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We just celebrated Halloween, which seems to becoming one of our biggest holidays. Costumes are no longer made from items in your closets, with store bought ghost and cartoon character costumes now purchased at stores. Add to this the many outdoor decorations, which we have heard cost in the hundreds of dollars, all show that Halloween has become expensive.
However, I have not even mentioned candy. Recently, we attended the Sea Witch Parade held in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. In past parades, participants riding on the floats, threw candy into the crowds for the children. This year walkers alongside the floats dropped one piece of candy in the children's bags.
The amount of candy given out was greatly reduced due to the price of candy. One quarter of all the candy sold annually in our country is purchased for Halloween.
Nature has its own way of celebrating Halloween with an orange and black ladybug that makes a grand appearance in late fall. Because of its bright color and time of appearance, it has become known as the Halloween ladybug. If you are a homeowner and have been invaded by this Halloween ladybug, it can be quite upsetting. The correct name is the multicolored Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis).
This ladybug, which is a native of Asia, was introduced into the United States by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a biological control agent. This tree dwelling beetle is an important predator of aphids and scale insects. It was originally released in Pennsylvania in 1978 and 1981, however, the first overwintering beetles were not recorded until 1993.
It is possible that this beetle's population increase in Louisiana and northern states, such as Pennsylvania, might not have resulted from the earlier USDA releases, but thought to be from a new source that was accidentally introduced in New Orleans from an Asian freighter.
Adult multicolored Asian lady beetles were first observed in Pennsylvania during the fall of 1993. In that year, large numbers were found congregating on windows, doors and porch decks. Eventually, these beetles began invading homes during the months of September through April.
Once inside our homes these beetles triggered smoke alarms, crawled into bedding and drawers, squeezed beneath the blare screens of computer monitors, invaded office buildings, restaurants and food processing plants.
Multicolored Asian lady beetles are slightly larger than our native lady beetles. They are oval or convex in shape and yellow to red in color, with or without black spots on the wing covers. The spots on the beetles can vary in size and pattern and from having no spots to as many as nineteen. Their heads are usually concealed beneath disk-shaped covers, which are a cream to yellow in color and a black 'M' design in the centers.
The larvae, of the Asian lady beetles, are elongated, flattened and covered with minute tubercles or spines. The eggs, which are laid upright in clusters of about twenty, are oval and yellow.
In Pennsylvania, the life cycle from egg to adult takes about three to four weeks, depending on temperature and food abundance. There are multiple generations per year. The eggs are laid on the undersides of the leaves of low-growing ornamentals, forest trees, roses, wheat, tobacco, soybean and numerous other plants. They take from three to five days to hatch.
During the first 12-14 days after hatching, the larvae use their chewing mouthparts to feed on aphids. Adults emerge several days after pupation and can live for two to three years. A female produces several generations a year, laying up to 20 eggs in a day.
At the beginning of October, during a sunny and warm afternoon following a cold night, the multicolored Asian lady beetles congregate outside houses, sheds and other buildings in search of overwintering sites. The beetles are apparently attracted to the sunlight reflecting off the south or southwest-facing sides of buildings. The beetles enter cracks and crevices of these buildings to overwinter.
Females overwinter (without mating) along with the aggregate population. Mating occurs during the next spring.
On a warm and sunny winter's day, these dormant insects could awaken and enter the warmest part of your home, usually sunny areas, such as windows, and also try to move outdoors.
The greatest damage caused by the multicolored Asian lady beetle is the annoyance they give to homeowners. It is not uncommon for tens of thousands of beetles to congregate in attics, ceilings and wall voids, and eventually exit into the living areas of the home. They do not infest wood, destroy fabric, eat our food or damage property. They cannot sting and are not known to carry diseases; however, some are able to bite hard enough to break human skin.
In addition to beetles biting, which they do, they exude a foul-smelling, yellow defensive chemical that will sometimes cause spotting on walls and other surfaces. The secretion is the beetle's defense against birds and other predators. Some individuals have reported experiencing an allergic reaction to the defensive excretions.
Finally, the use of a vacuum is still the most efficient method of removing the beetles from the home. The major complaint for this method is that when the beetles become agitated the yellow, foul-smelling repellent is expelled and circulated into the air by the vacuum exhaust.
Be sure to empty the bag after each vacuuming.
There are over 6,000 ladybugs or ladybird beetles in the world, there are good beetles and bad beetles. Some have been associated with good fortune and protection in various cultures. In medieval Europe, farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help against pests, leading to the arrival of ladybugs that consumed harmful insects, thus saving crops.
Farmers would pray for ladybugs to arrive in their fields, which led to this children's rhyme.
"Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,
"Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
"All except one and her name is Ann,
"And she hid under the baking pan."
In medieval times, after a harvest the agricultural practice was to burn the field. Reciting this rhyme was to encourage ladybugs to leave a field before the farmer set the field on fire. Ladybugs were known to flee when the fields were set ablaze.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.