Informal survey: ladybug oddities?

From: "Kathy Kempf" wont_read101 at hotmail.com> on 2002.04.27 at 03:27:06(8657) I am taking part in our local university's study about Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles. Anybody else in the country/world notice ladybugs acting odd in the fall? They were released in the midwest several times in the past couple of decades to try to help control aphids in hardwood forests. Trouble is, they swarm and try to find places to hibernate. Since they can't find cliffs as in their native habitat, they are infesting people's houses by the hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands here in the American midwest. I know they have penetrated into central Indiana, but not yet into western New York (Buffalo area). They also bite, and increasing numbers of people are having allergic reactions. +More These look very similar to native American ladybugs; they are colored from dark to light orange, with varying numbers of black spots. For more information, check out the Ohio State University IPM site at www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ipm/ I am not a researcher with this group, just a participant. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.

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