asian beetles (ladybugs)

[travel-mum]

Those of you who live in the cities or small towns probably won’t be able to relate to this next story.

Those of us who live out in the country live it every day.

I’m talking about the recent explosion of the asian beetle population.

Ugh I hate those darned things! They congregate on light-filled windows, and buzz around your head. They fill up the floors of my house, and I seem to sweep up hundreds of the things every day. I flush them down the toilet, but a few minutes later I see their replacements in their death throes on my floor! My son told me I had a mine field of them!

I’ve done a lot of research on the subject, and there doesn’t seem to be any definitive way of getting rid of them.

So I came up with my own solution….

This might help you control the population of asian beetles in your home, but nothing will ever get rid of them, as far as I can tell.

My solution is very simple and inexpensive.

First, you need an empty water bottle for each window where they congregate. I’m talking about those individual bottles of water everyone buys themselves. I buy a few cases a year in the summertime, and keep the empties, so really they don’t cost me anything at all to use as asian beetle catchers.

First, you take the cap off and throw it away.

Then you cut off the top of each bottle. Cut it about 2 or 3 inches down from the bottom of the neck. Then you are left with two parts, the bottom and the top.

Fill the bottom with a couple of inches of water and a teaspoon of sugar. Replace the top, but this time put the top in the bottle upside down! You should then have a beetle catcher with a neck that goes down inside the bottle.

There you have it! Put the bottle in a sunny window and watch the asian beetles crawl down the neck and fall into the water. They are attracted there by the sugary water.

BUT, they can’t crawl out! The neck of the bottle is hanging in mid-air, and they can’t get back up there to crawl out.

Now, just check the bottle every few days, and dump the dead beetles down the toilet. Make sure you check it regularly, as sweetened, rotting, dead asian beetles look and smell gross!

BUT, if you check them regularly and replace the water/sugar mixture every time, your population of asian beetles should eventually be dramatically reduced. You’ll still have some crawling on some windows, or buzzing around your floor, but every beetle you catch in a bottle is a beetle you don’t have to sweep off the floor.

So try it and let me know if it works for you.

It didn’t solve all of my problems, but it’s a far better solution than the alternative, which is to learn to sweep my floors at least two or three times a day.

But I have better things to do!

[macw1960]

Glad I don't have this problem. Great idea though.

[dirtdog]

There is a product available at your garden centre. It is a bag with a pheramone in it that attract them. It does work and the bag does fill up with the little varmints and you are right it is really gross when they are in a gunky dead bunch. Those suckers just devour some of our roses. It's interesting, not every variety but the ones they do go for (white roses in particular as I recall from last summer) get decimated.
Will give your bottle idea a try. Thanks for the tip.

[Shwa Girl]

OP aren't ladybugs helpful?
are these the bugs you saw?

[terry2144]

OP aren't ladybugs helpful?
are these the bugs you saw?

I think there are 2 kinds...one is more red and good for plants and the other is more orange and nasty. This is what I've heard but never had a problem with them so I haven't researched. At one time you could purchase the helpful ones.

[dirtdog]

OP aren't ladybugs helpful?
are these the bugs you saw?

Asian Beetles are really destructive

[Zonny]

Yes, ladybugs are a different kind of beetle. They're more red and eat aphids, which eat roses. Both critters are in the same family.

[Shwa Girl]

thanks for clearing this up everybody
now I now the difference

[Zonny]

You can even buy ladybugs for the purpose of pest control. You buy them by the pound or something, I believe they come refrigerated so they're dormant. Let 'em warm up and you have a herd of ladybugs, ready to do battle with your aphids and spider mites! But one problem with this is, they apparently have a homing instinct. Once they're done with your pests, they'll start heading in the direction of home - which I think around here is largely southern Ontario.

Can you imagine buying a box of ladybugs on Amazon?
http://www.amazon.com/1500-Live-Lady...ywords=ladybug

[mulock]

Are they the same as these?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...omes-1.2799014

[Sunshyne1]

Asian beetles are more orange and generally have way more spots on them than a ladybug:

Asian Beetle

Lady Bug


Lady bugs are a very benficial insect to have in your garden, Asian beetles are just destructive

[Britanica]

Yea I was going to say Lady Bugs and Asian Beetles are two different things. I had a huge out break back in the states in the house I grew up in where there were 100's of dead ones all over the attic. It was so gross. Lady bugs are very bright red with a dark face.

[Sunshyne1]

and those little orange buggers can bite too! We rented a cottage one year and the windows were just COVERED in those little orange demons...we had to get the owner of the camp grounds to come down and use his shop vac to get rid of them.

[bridgetdevers]

Yes Lady bugs are different types. I dont think the one you have mentioned is a lady bug.