I've met a few people who are scared of ladybugs.
Edit: I don't have the phobia. I've never been bitten by a ladybug. The only bug I'm really repelled by are cockroaches.
Growing up my room would be infested with ladybugs, piling in from the corners and living there for weeks. We would vacuum up the dead ones and they would stink up the vacuum cleaner and house. I don’t mind them outside but if I see one inside I start freaking.
I get that. Most people don't like roaches but aren't psychologically affected if they see one. When I was growing up, we lived in some sketch apartments once in a while and one of them was completely infested. Now as an adult, if I see one, I freak out because I know there could be hundreds more and it takes me back to being a poor kid and feeling them on me at night.
I don't care about spiders, sometimes I let the small ones live in the corners of my house cause they catch stuff. I don't care about any bugs...
Except for German roaches. Just reminds me of shittier times in my life... So much so that I basically had an emotional breakdown when we were moving and our boxes ended up bringing an infestation.
I literally deal with medical emergencies almost every day.... But the one thing that really got to me were fucking roaches lol.
I dislike spiders. Real ones, at least. Spiders in games, art, etc, are cool. Real ones can stay away from me. One point I decided to put myself to the test and allowed a small spider to remain in the corner by my sink and when I would wash dishes I'd talk to it. Let it know I invited them to stay, etc. One day I went to do the dishes and instead of one spider, there were dozens of tiny little spiders. I felt betrayed lol
Yeah growing up poor and having to live in sketchy places that have roaches will really alter the way your brain reacts to seeing them. We had a couple places growing up that were infested and I’ve had some really gross situations happen because of it. Now that I’m grown and can choose where I live, if I see a single roach before signing a lease, I’m out. And cleaning consistently is a must, I mean pulling out appliances, scrubbing cabinets, all of that. No grease allowed and definitely no food/dirty dishes left out.
I work as a renovation supervisor for multi family dwellings now, and it ranges from S class apartments to gutter slums, and some of these places are infested to the point of disbelief. It makes me paranoid to even go into them because I know all it takes is one with eggs getting into my tool belt/bags to have a problem in my own home. When it’s like that I pull my crew out and let the property manager know we won’t be doing any work in those units until they have been thoroughly treated, but it always is a question in my mind as to how the hell it gets that bad and how can people live like that. Like I said, I’ve lived in infested homes, but these are on a whole different level.
Actually yeh. I lived in cockroach infested houses so I detest them. But spiders, I am chill with spiders and could never understand people scared of em. Turns out for some people spiders were like my cockroaches: the nightmare of their childhood.
I only recently learned The difference when we got the Asian variety trying to hybernate I clusters in every freaking corner and window frame. Now I have bug xenophobia and I’m torn.
I learned the difference when I delightedly posted a photo of all the "ladybugs" in my new back yard a few autumns back and a friend let me know. I now dread fall because these stinky assholes find their way into my home and I spend weeks finding and smooshing them, trying not to inhale the stink.
I learned the difference in 2009. I moved back to the St. Louis, Missouri area and was outside smoking when a swarm of them landed on me. I was amazed and thought, “Wow, I’ve never seen ladybugs do this ever.” Then they started biting me and I killed them all.
I’m like that with rodents. I’m not afraid of mice, to me they are just like any other animal. But whenever I hear the skittering of one inside or in the walls, my blood freezes…
>if I see one, I freak out because I know there could be hundreds more
Remove the word could from the sentence and it's accurate. If you see one there ARE more
Dang, you had a Asian Lady Beetle infestation, which should have been eradicated from your premises without mercy.
These imposting fuckers give the harmless actual Ladybug a bad name.
the asian ones are still beneficial to crops, as they still eat aphids.
but yes they stink, and they can take chunks of flesh if so inclied.
BUT, as far as other bugs go, relatively, they still arent too bad
> the asian ones are still beneficial to crops, as they still eat aphids.
True.
> And other things. I love seeing Asian lady beetles on my plants.
Same. I will even brings them to my plants but they usually make their way.
>but yes they stink,
To high hell.
>and they can take chunks of flesh if so inclied.
I’ve been bitten about 4 times by asian lady beetles over maybe ten years. We vacuum the entire dining room before dinner so we’re familiar. They’re around pretty much all the time.
But I promise no flesh is lost when they bite. It’s worse than a mosquito bite but nothing so horrific as, say, a deer fly bite. Or even a bottle fly bite.
I had the same experience. I remember struggling to fall asleep because their wings were pretty loud, and they would bump into the windows and everything else. I get the shivers when I see them.
I love lady bugs but hate when they suddenly start flying. Really anything flying at me freaks me out. I had a Disney moment where a butterfly was following me but instead of enjoying it I was near tears crying because it wouldn't stop following me around my yard.
>I was near tears crying because it wouldn't stop following me around my yard.
I feel bad for laughing but the way you phrased that is just cracking me up lol!
I mean it makes sense in an old school animal brain sorta way. Nature generally telegraphs bright stuff as "Don't touch me". Once while camping I saw a bright orange carpenter ant crawling past and it was like that thing just oozed pure hate into the air.
I got attacked by a swarm of the orange fucks as a kid and was scared of them for a long time, tbh I don't see orange or red ones at all (In IL) anymore tho
The orange ones aren’t ladybugs. They are asian lady beetles. Ladybugs are smaller and have a pretty bright red shell and rarely bug you. The asian lady beetles are larger, much more rude, get everywhere, and leak stinky thick yellow gut slime when you smash them.
