"hibb" wrote in message
...
On Jul 7, 1:47 am, Gil wrote:
hibb wrote:
On Jul 6, 6:15 pm, RicodJour wrote:
On Jul 6, 2:26 pm, hibb wrote:

My air conditioning went out this weekend on the hottest day of the
year so far. When the Tech checked out the problem, he found that one
of those damned lady bugs (that are not really lady bugs) that infest
this area every fall got into one of the contacts and shorted it out.
I guess they don't conduct electricity very well.
Cost me $77 for the service call but still cheaper and quicker to get
it running than I figured it would be.
Tell me more about these not-quite-a-ladybug-bugs. A friend is
innundated with lady bugs. I'd never seen so many in one place. Are
these some sort of newly-introduced to the US bugs?

R

I heard they were imported into Canada to eat other bugs on soybean
plants or some such thing. I am in lower Michigan and I went out to
the corn field out back of my property last year and got caught in a
swarm of them things so bad I could hardly breath without sucking a
bunch up my nose. We've been getting them bad every fall for the last
10 years.

The ones we have here bite and if you smash one them it stinks. My
wife says since they are not lady bugs and the bite and stink, then
they must be slut-bugs.

If I recall correctly, they were imported into the eastern US to control
aphids since the local ladybug population was in decline. I believe they
are Asian ladybugs. They have adapted well to North America and spread
like wildfire. It's not unusual to have the whole side of the house
covered with them on a sunny October day. They also crawl into every
nook and cranny they can find to over-winter.

Just another case of scientist doing something to alleviate one problem
and causing another. When will they ever learn!

Seems like people would have learned the lessons from Kudzu and
Starlings.


I believe what you are referring to are Asian Lady Beetles:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/lbeetle/