Ladybug Invasion is about how this Architect company has developed methods for dealing with insect infestations proactively.
While there doesn’t seem to be many sources online for dealing with ladybugs, this Architect has learned how to effectively prevent ladybugs from invading and infesting your house (along with stinkbugs):
1. Hire a Licensed Architect to design your house.
2. Your Architect will hopefully specify liquid foamed-in-place wall insulation.
3. Your Architect will hopefully specify and detail high-quality long-lasting sealant for your Contractor to inject into all the joints around all the doors and window trims and other trim where bugs could otherwise obtain access into the house.
4. You should have a State-Licensed professional pest service spray human & pet safe insecticide around the exterior of your house, including on porch decks and around all doors and windows about every 3 months.
And while we’re at it, the other flashings and tight-jointed details your Licensed Architect details into your residential projects ought to help a great deal with helping keep out other creepy-crawlies.
(and this photo is just for fun: of course ladybugs are not this big)
Why all this fuss?
Well, in western North Carolina, there is a yearly ladybug invasion, along with stinkbugs. The doggone things suddenly appear (as they did today, 10/27/2019 at about 11AM) in the thousands, swarming nearby houses, crawling everywhere, looking for cracks and crevices in which to get inside.
While ladybugs sound harmless, any unwanted living creature roaming free in someone’s house generates fecal matter and they have to feed on something. So: it is unsanitary. And creepy, to see a bunch of bugs crawling around. So: it’s really not funny. And when there are dozens or hundreds or thousands, that can turn into a horror show. Not nice.
The steps to the solution above have worked well for this Architect in his own new house.
BOTTOM LINE: dozens of ladybugs got into the Architect’s house when it was under construction, before the sealant was added and before professional pesticides were used and before the house was completely and totally cleaned properly.
Now that all of those things have been done (a year later), the number of ladybugs that made it past the Architect’s fortifications today was about 6 (out of around 2,000 that swarmed outside).
Solution: a Black & Decker handvac, which has enough suction to suck the chrome off a bumper. Then emptied down a toilet and flushed. Problem solved.