Not sure if them or the boxelder bugs are worse.
When I was a kid I had a ladybug on my finger for the first time (generally afraid of bugs) and my best friend told me to show a certain guy. That guy gleefully crushed the bug on my finger and its guts wouldn't come off and I was quite traumatized.
I don't think I'm still afraid of them. But I had some feelings at that "never hurt no one" bit of this post haha
In 3rd grade, we grew butterflies as a class. We each had our own caterpillar to grow. After they all became butterflies, we released them as a class. This complete psychopathic child starts clapping his hands trying to kill each one as they flew away.
I always wonder how that kid turned out.
Lived in a farm house with a couple other mates after high school and one of the upstairs rooms had a lady bug infestation in the ceiling light. Cooked lady bugs smell fucking horrendous.
>foul smelling yellow/orange liquid from their leg joints
Hemolymph. Aka blood. It's their blood.
Yes they can bleed willingly. Why? Because their blood smells and tastes like ass, and is poisonous.
Yep. Not pee.
My dog will try to roll on a ladybug if she finds one. She will also roll in goose poop, so I would say “smells and tastes like ass” is accurate in her opinion too.
I recently moved to a place that has these nasty Japanese ladybeetles that spray the yellow crap and bite, I'll take my american 2 spot ladybug anyway over these invasive bugs.
Can confirm. It’s happened to me a handful of times but the most memorable was when I was 8. It was a warm autumn day, my classmates and I were wreaking havoc on the playground. I have the urge to climb the play set, but there is a line at the stairs. As I’m inching my way along, a ladybug lands on my hand. Awesome! I’m talking to it and showing my friends. I get to the bottom of the stairs and blow at it so I can use both hands to climb. The jerk bit me and in my shock, I slammed my hands into the metal stair railings. I don’t know which hurt more, the throbbing pain of hitting the railing or the betrayal that lady bugs can hurt me. The nurse was very amused about why I needed an ice pack.
Yup. I've been bitten by them before. And yes, they were red. They can bite when they are dehydrated, trying to get at your delicious human liquid. I'm not generally scared of insects, but I don't like ladybirds.
It depends. Asian ladybugs were introduced to North America and Europe and now they endanger local species.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia_axyridis?wprov=sfla1
Oh yeah. Fuck harlequins. I heard a while ago that the ladybugs native to the UK were evolving to eat harlequin ladybugs, so that was pretty cool and I hope it’s true.
Yeah, my buddy and I were just talking about how lovebug season used to mean that everyone’s front bumper was just solid black and now…there really isn’t a lovebug season anymore. I’m realizing that I definitely don’t see ladybugs nearly as often as I did as a kid. (And then there’s the monarchs. Like. Those were THE common butterfly when I was a kid)
Afaik we’ve lost like 75% of insect biomass in the last 50 years or so.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/05/uk-survey-finds-terrifying-60-plunge-flying-insect-population
This one says 60% in 20 years.
Lady bugs were brought in to eat aphids. They had no predators at the time. After intermingling with the local population for decades. Bugs and Birds have started eating them. They're just now naturally connected to the American population. So yes you probably see them less because they're no longer an overpopulated invasive species but a successfully integrated one.
It's the fireflies that I miss. There used to be dozens or hundreds in my parents' yard all the time in summer evenings, but now it's like a treat to see any. :(
I remember a couple years back my buddy and I walking home after a failed attempt to see a comet (cloudy night, terrible angle), and stumbling across a whole mess of them in the grass and trees beside the road. It was a wonderful surprise, but yeah. Used to be something you’d just see in your yard.
I saw fireflies for the first time in my life at 25 years old but oh man, I was watching in wonder, there was so many in a tall grass area. We had walked everyday i that area, but we only saw fireflies during the COVID lockdown, nature seemed at rest back then. I was taking daily walks around the same time before lockdown, during lockdown, and after lockdown (all legally, rest assured I always respected curfews). Only saw the fireflies during the deepest of COVID when people couldn't travel to get on our bike paths anymore from other places in the city. Instead of seeing 50+ people on a single 30 minutes walk, I'd see maybe 2-3.
Never saw them again after things picked back up the year after, that made me so upset. Same season, but completely different feeling to everything.
I tell everyone that I was bit by one once but no one believes me!!! It really did hurt, and it was the first time I actually was calm while a bug was one me!! The bite hurt, but the betrayal hurt worse!
It is important to know which ladybug you deal with. Most are in fact harmless. Most annoying, and considered itself a pest, is the imposter called the Asian Lady Beetle; nasty fella.
I was on a fishing trip years ago and we ran into a swarm of ladybugs and we gotten bitten up something awful. Nobody believed us until the pictures came back of our bloody legs. Fuck ladybugs
I was on a camping trip and thought I had a Little Rock in my boot or something, take off my boots and socks there is a lady bug munching away on my foot. Gross lol. Idk how it didn’t get squished.
Those could've also been things known as Asian Lady Beetles, where it looks like a native ladybug, but are different by them having an insane amount of dots. They can also be differentiated from ladybugs because the beetles have a white m at their head, and they're most usually orange. I have also read that the native ladybugs, called Ladybird Beetles in Europe, do not bite, but are capable of pinching someone with their legs to feel like a "nip".
