Asian Lady Beetle Control

Vacuum when you first notice the beetles congregating. One efficient way to control Asian lady beetle populations around your home is the vacuum method. If you can get them when they are forming into a big group on the south-facing walls of your house, you'll have the best chance of taking them out. What a lot of people suggest is inserting a knee-high nylon stocking into the end of your vacuum hose and securing the open end around the outside of the hose with a tight rubber band. This will serve as a collection bag within the hose, which you can tie off and dispose of as you see fit.

Wash the area to get rid of pheromones. Studies show that the beetles secrete several substances when they are grouped together. The substances (pheromones, feces) attract other lady beetles, and this is partly why these insects aggregate as they do. The staying power of those substances is why the beetles seem to keep coming back to the same spot year after year—that and seasonal solar alignment. After you've removed all of the beetles, wash the area thoroughly with soapy water and a brush, then rinse with a hose. If beetles come back, you may need to repeat the process with a more potent soap.

Make your walls and siding beetle-proof. The reason these beetles are so interested in over-wintering in the walls of our houses is that in their native environment on the Asian continent, they like south-facing, light-colored stone cliffs. Our (usually) light-colored houses, with their vertical arrangement and their nooks and crannies, are a most convenient surrogate. Changing your house color seems like a pretty drastic step just for beetle prevention, but if you're in the market, maybe try a darker color. Seal up any gaps in the siding and any spaces around doors or windows with caulk. Also, fill any beetle-sized cracks in your foundation while you're at it.

Cover any holes or vents to prevent beetle entry. Asian lady beetles will also try to get into your house through ventilation holes in the roof and along soffit areas. Most of these ports will have mesh built into them, but it might not be small enough to prevent entry. Once you have filled the obvious gaps, you should make sure that they aren't entering through the vents. If they are, you need to buy metal window screening and seal those vents up. It would be prettier to do this from the inside or with a trim nailer, but a staple gun will do the trick as well.

Make sure your windows have screens. Go ahead and put this advice on the "duh" pile if you want, but I'm serious here. Make sure your windows have screens, that those screens don't have holes in them, and that they are inserted and aligned within the window frame properly (no gaps around the edges). When it comes time for the Asian lady beetles to find an over-wintering location in the fall, they will be shimmying their way into any space they can find. The same goes for the space around the window frame and window trim. Caulk tightly on the inside and outside to prevent unwanted beetle entry. It also cuts down on drafts.

Trap as many beetles as you can. Once beetles have established themselves for a season, they become difficult to get rid of in one fell swoop. During warm stretches in winter, beetles will be coming out of the woodwork. Notice that they are attracted to a couple of things: your windows, and any source of light. Use this knowledge to your advantage. They bounce around in your windows because of the light outside, so place sticky traps in locations like windowsills, and you'll catch a fair number of them. Light based traps are another option at night. There is more on that in the right sidebar.