Forget about ants! How do you get rid of Japanese lady bugs?

Question

They plague my Canadian house each spring. No amount of insect killer will work. They seem to multiply as fast as I can vacuum them up. They bite!

Answer 1

Same in Seattle. Those little beasts bite. OUCH. I found that if I put cucumber peelings on the doorways and window sills they stay away. Replace them once every three days.
Really cheap hairspray sprayed on them glues their wings together so if they can't fly which stops the mating ritual - they just really die of starvation, it works. That horrible Aqua Net spray. Terrible for your hair great ladybug birth control.

Answer 2

They are becoming a plague every where in North America. Insecticide will kill them if applied to the wall voids where they are hibernating. However.....

There is another native insect called a carpet beetle that feeds on almost any organic material, especially dead insects. These insects can become a clothing pest eating holes in natural fiber clothing (wool, silk, cashmere, cotton), a pantry pest infesting all grain based foods, and spices, and possibly damaging leather furniture. These beetles take from 8 months to 2 years to grow from egg to adults, so if you get an infestation it can take 2 -3 years to get rid of them again.

Some times, the vacuum is the best course of action. In the summer when all the lady bugs are outside eating aphids, go through your house and seal up around all the window casing, baseboards and the inside of doors to the outside. You cannot seal the house against the beetles, so you have to concede the walls to them and make sure the only way to get out of the walls is to the outside.

For more information on carpet beetles see this link.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7436.html

Answer 3

Lady bugs eat aphids, so just kill the aphids. Any place that sells stuff for roses will have plenty of aphid killing solutions. Once the aphids are gone, they won't have food, and won't be nearly so bad.

Get a jump start, and kill the aphids before the ladybugs start showing up next time. They'll move on pretty fast, and you can do the cucumbers, or whatever else these other folks suggest on the stragglers.