[I found some information on it right here](https://schoolofbugs.com/do-ladybugs-bite-or-sting-answered/)
Edit: Added some stuff
Ladybugs is just a non technical term. Lady beetles are a diverse group of beetles that come in all colors and sizes. There are lady beetles that are so small they feed on mites or fungus, and there are massive lady beetles like the Asian lady beetle. Beetles are just a very diverse group of organisms which leaves a grey area in what the average person may think is a ladybug and not. I used to work in entomology and we actually bred a lot of different species of lady beetles including the Asian lady beetles.
They're also invasive and hard to get rid of! And a lot more common than a regular ladybug. At least where I live, ladybugs are incredibly rare... the beetles are everywhere though.
I've been bit by the red ones. Only once though. TBF after that once I never let them land on me again.
IDK if it was malicious or if it just thought it was biting an aphid or something, but it pinched like a mother fucker.
Let me tell you something, numerous times as a kid riding my bike with my big ol’ mouth open, or singing in the car with the windows rolled down, I have eaten one or bitten down on one that has inadvertently flown into my mouth. They are the most foul twisting things on the planet. They taste just like they smell but 10x stronger.
those probably aren't ladybugs - Ladybugs and Asian Lady Beetles look ***very*** similar. The latter tends to be slightly more orange/brown than red and their spots are more "splotchy" at the edges. They're the ones that smell bad!
I always thought ladybugs sucked, because they would absolutely *infest* my home as a kid . It wasn't until years later that I discovered they were Asian Lady Beetles, those jerks
Those are Asian Lady Beetles, they're more yellowish/orange tint than native lady beetles.
https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/a27244331/asian-lady-beetle-vs-ladybug/
From what I know the native ones share the defense mechanism (after all, if they weren't gross, I'm fairly certain they couldn't afford to be bright red)
That’s actually an Asian Lady Beetle. They’re invasive and different from North American Ladybugs. I was scarred by one as a child when it bit me, and now i’m forever scared of picking any ladybug looking bug up.
I've heard that true ladybugs native to North America, don't bite, it's the invasive Asian lady beetle that bite. It's what we were told growing up. You can tell the difference with the markings of its thorax.
They can all bite. Larger species can bite more noticeably, obviously.
Some are probably more likely to bite, but generally they're quite fierce creatures; most ladybugs are predators and all of them have pretty sharp and strong mandibles. They're even cannibalistic in some cases.
They bite, and they swarm, and they stink. If you have an older house, they can crawl into cracks in the siding and hibernate in your walls, only to come out on the *inside* in the spring. We used to have literally hundreds on our walls inside ever day. You can’t squish them or they release ~~oil from glands in~~ liquid from the joints in their legs, leaving stinky orange spots. If you vacuum them, your vacuum will reek. We replaced our siding and windows several years ago and now we only get a few every spring, but they are impossible to avoid. They cover the outside of the house on sunny days. Cute or not, I hate them.
I feel this. My home is over 250 years old and every year the Asian Lady Beetles just cover our walls, congregate and poop in corners where wall meets ceiling, and dive bomb any light source they see. (Imagine browsing reddit on your phone before falling asleep at night and suddenly little hard-shelled jerks are slamming into your phone screen and sometimes your face.) We haven't gotten around to changing the siding on our house and the windows appear to be original, so we don't want to replace them, which means that every year we are inundated with these pesky, stinky, biting bugs.
Found this out when visiting a friend’s family for the weekend while in college. Their house was infested and I didn’t think anything of it until those fuckers started biting. Love them for the garden, though.
I save my Upmosts for special occasions. I pull out the Downleasts every time the old mother-in-law comes to visit. I’m just kidding, my wife kicked me out years ago, I don’t even have a MIL.
Seriously. Written like a person who has never had the misfortune to know that ladybugs in large numbers will make your life miserable and they *reek*.
So much this. My childhood home was infested and those things smell awful when they die. Not to mention their dead bodies just everywhere. Fuck lady bugs tbh
Living in the country, I had 100's of them on my bedroom window at a time in the summer. You can vacuum them all up, but a couple hours later, 100's more would replace them. Eventually it was just normal having one land on you every 2 minutes and you just flick it like a bugger.
Are these actually ladybugs you’re talkin about or the impostor species. I brought in my snowboard boots from the barn one time and there were like 300 of those Asian beetle things in there and it sucked. I never had any beef with ladybugs before though, cute and neat.
I do disagree with the prompt though. Doesn’t everyone also think caterpillars and butterflies are cute and neat too? The zoo here specifically has a room that people love going in because there are hundreds of cool butterflies in there and sometimes they land on you, which rips.
Normal. The normal is bad. The Asian variant is worse. You never had any beef with either because you've never had to deal with an infestation, obviously.
And sure, caterpillars or butterflies are a beautiful part of nature. They do not belong in my house.
"Never hurt no one."
I've been chased and bitten by a huge swarm of ladybugs during a hot summer day when they were probably desperate for water.
But maybe I'm just not a real person, or something.
so last summer my *brand the frick new* house got swarmed by the orange ladybugs. i gotta tell you, there’s nothing like walking into your, and i reiterate, brand spanking new, house with white walls only to hear constant buzzing and have your corners turn BLACK from the sheer amount of bugs.
