Lady Bug, Lady Bug, Fly Away Home

I thought I was looking forward to Indian Summer. Those last few days of sunshine and warm temperatures before we plunge into those cold, gray, wet, and snowy days of late fall and winter.

But I was not alone.

Lady bugs (or Asian beetles or whatever the heck they are) were also anticipating the burst of sunshine to make their last ditch search for a winter home.

Thousands of lady bugs. Hundreds of thousands. Gazillions of lad bugs.

Apparently, they especially like log houses for all the nooks and crannies in which they can hide.

The swarm began Tuesday afternoon. The bugs looked like snow flurries outside, except they weren’t white and they didn’t simply fall down. They buzzed up, down and sideways. They started ticking against the windows of my office, which face south and receive all that sunshine. Then they started finding their way through the window frames, through cracks and gaps that I can’t see.

Obviously, my house is not airtight. Note to self: MUST CAULK BEFORE WINTER.

At first there were a few between the window panes. Then there were a few inside, on the glass. Then there were several dozen. On the curtains, on the walls, on the ceiling.

Flying into my head as I worked on my computer. Time to call it a day, I decided.

But Wednesday was worse. As soon as the sun came up, the swarm went into high gear. If we stepped outside, we had to squint and keep ours mouths shut tight. They got in my hair. They covered my clothes and had to swiped off before I could come inside.

And inside? Those several dozen turned into hundreds. Not just in my office, but in the living room and the bedroom, too. I spent the day armed with my vacuum cleaner. Xena the Warrior of the Lady Bug Battle armed with a sweeper hose and a crevice tool. I moved from room to room sucking those little speckled monsters up. But they poured in as fast as I vacuumed them up.

I filled up my vacuum cleaner TWICE. I dare say there had to be thousands of them. Gazillions of them. I’m amazed I didn’t have lady bug nightmares.

Today, I had the vacuum out again. But the numbers were much lower. Possibly due to a few clouds. Possibly because I’d wiped out a large part of the lady bug population.

Nah.

Now a little lady bug FYI. They stink like rancid peanut butter. Don’t squash them. The stench is why there are so many of them. Nothing eats them. They probably taste the same as they smell. They also bite. While they won’t aggressively come after you, if you happen to have one land on you and you accidentally pinch it, it will pinch back. OUCH!

Thankfully, the forecast is for cold and rain for the next few days. (Can you believe I just said that??? I can’t!) I’ll have a chance to get ahead of the game.

I hate lady bugs.