Ladybug bites
I swear that I'm getting bites from ladybugs which are in my house but my husband thinks I'm crazy. Can you tell me if they bite and what I can do to get rid of them?
Ladybugs most certainly do bite! We've been told this from customers ever since we opened our doors almost 20 years ago. Though most people think of ladybugs as being a beneficial insect, the Asian Lady Bug can be a nuisance pest as described in our Asian Ladybug Control article. Once inside, you'll have to treat with the PHANTOM AEROSOL get their numbers down till the spring. At that point you should do a good liquid treatment with the Cypermethrin to get them as they leave the structure. This will cut down on the numbers that return the following fall. At that time you'll need to treat again to keep them from coming back inside where they'll want to hibernate and harass you all winter. Asian Ladybug bites will happen as you encounter them during this time so keeping them out in the fall is key. And in some cases it will take 1-2 years to completely be rid of them once your home is infested so hopefully you don't have that bad of an infestation just yet.
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Comments on Ladybug bites
guest @ 8:17 am
Do you have a picture or explaination of what a bite looks like? My husband has a boil type bite on him that we are wondering if this is what it is. We do have them in our house.
admin @ 8:31 am
@guest: As a general rule, it's not possible to identify the type of insect involved that may have caused a bite based on the bite itself. There is no data for this nor is it soon to happen. The main reason is that people in general can have such a wide range of reactions. In fact, some of my family members can be bitten by fleas, mosquitoes and biting horse flies without any trace or evidence to suggest they were bitten. I happen to get large welts that itch when bit yet they can let these pests bite and feed without any damage being done? My two brothers can actually let mosquitoes and horse flies feed on them to such a degree the bugs will burst full of blood and essentially kill themselves! Yet there is nothing on their skin afterwards but a bloody insect mess? Bizarre yet true. And because the Dr's and scientists have found this wide range of results in both the human and animal population following insect bites, trying to label and then use such labels as a way to identify the insect involved is just not possible.
Now when you move to the "newer" pests like an Asian Lady bug, the data becomes even more limited and basically impossible to decipher. There are still many people (most people polled in fact) who would be surprised to hear a ladybug can bite let alone make a mark or cause a reaction. So at this time it's safe to say there is no data available to make a conclusive determination as to what could have caused the lesion your husband has developed. That being said, we know from customers calling and telling us that in fact they have a had a wide range of reactions including the following:
** Breathing difficulties when infestation gets bad
** Detectable odor that makes them sick
** Bad taste from the dust and feces left behind by active ladybugs
** Bite marks, blisters, pus oozing wounds, itching and rash
But thus far no reports of "boil type" reactions. Let us know if you find out something conclusive that confirms in fact a ladybug caused this malady and we'll add it to the above list.