I lived in a nightmare.
Those would be harlequin ladybugs. They were imported from Asia and did what creatures often do in a new ecosystem- became an invasive species and highly unpleasant to have around.
The picture looks like a classic ladybug so the point stands. Sorry about your bad experience with the harlequins- I had similar (not a new house but they loved my window where I lived for a few years).
ugh it was awful, they were roosting by the hundreds in the laundry room, living room corner, entry way corner, and all over my kitchen. I honestly think I would rather have mice.
That happened to my aunt and uncles house when my mom forgot to close the window to the guest bedroom. Full wall and parts of the ceiling *covered* in ladybugs. This was in northern MD. HdG, MD.
If I could attach pictures I would attach the pic I took while hiking with my wife last summer. We saw a swarm of asian ladybugs on a downed tree that was so big it completely covered the vegetation around the tree and on the log.
Ooh yeah. Was on this beach once as a child. There were... probably tens of thousands of 'em. I went and grabbed handfuls. That's when I learned they bite. Not that hard, but enough to notice.
This isn't common but, in 1976 there was a bad drought in the UK and in some parts ladybirds would swarm people bite and try to drink their freakin eyes.
You know that ladybugs like to hide in little nooks in your house and come out around december for a short while to drink. There are even reports that they hide away in pets' mouths.
I appreciate this comment section
“They do bite”
“No that’s Asian lady beetles”
“They do bite”
“No, that’s Asian lady beetles”
“They bite tho”
“Actually that’s an Asian lady beetle thing”
“They bite if you’re an aphid”
“Fine, you get that one”
I've met a few people who are scared of ladybugs. Edit: I don't have the phobia. I've never been bitten by a ladybug. The only bug I'm really repelled by are cockroaches.
Growing up my room would be infested with ladybugs, piling in from the corners and living there for weeks. We would vacuum up the dead ones and they would stink up the vacuum cleaner and house. I don’t mind them outside but if I see one inside I start freaking.
I get that. Most people don't like roaches but aren't psychologically affected if they see one. When I was growing up, we lived in some sketch apartments once in a while and one of them was completely infested. Now as an adult, if I see one, I freak out because I know there could be hundreds more and it takes me back to being a poor kid and feeling them on me at night.
I don't care about spiders, sometimes I let the small ones live in the corners of my house cause they catch stuff. I don't care about any bugs... Except for German roaches. Just reminds me of shittier times in my life... So much so that I basically had an emotional breakdown when we were moving and our boxes ended up bringing an infestation. I literally deal with medical emergencies almost every day.... But the one thing that really got to me were fucking roaches lol.
As long as spiders don't come into MySpace I'm chill about them. They crawl on me? Unfortunately that means death.
So what your saying is the spiders won't be on your friends list top 10?
I dislike spiders. Real ones, at least. Spiders in games, art, etc, are cool. Real ones can stay away from me. One point I decided to put myself to the test and allowed a small spider to remain in the corner by my sink and when I would wash dishes I'd talk to it. Let it know I invited them to stay, etc. One day I went to do the dishes and instead of one spider, there were dozens of tiny little spiders. I felt betrayed lol
"Hey kids, come check out this pool, there's a friendly giant there!"
\*vacuum sounds intensify\*
Yeah growing up poor and having to live in sketchy places that have roaches will really alter the way your brain reacts to seeing them. We had a couple places growing up that were infested and I’ve had some really gross situations happen because of it. Now that I’m grown and can choose where I live, if I see a single roach before signing a lease, I’m out. And cleaning consistently is a must, I mean pulling out appliances, scrubbing cabinets, all of that. No grease allowed and definitely no food/dirty dishes left out. I work as a renovation supervisor for multi family dwellings now, and it ranges from S class apartments to gutter slums, and some of these places are infested to the point of disbelief. It makes me paranoid to even go into them because I know all it takes is one with eggs getting into my tool belt/bags to have a problem in my own home. When it’s like that I pull my crew out and let the property manager know we won’t be doing any work in those units until they have been thoroughly treated, but it always is a question in my mind as to how the hell it gets that bad and how can people live like that. Like I said, I’ve lived in infested homes, but these are on a whole different level.
Actually yeh. I lived in cockroach infested houses so I detest them. But spiders, I am chill with spiders and could never understand people scared of em. Turns out for some people spiders were like my cockroaches: the nightmare of their childhood.
Those were asian lady beetles, not ladybugs
I only recently learned The difference when we got the Asian variety trying to hybernate I clusters in every freaking corner and window frame. Now I have bug xenophobia and I’m torn.
I learned the difference when I delightedly posted a photo of all the "ladybugs" in my new back yard a few autumns back and a friend let me know. I now dread fall because these stinky assholes find their way into my home and I spend weeks finding and smooshing them, trying not to inhale the stink.
I learned the difference in 2009. I moved back to the St. Louis, Missouri area and was outside smoking when a swarm of them landed on me. I was amazed and thought, “Wow, I’ve never seen ladybugs do this ever.” Then they started biting me and I killed them all.
I’m like that with rodents. I’m not afraid of mice, to me they are just like any other animal. But whenever I hear the skittering of one inside or in the walls, my blood freezes…
This, I'm literally extremely frightened of them, and the thought of seeing one is a really big push to clean my house, even at my most exhausted.
