by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: March 25, 2012

"Ladybug, ladybug, fly away, you better leave if you're biting today!"

I couldn't believe it. A "ladybug" stretched out her wings, and bit me. It was a couple of years ago. I was insulted. I had never had that happen before. The truth is, I was bitten, but it was not by one of our beautiful ladybugs.

Actually, North American ladybugs do NOT bite at all. They are kind of cute, they may land upon you, look like little red or orange jewels and walk around on your skin. In doing so, the little spurs on their legs might feel a bit scratchy, but true Ladybugs act like ladies, they do not bite.

Unfortunately, North American Ladybugs are getting a bad reputation for biting because of the less lovable habits of a late-coming pretender. The beetle that bites is an imported look-a-like, a multi-coloured , spotted beetle that does look very much like a Ladybug.

The multi-coloured Asian Lady beetle , (Harmonia axyridis) (1) , also called the Asian Ladybird beetle, Halloween beetle, or multi-coloured Asian ladybug, is not native to North America . They were imported from Northeastern Asia in the early 1900's for agricultural purposes, specifically to eat and control aphids, also known as "plant lice" and other soft-bodied pests in pecan and fruit orchards. They have also been discovered to eat soybean aphids, so it's a handy agricultural beetle. Asian Lady beetles were introduced initially into the State of California, but have now spread across the United States and into Canada, even into Northwestern Ontario.

Unfortunately, Asian Lady beetles do bite people; but to be perfectly accurate, only some of them bite. They tend to bite quite hard; you will undoubtedly know if you are bitten by an Asian Lady beetle. The appearance of these beetles is quite variable. They come in several colours, from pale, almost mustard yellow -orange to a significantly bright orange with black polka-dots. They even come in black. The variation in colour and number of spots (which may be none to as many as twenty) does seem to make any difference. If they have a distinguished "M" or "W" on their pronotum, the area behind the head, they are Asian Lady beetles, and you can be assured, some of them do bite! Some people are also slightly allergic to them, but for the most part, the beetles are harmless.

Asian Lady beetles swarm and do tend to enter buildings by any means possible to hibernate for the winter. In sufficient numbers, they can make a mess, be quite annoying, and they do give off an unpleasant, foul odour if threatened as a self-protection process called reflex bleeding'. They do not transmit any known disease, so they are more nuisance than anything.
Not to worry, they'll move out in the spring!

So, it is true that ladybugs bite, - but only the imported ones! That makes me feel much better.

1. http://www.ipm.msu.edu/beetleFAQ.htm#1

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