A few weeks ago, Weinberg junior Katie Gross couldn’t get enough of ladybugs. She has four ladybug stuffed animals, several key chains, some picture frames and a penholder.
But Gross isn’t so fond of the insects anymore. In fact, she has her mind made up: “I hate ladybugs,” she said.
“Our room is full of them and at softball practice they’re all over us,” said Gross, a Gamma Phi Beta sister, whose sorority mascot, incidentally, is the ladybug. “When I was riding my bike, one actually hit me in the face.”
Along Sheridan Road, inside dorms and on the Lakefill, groups of Harmonia axyridis, a ladybug species commonly known as Asian ladybird beetles, are gathering to find a warm home for the winter, said Daniel Summers, an entomologist at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Summers said the beetles were introduced in the southern United States in the early 1990s during a bio-control experiment meant to eliminate tree pests called aphids.
“The Asian ladybird beetle has done exceptionally well here in the U.S.,” Summers said. “Like most introduced species, the population tends to explode due to a lack of predators they would normally encounter where they are from.”
What makes the Asian version of the beetle different from the true ladybug is its color — a tawny orange — and its ability to bite.
And that’s what made Weinberg sophomore Matt Goloback change his opinion of the beetles.
“I used to think they were good luck and I liked them,” he said. “But now I’ve changed policies, and I kill them.”
The beetles gather by the thousands and hibernate in warm places over the winter. But Summers said they are more likely to settle under a log or in a pile of rocks than in a dorm room.
And although they will be dormant for the winter, Summers said the biting beetles will stay.
“It’s going to be a seasonal problem every year,” he said. “But they’re just tiny beetles. There are 200 million insects for every person on this planet. That’s 20 tons for every man, woman and child. So just think of these beetles as part of your bug portion.”