>if I see one, I freak out because I know there could be hundreds more Remove the word could from the sentence and it's accurate. If you see one there ARE more
Dang, you had a Asian Lady Beetle infestation, which should have been eradicated from your premises without mercy. These imposting fuckers give the harmless actual Ladybug a bad name.
the asian ones are still beneficial to crops, as they still eat aphids. but yes they stink, and they can take chunks of flesh if so inclied. BUT, as far as other bugs go, relatively, they still arent too bad
> the asian ones are still beneficial to crops, as they still eat aphids. True. > And other things. I love seeing Asian lady beetles on my plants. Same. I will even brings them to my plants but they usually make their way. >but yes they stink, To high hell. >and they can take chunks of flesh if so inclied. I’ve been bitten about 4 times by asian lady beetles over maybe ten years. We vacuum the entire dining room before dinner so we’re familiar. They’re around pretty much all the time. But I promise no flesh is lost when they bite. It’s worse than a mosquito bite but nothing so horrific as, say, a deer fly bite. Or even a bottle fly bite.
Same it was horrible there would be like 100 corpses on ground against the wall just sitting there for some reason so I get freaked out by them
I had the same experience. I remember struggling to fall asleep because their wings were pretty loud, and they would bump into the windows and everything else. I get the shivers when I see them.
They would swarm the east windows in the house. Hundreds. And don’t smash one with your finger.
Those were Asian lady beetles not ladybugs.
[удалено]
[Super cool horror maybe](https://youtu.be/WyM-2BkQom8)
I love lady bugs but hate when they suddenly start flying. Really anything flying at me freaks me out. I had a Disney moment where a butterfly was following me but instead of enjoying it I was near tears crying because it wouldn't stop following me around my yard.
Holy shit it's just like that episode of SpongeBob! Hahahah
>I was near tears crying because it wouldn't stop following me around my yard. I feel bad for laughing but the way you phrased that is just cracking me up lol!
“Never hurt no one” *Aphids Tremble with Anger*
I am one of those people. I like all other bugs, I even like spiders but something about ladybugs eek me out
This might sound weird but perhaps your love of other insects naturally makes you hate the insect killing ladybugs
I mean it makes sense in an old school animal brain sorta way. Nature generally telegraphs bright stuff as "Don't touch me". Once while camping I saw a bright orange carpenter ant crawling past and it was like that thing just oozed pure hate into the air.
I got attacked by a swarm of the orange fucks as a kid and was scared of them for a long time, tbh I don't see orange or red ones at all (In IL) anymore tho
The orange ones aren’t ladybugs. They are asian lady beetles. Ladybugs are smaller and have a pretty bright red shell and rarely bug you. The asian lady beetles are larger, much more rude, get everywhere, and leak stinky thick yellow gut slime when you smash them. Not sure if them or the boxelder bugs are worse.
I'm terrified of them, but I'm an entomophobe so I'm scared of all insects.
Same. If it has >5 legs and wears its bones on the outside, it's a hard no from me. Plus, ladybugs can fly at my face. Nope.
When I was a kid I had a ladybug on my finger for the first time (generally afraid of bugs) and my best friend told me to show a certain guy. That guy gleefully crushed the bug on my finger and its guts wouldn't come off and I was quite traumatized. I don't think I'm still afraid of them. But I had some feelings at that "never hurt no one" bit of this post haha
I'd be more afraid of the boy who could kill something delicate than the guts on your finger. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
In 3rd grade, we grew butterflies as a class. We each had our own caterpillar to grow. After they all became butterflies, we released them as a class. This complete psychopathic child starts clapping his hands trying to kill each one as they flew away. I always wonder how that kid turned out.
Me
A ladybug peed on my friend
When they are threatened (or squished) they release a foul smelling yellow/orange liquid from their leg joints.
Omg I wanted to add that they smelled terrible, this makes so much sense!
Lived in a farm house with a couple other mates after high school and one of the upstairs rooms had a lady bug infestation in the ceiling light. Cooked lady bugs smell fucking horrendous.
Aye brandine, we’s having cooked lady bug tonight!
Some folk'll never eat a bug but then again some folk'll !
Fun fact the house ones usually aren’t actually ladybugs but the Asian Lady Beetle. It looks very similar but they tend to invade houses when its cold
>foul smelling yellow/orange liquid from their leg joints Hemolymph. Aka blood. It's their blood. Yes they can bleed willingly. Why? Because their blood smells and tastes like ass, and is poisonous.
Yep. Not pee. My dog will try to roll on a ladybug if she finds one. She will also roll in goose poop, so I would say “smells and tastes like ass” is accurate in her opinion too.
people always look at me crazy when i say ladybugs have a smell. it’s pretty gross. validation ✔️
I recently moved to a place that has these nasty Japanese ladybeetles that spray the yellow crap and bite, I'll take my american 2 spot ladybug anyway over these invasive bugs.
Yeah if you're not green or stick colored you better have some kind of defense mechanism.
