniest wall) with a huge blue tarp. They’re drawn to rock outcroppings, so a non-rock-colored tarp that waves in the breeze is not attractive to them.
- Liberally spraying both the tarp and the wall with bifenthrin. Spraying the wall behind the tarp was helpful for the few buggers that did slip around. I didn’t spray the whole wall, just the edges around windows, the roofline, and any other potential point of entry.
- Spraying the inside of the windows and the sills with bifenthrin, so that the few that did make it in die as soon as they crawl out. A few more beetle corpses appear every week.
Here’s what didn’t work:
- Standing guard with a garden hose and spraying them off of the tarp and the wall. They’re all back on the tarp within just a few minutes — it’s a Sisyphean task.
- Trying to seal up the gaps in the house with caulk and Great Stuff. There are way too many gaps — it’s a task that would take many days for somebody far more competent than I.
- Yelling and shaking my tiny fists.
Last winter we had waves of critters. We’d have dozens of one type of insect around for a few weeks, and then another type for a few weeks, and so on. This winter we’ve escaped that. I suspect it’s the magic of the bifenthrin. We’ve had dozens of grain weevils drown themselves in our humidifier, but I figure if that’s as bad as it gets, we’re doing pretty well.
Waldo: 1
Lady Beetles: 0
There should be a special award for using “Sisyphean” correctly in a sentence. I genuflex before you. :)
Congrats, oh mighty Waldo, champion of the beetle slayers. May this glory last, and your house remain infestation free for many great years. I go now to sing songs and tell stories of your mighty work!
How was that? Too melodramatic? Damn, I always screw that up, especially when I go into the whole Bard thing.
Anyways, congrats, dude!
Yes, special bonus points for using Sisyphean correctly in context. Amazing. Now I challenge you to use the story of the Illiad correctly in an analogy to your struggle with the lady beetles! Bonus points if you can use the Aeniad as well. Ha! :)
As a side, you probably wouldn’t want to seal every gap in your house anyways – it increases the residence time of air in your house. In layman’s terms, less air gets in, less air gets out. Helps with heating and cooling costs, but if you have allergies it’s a killer (especially if you have to use something like a humidifier). Its one of those not often talked about trade offs for energy effeciency – you make the house more effecient, you effectively seal yourself inside with all of the associated allergiens and toxic fumes (from carpets, wood floors, electronics, etc).
I can’t get even close without resorting to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Negative points for a movie based on the wrong story?
There’s no danger of that in this case. :) When the wind blows outside, the wind blows inside.
It’s not nice to talk about George Allen’s head like that….
I haven’t seen “O Brother…” (been meaning to); so you’ll forgive me for lack of understanding. I think a good Illiad analogy would be you as Achillies (you like where this is going already right?) who gets consumed by anger at the Trojans (lady beetles) who killed your cousin (infested your house). You should build a chariot and drag a bag full of beetles around your house nonstop for a week. Now that’d be classic. You could even use a lawn mower as a charriot. Just don’t tell your neighbors; they lock you up for even thinking stuff like this, trust me.
“O Brother …” is a great movie, and its political humor is wonderful as well. The best is the exchange between Pappy O’Daniel and his son about his opponent’s use of “re-form.” The “yes-men” advisors are great too.
Congratulations, Waldo: you did what was thought impossible (at least by me). I still object to the pesticides because I’d rather have the little buggers crawling around than expose my little rugrats to the poison. I opened the windows the other day and they all flew out. It was wild. And the smell is almost gone too. :-)
It’s my theory that the organic eggs, milk, meat, produce, etc. balances out the pesticides. :)
Shake your fists harder son!