Common Name:
Ladybug or Lady Beetle
Scientific Name:
Various, Order Choleoptera
Description:
Lady Bug adults about 1/32″ to 3/8″ (.8 – 10 mm) long. Their shape is distinctive being broadly oval to nearly round, strong convex dorsally, nearly flat ventrally. Color red, orange, yellow, brown or shiny black lady beetle, usually with various marking including white spots; often bright yellow, red or orange with black markings or black with yellow, orange and red markings. Head is partly concealed from above with short to very short antennae. Larva look like flat alligators, often with numerous spines and/or wart like structures; usually blacking with some red, orange, or yellowish spots or bands. See the commonly colored lady beetle picture on the page.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Overwintering adults emerge from hibernation and the orange eggs are laid on end in single or multiple groups of 12 on plants infested with aphids (plantlice), mealybugs, scale insects, etc. Larvae pass through 4 molts. Mature larvae attach to leaves by the tip of their abdomens and pupate without forming a cocoon. Larvae and adults are predaceoous on aphids, mites, mealybugs and other soft bodied insects and their eggs, making them very beneficial insects.
Most Active Period:
In the autumn, lady bug beetle adults seek protected places in which to overwinter. These places may include under rocks, leaves and landscape timbers, but also inhabited structures. In the spring, emerging adults will occur in great numbers in or around window sills where they seek escape to their outside habitat.
Difficulty of Control:
Asian Lady Beetles are difficult to control without using exclusion. Moderate to control if exclusion is combined with perimeter treatments.