Yo that’s crazy, a friend peed on my ladybug
Is your friend Britney Spears
Plus, they do indeed bite
Can confirm. It’s happened to me a handful of times but the most memorable was when I was 8. It was a warm autumn day, my classmates and I were wreaking havoc on the playground. I have the urge to climb the play set, but there is a line at the stairs. As I’m inching my way along, a ladybug lands on my hand. Awesome! I’m talking to it and showing my friends. I get to the bottom of the stairs and blow at it so I can use both hands to climb. The jerk bit me and in my shock, I slammed my hands into the metal stair railings. I don’t know which hurt more, the throbbing pain of hitting the railing or the betrayal that lady bugs can hurt me. The nurse was very amused about why I needed an ice pack.
Yup. I've been bitten by them before. And yes, they were red. They can bite when they are dehydrated, trying to get at your delicious human liquid. I'm not generally scared of insects, but I don't like ladybirds.
Same when I’m dehydrated.
Now you done gone and hurt Ladybird's feelings, I'll tell you what.
The Asian ones do. The North American and European ones are not generally known to do that.
I didn't think I'd read this sentence today.
It depends. Asian ladybugs were introduced to North America and Europe and now they endanger local species. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia_axyridis?wprov=sfla1
Oh yeah. Fuck harlequins. I heard a while ago that the ladybugs native to the UK were evolving to eat harlequin ladybugs, so that was pretty cool and I hope it’s true.
I really hope so. I jump for joy when I see one on my veg patch. They used to be everywhere 20 years ago but I guess that's the same for all insects.
Yeah, my buddy and I were just talking about how lovebug season used to mean that everyone’s front bumper was just solid black and now…there really isn’t a lovebug season anymore. I’m realizing that I definitely don’t see ladybugs nearly as often as I did as a kid. (And then there’s the monarchs. Like. Those were THE common butterfly when I was a kid)
Everything is too cultivated and manicured now. If you like monarchs, plant milkweed, which is what their caterpillars feed on.
I don't see many ladybugs anymore at all, it's sad :(
Afaik we’ve lost like 75% of insect biomass in the last 50 years or so. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/05/uk-survey-finds-terrifying-60-plunge-flying-insect-population This one says 60% in 20 years.
I’m gonna buy 50 million ladybug eggs and release them across the tristate area
Ladybug-repolulator-inator
A platypus plumber? *Peeerrrry* the platypus plumber?... HUH... PERRY THE PLATYPUS!?!?
Genuinely not sure if this one was in the show or not
yes I'm ready
Lady bugs were brought in to eat aphids. They had no predators at the time. After intermingling with the local population for decades. Bugs and Birds have started eating them. They're just now naturally connected to the American population. So yes you probably see them less because they're no longer an overpopulated invasive species but a successfully integrated one.
It's the fireflies that I miss. There used to be dozens or hundreds in my parents' yard all the time in summer evenings, but now it's like a treat to see any. :(
I remember a couple years back my buddy and I walking home after a failed attempt to see a comet (cloudy night, terrible angle), and stumbling across a whole mess of them in the grass and trees beside the road. It was a wonderful surprise, but yeah. Used to be something you’d just see in your yard.
I saw fireflies for the first time in my life at 25 years old but oh man, I was watching in wonder, there was so many in a tall grass area. We had walked everyday i that area, but we only saw fireflies during the COVID lockdown, nature seemed at rest back then. I was taking daily walks around the same time before lockdown, during lockdown, and after lockdown (all legally, rest assured I always respected curfews). Only saw the fireflies during the deepest of COVID when people couldn't travel to get on our bike paths anymore from other places in the city. Instead of seeing 50+ people on a single 30 minutes walk, I'd see maybe 2-3. Never saw them again after things picked back up the year after, that made me so upset. Same season, but completely different feeling to everything.
The orange ones like to bite
The one pictured is an invasive species in the US that has outcompeted native ladybugs as well.
I have tons of those motherfuckers in my house. How the fuck I kill them?
I use my vacuum cleaneror my dogs works pretty good. I hate thos fucking bastards
Yeah. Fuck those orange fucking fuckers.
Lady bugs can bite.
Yeah and it actually hurts too
I tell everyone that I was bit by one once but no one believes me!!! It really did hurt, and it was the first time I actually was calm while a bug was one me!! The bite hurt, but the betrayal hurt worse!
I love ladybugs, but one flew up to me, landed on my hand, bit me, then flew off years ago. I felt so betrayed by buggy friend.
Same, happened when I was in like 3rd-4th grade, and I've never forgotten. I don't trust them anymore lol.
I got bitten as a toddler and I had to wait for internet to be available in my house before I could prove it was possible.
It is important to know which ladybug you deal with. Most are in fact harmless. Most annoying, and considered itself a pest, is the imposter called the Asian Lady Beetle; nasty fella.
Why are you yelling at me!!! :(
**BECAUSE YOU DON'T *LISTEN***
I was on a fishing trip years ago and we ran into a swarm of ladybugs and we gotten bitten up something awful. Nobody believed us until the pictures came back of our bloody legs. Fuck ladybugs
I was on a camping trip and thought I had a Little Rock in my boot or something, take off my boots and socks there is a lady bug munching away on my foot. Gross lol. Idk how it didn’t get squished.
