Why Is There A Lot Of Ladybugs In My House? Stopping Ladybug Swarms

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How Do Ladybugs Mate

If you suddenly find a lot of ladybugs in your house, it is likely they are trying to find a space to overwinter. While they don’t cause much harm, let us look at some ways to get rid of them.

While ladybugs are cute and great to have around gardens and houseplants, a ladybug infestation inside your home isn’t something you’d be looking forward to. 

Depending on the exact species, a female ladybug can lay more than 1,000 eggs within a period of one to three months. 

Even though they don’t lay eggs inside homes, they can multiply quickly, and soon your home may end up with too many ladybugs for your liking. 

If you’re wondering why there are so many ladybugs in your home and how you can get rid of them, let’s dive right into it.

Why Is There A Lot Of Ladybugs In My House

Why Are There So Many Ladybugs in My House?

Finding ladybird beetles in your home might seem a little odd. They are mostly outdoor bugs that spend most of their time in gardens or other outdoor areas with plenty of prey. 

However, indoor ladybug infestations are more common than you think and usually begin at the onset of winter.

Being cold-blooded insects, native ladybugs need to overwinter in a warm place protected from the cold temperatures outside. 

This is what drives them indoors, where they cluster up to spend the winter together

Even a single ladybug getting into your home can attract more by secreting pheromones and eventually building a colony.

Why Are There So Many Ladybugs on My Porch?

If you suddenly have a large number of ladybugs on your porch, it’s likely because they have found a food source nearby. 

Check your houseplants for aphids or other pests – that’s a good reason for ladybugs to swarm your porch. It’s not necessarily a bad thing unless the ladybugs decide to hunker down in your home during the cold months once they’re done with the pests. 

After all, they’re helping save your houseplants from pests that damage them.

Why Is There A Lot Of Ladybugs In My House
Squash Lady Beetle

How To Repel Ladybugs Naturally

Generally speaking, you should avoid killing ladybugs or forcing them to move out, especially if you have a garden. 

However, too many of them can indeed prove to be a nuisance. In case the infestation is getting out of hand or causing much trouble, you may take up these steps to repel the bugs:

1. Light traps

This is a great way to remove ladybugs from your home without harming them. You may either buy a ladybug-friendly trap or make one at home using a plastic bottle and an LED light. 

Once you catch the bugs, you can release them back outside.

2. Sweeping

Simply sweeping up the ladybugs onto a dustpan and relocating them outside is an even simpler way to go about it. 

Alternatively, you can also gather them up using a vacuum cleaner and empty the bag outdoors. 

Once you have removed them, clean the area with soap and water to remove any chemical traces that they may have left to attract more ladybugs.

3. Duct tape

In case the ladybugs are congregating in an area from where you can’t sweep or pick them off, duct tape would prove useful. 

Simply wrap the duct tape around a finger and use it to pick up and relocate the bugs. 

In this regard, don’t forget that you can also use strips of duct tape as traps by leaving them in the open to catch ladybugs.

Why Is There A Lot Of Ladybugs In My House
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

4. Natural repellants

Various herbs and essential oils like citronella, bay leaves, lavender oil, cloves/clove oil, etc., make excellent natural repellants. 

Placing these herbs around your home or spraying a diluted solution of the essential oils in areas where the bugs tend to group up can help you repel them. 

You can also plant mums – ladybugs hate the smell of this plant.

5. Dish soap

If you have no choice but to kill the ladybugs, you may spray them with a solution of soapy water. Alternatively, you could also leave a bowl of soapy water near a light source that can draw the ladybugs to it.

6. Diatomaceous Earth

This is another effective way to eliminate ladybugs naturally. 

Diatomaceous earth is a white powder that kills insects by dehydrating them and absorbing the fats and oils from their cuticles. 

Sprinkling them at common entry points and existing colonies will help get rid of existing colonies and prevent new ones.

How To Treat Ladybug Infestation

Although you should generally avoid using chemical pesticides at home, a large-scale ladybug infestation might not leave you much of choice. You may use the following to treat ladybug infestations:

  • Direct contact aerosols: One of the quickest ways to kill ladybugs is to spray them with direct contact aerosols that contain 0.50% pyrethrin. Some aerosol sprays also come with special applicators to help treat infestations in cracks and crevices.
  • Residual insecticides: These insecticides are useful if you can’t access and treat the ladybug colony directly. Residual insecticides that have Lambda-cyhalothrin as an ingredient are particularly useful against ladybug infestations.
  • Insecticidal dust: You can use insecticidal dust for direct contact treatment as well as residual control. The dust can spread through wall voids and plumbing to reach infested areas deep inside.  

The same treatment methods are also effective against Asian ladybeetles, which invade homes more often than ladybugs and cause much more trouble. 

It’s easy to mistake Asian ladybeetles for native ladybirds or vice versa, as both range from yellow to red and have similar black spots.

Why Is There A Lot Of Ladybugs In My House
Ten Spotted Lady Beetle

How To Keep Ladybugs Out of Your House?

If you don’t see ladybugs setting up a colony in your house, it’s best to take precautionary steps beforehand:

  • Install screens on your windows and repair any holes in your existing window screens.
  • Attach door sweeps under all the doors so the ladybugs cannot crawl through.
  • Inspect your home carefully for cracks and holes that ladybugs can use as access points and seal them.
  • Before bringing outdoor plants indoors, check them carefully for ladybugs (or any other bugs, for that matter).
  • Check your window frames and door frames to make sure they’re sealed.

You should be especially careful during late fall and the beginning of winter when ladybugs start looking for warm and safe places to cluster up. 

Besides ladybugs, these steps will also help you prevent other, more harmful pests from infesting your home.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do I Keep Seeing Ladybugs?

It’s possible that aphids or other bugs have been infesting your flower garden or houseplants and in turn, attracting ladybugs to prey on them. 
If you notice a large number of ladybugs congregating in your home early in the colder months, they’re likely planning to overwinter there.

Why Are There Ladybugs on My Window?

At the onset of winter, ladybugs start looking for warm and sheltered places to overwinter. 
The ladybugs on your windows are attracted to the warmth of your home and are trying to find their way in.
They will look for even the smallest of crevices to get in, and windows help them peek inside.

Why Do Ladybugs Swarm My House?

If you have ladybugs swarming your house, it’s most likely due to one of the two following reasons. 
Either they have found a food source (such as an aphid-infested houseplant), or they want to overwinter in the warmth of your home.

What does seeing a lot of ladybugs mean?

Many believe ladybugs to be a sign of good luck and good fortune. While we don’t know for sure if that’s true, what we do know is that ladybugs are beneficial insects that protect your houseplants and garden. 
Unless they are there to overwinter in your home, seeing a lot of ladybugs usually means they have found a good food source on your property.

Wrap Up

Indeed, having any species of ladybugs in your garden or around your houseplants is a good thing.

You could even build a ladybug house in the garden to give them a safe place to stay while they keep the aphid population under control. 

Just make sure not to harbor the Asian ladybug by mistake – they tend to invade homes and release a smelly substance that leaves stains on the fabric.  

Thank you for reading, and hopefully, you can find a way to get rid of the ladybug infestation without killing them.

Authors

  • Bugman

    Bugman aka Daniel Marlos has been identifying bugs since 1999. whatsthatbug.com is his passion project and it has helped millions of readers identify the bug that has been bugging them for over two decades. You can reach out to him through our Contact Page.

    View all posts
  • Piyushi is a nature lover, blogger and traveler at heart. She lives in beautiful Canada with her family. Piyushi is an animal lover and loves to write about all creatures.

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Tags: Ladybugs

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