Ladybugs usually put people in a positive mood, especially in organic gardeners. But when whole crowds invade the house, the love for the dotted lucky charms ends. How to protect yourself from such raids?
Ladybugs can easily be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner on the lowest setting
Why ladybug mass flights occur
Ladybugs have extremely positive associations in our culture: as lucky charms, garden helpers, child protectors or as messengers from the Mother of God. Your negative sides are highlighted less often. Especially in the time around the winter phase, the point beetles can also become unpleasant. There are two types of hibernation for ladybirds, each of which can be a burden in their own way when looking for winter quarters:
1. The species that overwinter with us
All ladybugs survive the winter as an adult insect. In order to look for suitable hibernation quarters, they like to get together with their conspecifics and look out together. More pairs of eyes now see more than just one, and the grouping together has the advantage that after the exhausting hibernation, it is not necessary to search for reproduction partners first. Ladybugs that hibernate here also like to gather in larger groups during the cold season. They can also get into the house and annoyingly accumulate in double frame windows, for example.
2. Rarer species that undertake long winter migrations
But there are also ladybird species that, like migratory birds, migrate far away to other climatic regions to spend the winter. They also get together in large groups and mostly travel along the coasts. During these strenuous hikes, which are often deadly for some individuals, they can be quite shaken - by wind, weather and the sea. Completely exhausted swarms of beetles can then become aggressive towards humans and bite out of necessity.
Measures against annoying ladybugs
If larger masses of ladybugs come into the house, you can do the following:
- Install insect screens in windows
- Keep windows and doors closed more often in autumn
- Seal cracks and crevices with silicone or tape
- Use the vacuum cleaner in a gentle (and specially primed) manner
To the vacuum cleaner method
If the beetles have already gotten into the house, you can grab them for the vacuum cleaner - but in order not to harm the animals when sucking up, put a (nylon) stocking over the suction tube and pull the end inwards. Suck the beetles into this soft collection bag at the lowest suction level and empty it some distance away in nature.