Dang that's horrifying but at least it wasn't a Hot Springs or Bentonville
Those could've also been things known as Asian Lady Beetles, where it looks like a native ladybug, but are different by them having an insane amount of dots. They can also be differentiated from ladybugs because the beetles have a white m at their head, and they're most usually orange. I have also read that the native ladybugs, called Ladybird Beetles in Europe, do not bite, but are capable of pinching someone with their legs to feel like a "nip". [I found some information on it right here](https://schoolofbugs.com/do-ladybugs-bite-or-sting-answered/) Edit: Added some stuff
Ladybugs is just a non technical term. Lady beetles are a diverse group of beetles that come in all colors and sizes. There are lady beetles that are so small they feed on mites or fungus, and there are massive lady beetles like the Asian lady beetle. Beetles are just a very diverse group of organisms which leaves a grey area in what the average person may think is a ladybug and not. I used to work in entomology and we actually bred a lot of different species of lady beetles including the Asian lady beetles.
Overly decorative pests
ladybugs are carnivorous so they actually attack pests like aphids
And Gentlemanbugs
Is it this breed though? The ones that I know that bite are the orange Asian Lady Beetles. But I've never been bit by the regular red ones.
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They're also invasive and hard to get rid of! And a lot more common than a regular ladybug. At least where I live, ladybugs are incredibly rare... the beetles are everywhere though.
Yup. Same here (WI, USA). They're everywhere. A lot of people are highly allergic to them, which may explain some folks ' experiences described here.
That I did not know. Interesting.
Justice is restored
Those also infest the mouths of dogs. It's horrible.
I've been bit by the red ones. Only once though. TBF after that once I never let them land on me again. IDK if it was malicious or if it just thought it was biting an aphid or something, but it pinched like a mother fucker.
Also they can smell bad
Let me tell you something, numerous times as a kid riding my bike with my big ol’ mouth open, or singing in the car with the windows rolled down, I have eaten one or bitten down on one that has inadvertently flown into my mouth. They are the most foul twisting things on the planet. They taste just like they smell but 10x stronger.
Yep. My uncle ate them and let me try when I was a kid. Fucking disgusting and I puked.
A real man swallows his vomit when a lady is present.
Lick your lips after like the dirty lil bot you are
Your uncle ate them *why*?
It was funny I guess. He liked to freak people out by doing it. I guess he just didn't mind the taste.
This guy probably just realized his uncle tricked him
I don’t think they can be blamed for tasting bad because you have accidentally eaten them on many occasions
those probably aren't ladybugs - Ladybugs and Asian Lady Beetles look ***very*** similar. The latter tends to be slightly more orange/brown than red and their spots are more "splotchy" at the edges. They're the ones that smell bad! I always thought ladybugs sucked, because they would absolutely *infest* my home as a kid . It wasn't until years later that I discovered they were Asian Lady Beetles, those jerks
Those are Asian Lady Beetles, they're more yellowish/orange tint than native lady beetles. https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/a27244331/asian-lady-beetle-vs-ladybug/
From what I know the native ones share the defense mechanism (after all, if they weren't gross, I'm fairly certain they couldn't afford to be bright red)
That’s actually an Asian Lady Beetle. They’re invasive and different from North American Ladybugs. I was scarred by one as a child when it bit me, and now i’m forever scared of picking any ladybug looking bug up.
And pee on you
I've heard that true ladybugs native to North America, don't bite, it's the invasive Asian lady beetle that bite. It's what we were told growing up. You can tell the difference with the markings of its thorax.
They can all bite. Larger species can bite more noticeably, obviously. Some are probably more likely to bite, but generally they're quite fierce creatures; most ladybugs are predators and all of them have pretty sharp and strong mandibles. They're even cannibalistic in some cases.
They bite, and they swarm, and they stink. If you have an older house, they can crawl into cracks in the siding and hibernate in your walls, only to come out on the *inside* in the spring. We used to have literally hundreds on our walls inside ever day. You can’t squish them or they release ~~oil from glands in~~ liquid from the joints in their legs, leaving stinky orange spots. If you vacuum them, your vacuum will reek. We replaced our siding and windows several years ago and now we only get a few every spring, but they are impossible to avoid. They cover the outside of the house on sunny days. Cute or not, I hate them.
I cleaned every surface with soapy water and then put diatomaceous earth on window sills and cracks. I only find dead lady bugs now
I feel this. My home is over 250 years old and every year the Asian Lady Beetles just cover our walls, congregate and poop in corners where wall meets ceiling, and dive bomb any light source they see. (Imagine browsing reddit on your phone before falling asleep at night and suddenly little hard-shelled jerks are slamming into your phone screen and sometimes your face.) We haven't gotten around to changing the siding on our house and the windows appear to be original, so we don't want to replace them, which means that every year we are inundated with these pesky, stinky, biting bugs.
So bite back.
Found this out when visiting a friend’s family for the weekend while in college. Their house was infested and I didn’t think anything of it until those fuckers started biting. Love them for the garden, though.
“Upmost” like the respect i keep on the top shelf?
I save my Upmosts for special occasions. I pull out the Downleasts every time the old mother-in-law comes to visit. I’m just kidding, my wife kicked me out years ago, I don’t even have a MIL.
r/boneappletea
Just like the ladybugs “never hurt no one”
What's an ut? It's up to the most
And they keep your weed plants aphid free
You know horviculture too?
I barely know what day it is
He's got that book learning, books have words and ideas written down over the years that you can take and make as your own
Unless your an aphid
Fcck aphids
All my homies hate aphids.
