asian orange ladybugs

[emuman]

does anyone else have a problem with these "wintering" in your home?
every year when it starts to get cold out these guys want to come in and warm up, so I decided to make them earn their keep seeing as how spider-mites is like filet mignon to them, and they have been doing a fantastic job, they even clear off the webbing left by the mites, I cant even think of a down side to this, is there one?

 

[frogman71]

I get tons of ladybugs at my place, I live next to an organic pecan orchard and they utilize the bugs for pest control. If it is popular in organic horticulture than I would assume it would be beneficial for the home grower.

 

[emuman]

I used to be bothered by the fact that I have tons of ladybugs in my home, but a few years ago I talked to an exterminator and he said (as he scratched his belly) "well ya see... these guys dont pose any threat to peoples health or otherwise, just so long as you dont actually eat them, but if they get too out of hand I would sugest using a vacuum attachment, cause they'll stain your wall if you squash them" so that's what Ive been doing untill my recent encounter with mites, lately I just scoop them up and put them in my grow room, now every time I check my girls there are 10-20 ladybugs on each plus their on the lights and everything else in there

 

[legalize_freedom]

Alot of folks introduce ladybugs to their grow early before any other (bad) bugs colonize, I know that Soma is a big fan of ladybugs. I think the trick is to get them in before a problem exists though.

 

[Diversified]

Don't let them get out of hand. Where I used to live, the farmer would rotate between corn and soy beans each year. The years he planted soy beans, we would have thousands of them in our walls and all over our house. I was remodeling a room and when I tore the walls out, they were packed from side to side and top to bottom with them. In the spring when it would start to warm up, the sunny side of our house would be blanketed with them. You couldn't go sit outside because they bite. And when there are that many of them and they are all biting, it totally ruins a nice spring day.