I love them in my garden. Not so much in my house. But of all the invertebrates that I could have suddenly invading my home -- I'd certainly prefer Ladybugs. I prefer them to roaches, ants, arachnids and flies. At least ladybugs stay mostly up high or around windows. They don't damage anything, and are not known to transmit human diseases. If you have them in your house now, it means that last fall, when they were looking for cracks to hibernate in, some found cracks that led into your home. But you likely didn't notice them then, because they were looking to hibernate, and once inside your home, quickly found cracks around light fixtures, windows and wood trim and remained there out of site until now. They have sensed the rising temperatures, and increased sunlight and are emerging ready for more activity, looking to feed -- except that now they find themselves trapped inside your home. For years I spent hours tediously attempting to collect them one by one into jars for release into my garden beds...but when their numbers reached into the hundreds -- with a new batch emerging day after day, this became untenable. But I have found a great solution which I'd like to share with you. A small hand held vacuum will allow you to suck them up quickly and without harm. Do not try this with a full size vacuum -- it is WAY too powerful -- even when I devised a contraption to fit over the end and to keep them from going all the way into the vacuum - they came out obviously dazed and I am not sure that they lived. But the hand held vac is perfect -- mine has a little filter inside that is very easy to open and gently tap them off -- right into my garden beds, and hoop houses. It's a win-win for all of us! By the way -- this photo doesn't really do the situation justice -- it didn't occur to me to photograph the first few days -- when the majority emerged -- I was too focused upon moving them outside. I have taken close to 1000 of them out -- these are just the stragglers. Below you can see a recent transport starting their new life in my garden.