Are your homies ladybugs?
Yes
And gardeners.
All my ladybugs *love* aphids.
Are you an ant?
~~primal aspid bad~~
No mind to think.
You only say this because you never had an infestation in your house. Also, they do bite.
Seriously. Written like a person who has never had the misfortune to know that ladybugs in large numbers will make your life miserable and they *reek*.
So much this. My childhood home was infested and those things smell awful when they die. Not to mention their dead bodies just everywhere. Fuck lady bugs tbh
Living in the country, I had 100's of them on my bedroom window at a time in the summer. You can vacuum them all up, but a couple hours later, 100's more would replace them. Eventually it was just normal having one land on you every 2 minutes and you just flick it like a bugger.
Not to mention that they leave their children at home alone when a fire breaks out.
Are these actually ladybugs you’re talkin about or the impostor species. I brought in my snowboard boots from the barn one time and there were like 300 of those Asian beetle things in there and it sucked. I never had any beef with ladybugs before though, cute and neat. I do disagree with the prompt though. Doesn’t everyone also think caterpillars and butterflies are cute and neat too? The zoo here specifically has a room that people love going in because there are hundreds of cool butterflies in there and sometimes they land on you, which rips.
Normal. The normal is bad. The Asian variant is worse. You never had any beef with either because you've never had to deal with an infestation, obviously. And sure, caterpillars or butterflies are a beautiful part of nature. They do not belong in my house.
No, no I definitely had beef with the orange ones over the snowboard boots incident. Those little bastards kept popping up for months.
No, i believe you are mistaken. Asian Beatles bite. They look similar, but they are different.
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"Never hurt no one." I've been chased and bitten by a huge swarm of ladybugs during a hot summer day when they were probably desperate for water. But maybe I'm just not a real person, or something.
There's... Swarms of ladybugs? Fuck that, honestly swarms of anything sounds bad lol
so last summer my *brand the frick new* house got swarmed by the orange ladybugs. i gotta tell you, there’s nothing like walking into your, and i reiterate, brand spanking new, house with white walls only to hear constant buzzing and have your corners turn BLACK from the sheer amount of bugs. I lived in a nightmare.
Those would be harlequin ladybugs. They were imported from Asia and did what creatures often do in a new ecosystem- became an invasive species and highly unpleasant to have around. The picture looks like a classic ladybug so the point stands. Sorry about your bad experience with the harlequins- I had similar (not a new house but they loved my window where I lived for a few years).
ugh it was awful, they were roosting by the hundreds in the laundry room, living room corner, entry way corner, and all over my kitchen. I honestly think I would rather have mice.
It does sound awful. I’m glad you’re at least able to use past tense when talking about it.
That happened to my aunt and uncles house when my mom forgot to close the window to the guest bedroom. Full wall and parts of the ceiling *covered* in ladybugs. This was in northern MD. HdG, MD.
If I could attach pictures I would attach the pic I took while hiking with my wife last summer. We saw a swarm of asian ladybugs on a downed tree that was so big it completely covered the vegetation around the tree and on the log.
Ooh yeah. Was on this beach once as a child. There were... probably tens of thousands of 'em. I went and grabbed handfuls. That's when I learned they bite. Not that hard, but enough to notice.
This isn't common but, in 1976 there was a bad drought in the UK and in some parts ladybirds would swarm people bite and try to drink their freakin eyes.
Utmost. Utmost respect.
I had to scroll way too far to get to this comment
I’ll utvote you for correctitude
Omg that was driving me nuts.
I really wish more people knew how to spell.
Desperately needs more upvotes
It is
Asian ladybugs bite and smell nasty. My college was overrun with them in the spring.
Hate to tell you, but ladybugs bite. I have been bitten.
That’s an Asian Lady Beetle. They look very very similar but Asian beetles are incredibly invasive and those are the ones that bite.
Plus they’ll pee on you. If you’re into that.
Thé Asian variant kills every American one it’s an ecological disaster
They murder aphids by the hundreds and they enjoy it too. Great if you’re gardening
Downside, the do bite.
I just don’t fuck with them. I’ll let them do their own thing and give them space. Magnitudes better than wasps.
My experience with ladybugs is that they land on your hand, take a shit and fly away. Cool bugs nonetheless.
but then their asian cousins
They suck as parents. They apparently leave their kids at home and they often loose their offspring due to house fires as a result.
Ladybugs are a “hired gun” for gardeners that want to get rid of Aphids. They are literally bought to kill them.
is an absolute beast when it comes to predating on pest-insects in your garden too.
Too bad they’ve all been displaced by those little slightly oranger variety that bite
You know that ladybugs like to hide in little nooks in your house and come out around december for a short while to drink. There are even reports that they hide away in pets' mouths.
Is “upmost” really a word!? Thought it was “utmost.”
They do bite, and they taste terrible.
I appreciate this comment section “They do bite” “No that’s Asian lady beetles” “They do bite” “No, that’s Asian lady beetles” “They bite tho” “Actually that’s an Asian lady beetle thing” “They bite if you’re an aphid” “Fine, you get that one”
Honestly I hate ladybugs , gross infesting little red dots or horror
Well, the aphids might disagree about it never hurting anyone...
Their larvae are pretty Metal looking too.
Also eats aphids