Why Lady Bugs are Neither

Reader Contribution by Allan Douglas
Published on February 2, 2011
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If you live in or near a wooded area, you most likely play host to an unwelcome house guest every fall: lady bugs. 

It is interesting that this colorful and much celebrated insect is neither a bug nor always a lady.  Like anything that reproduces sexually, the species consists of both male and female, so some ladybugs are male!  And because ladybugs have biting mandibles for tearing their food, not the sucking mouthparts commonly found on “bugs” these creatures are more correctly classified as beetles.  Technically, the proper common name for these brightly colored, hard shelled flying insects is “ladybird beetle”, but it’s OK if you prefer to call them lady bugs; most everyone does.

Lady bugs are handy helpers in the garden because both the hard shelled adult and the alligator head shaped larva are voracious eaters of aphids, scales, whiteflies, mealybugs, thrips, mites, caterpillars and beetle larvae.  In fact a single lady bug can consume 5000 of these pests in its lifetime.

Native American lady bugs are not much of a nuisance, but the Asian lady bug which was deliberately introduced into the United States by the U.S.D.A. to control certain pests, such as the hemlock woolly adelgids, which has been decimating the old growth hemlock trees of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, have bred, spread and become something of a pest themselves.  Not only do they displace the native and more beneficial ladybird beetles, but these lady bugs swarm in the fall and invade homes in large numbers.  They emit a nasty smelling liquid when disturbed and will bite humans.  Generally these beetles are a red-orange color with black spots, but the easiest way to identify them is the black M shaped spot pattern on white background just behind their heads. 

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