Since the fall and winter cold has been creeping in on Athens, orange beetles have been congregating inside and outside buildings, attempting to escape from the frigid temperatures. Students have reported Asian Lady Beetles inside their dorms and apartments.
These Asian Lady Beetles, or Harmonia axyridis, were introduced to U.S. soil to control aphids and other small bugs, according to the Pennsylvania State University Extension Office. These bugs can appear in shades of red and orange, and leave behind a foul-smelling yellow secretion when agitated or squished, which can stain furniture and walls.
The beetles have been known to bite, but they are not aggressive in nature and the bites are described as a slight pinching.
Ellynn Wellbaum, a junior studying social work, said she has woken up to a beetle pinching her face.
Wellbaum said she has been bitten a couple of times and finds the handfuls of beetles crawling up her walls unsettling.
She said she has never encountered the beetles anywhere else she has lived, such as in her home in Dayton or in Athens before this year. She believes they are making their way in through her window, which is not sealed tight enough to keep them out.
“I've never kind of experienced this before,” Wellbaum said. “I feel like it’s so out of the ordinary. They have just been completely taking over my room. When I am just out and about doing my thing, they just land on me, especially outside of my apartment, and then they get into my car, and then sometimes they bite, and I don't know what to do about them.”
Her apartment complex, University Courtyard, sent out a notice about the Asian Lady Beetles to all residents, stating they were aware of the beetles and were “taking steps to help manage it.” However, Wellbaum said she still sees the bugs, even after Athens’ first snow.
Emma Hull, a freshman studying journalism and sociology-criminology, said the Asian Lady Beetles have been infesting her dorm for at least a week and a half. She believes they are also getting in through her windows at True House.
“They’ll crawl on my pillow at night, and I found 35 in one day,” Hull said. “One of them fell on my face while I was sleeping.”
Hull stated she vacuums up the orange beetles, which is something Scott London, the owner of Southern Ohio Pest Management, highly recommends.
London said the beetles are around all year, but become most invasive in October to mid-November when looking for places to harbor and keep warm.
London said the Asian Lady Beetles are sometimes attracted to lightly colored homes, and has seen many of them inside homes this year.
The liquid secretion from these bugs can sometimes make people sick and have allergic reactions, and there have been cases where this secretion has made asthma worse, according to Poison Control.
“We're finding a lot of people have large reactions, asthmatic stuff, due to the assist rate secretion that they cut off,” London said. “Not everybody, but we find people going to the hospitals more regularly due to secretions.”
London said the bugs will harbor in one’s house all winter and will stay there until spring. The bugs will crawl through cracks to find heated areas and will emerge from the walls once the sunlight begins to heat the house.
To effectively manage Asian Lady Beetles, London suggests that preventative treatment and spraying can be helpful, though it may not eliminate all of them. Once they appear, the most effective removal method is to vacuum them up.
