Know which variety of these beetles are good for your garden, and the ones that aren’t
Have you ever noticed that we tend not to think of the nuisances in life until they crop up? When we are feeling good, we forget what it feels like to be sick. When we are cold, we cannot imagine how it feels in a summer heat wave.
Same with insects. During the summer months we are plagued with mosquitoes, ants, deer flies and the like. Come winter and we have all but forgotten what it was like to have to protect ourselves from insects in summer. As we approach the end of winter, we remind you that bug season is just around the corner.
BUDDING BUG SEASON
It is likely that your first reminder that insect season is about to pounce will be the arrival of Lady Bugs indoors. Come March, we will be overwhelmed with questions about these colourful little creatures. It was not always so.
As a kid, we were told not to harm Lady Bugs as they did a lot of good in the garden. All of that changed about 10 years ago with the arrival of the Asian Lady Beetle. Imported by well-intentioned people, the Asian Lady Beetle was ‘brought in’ in an attempt to use integrated pest management on a rather persistent aphid problem in soybean crops. These bugs have a voracious appetite for aphids, consuming up to 270 of them in one day.
We are sure that it seemed like a good idea at the time. However, no one thought to check these beetles out to see if they hibernate indoors over winter, multiply in biblical proportions or if they bite. All of which, they do.
WARM HOUSE MEANS AWAKENING BUGS
As the temperatures in your home rise and as days grow longer, the lady beetles that have hibernated in your home since last fall will awaken and begin to make ‘whoopee’ in the dark corners of your house. During the day, they will move towards the sunshine, that is why you find many of them on windowsills this time of year.
Controlling the Asian Lady Beetle is not difficult for the most part. When you see large congregations of them, vacuum them up and be sure to clean out your vacuum the same day or they will just crawl out and go back to being a nuisance. Sometimes they smell odd when you vacuum them. This is their natural reaction to being disturbed and the smell will go away.
We do not recommend that you step on them or otherwise squish them as they ooze yellow stuff that smells even worse. Besides, you could end up with a yellow smear on the wall or floor that is not easy to clean up.
Control for lady beetles may be achieved with the use of white-powdered silicon dioxide. Green Earth makes a product called Slug and Bug Killer Dust that can be used around pets and children to control many household pests. Apply it on the sills of windows, along the exit through sliding doors and anywhere that they tend to congregate.
One last thing on Lady Bugs. The Asian variety (Harmonia axyridis) should not be confused with the three ‘good guys’ that are native to our land. The 7 Spotted Lady Beetle, Oval Lady Beetle and the Pink Spotted Lady Bug are great friends to the gardener and farmer. They too will consume nasty bugs like aphids, scale and other sucking insects that otherwise can do a lot of damage.
One last word on the new bug season that is ahead of us: the vast majority of bugs in your garden are beneficial. They play a vitally important role in the decomposition of raw, organic material and the general renewal of your garden each spring. For the most part, we welcome them into the garden each spring. The aforementioned bugs excepted.
Mark Cullen is a Member of the Order of Canada. He reaches more than two million Canadians with his gardening/environment messages every week. Receive his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com Ben Cullen is a professional gardener with a keen interest in food gardening and the environment. You can follow both Mark and Ben on Twitter (@MarkCullen4), Facebook ( facebook.com/MarkCullenGardening/ ) and Instagram ( instagram.com/markcullengardening/ ).