10/04/2002

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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Do Ladybugs Bite? (for the Week of Oct. 20, 2002)

Writer:

Kurt Knebusch
knebusch.1@osu.edu
(330)263-3776

Dear Twig: Do Asian lady beetles bite? My friend says they do. What do you know?

Multicolored Asian lady beetles, those non-native ladybugs that swarm into homes in fall, do, in fact, bite, although not too often.

That’s what an Ohio State scientist named Joe Kovach tells me, based on his research and his own experience.

Joe is studying the pesky orange bugs so he can figure out ways to keep them out of your house -- ideally, by using few or no pesticides. He surveyed people who had lots of ladybugs in their house, and 40 percent of those people -- four out of every 10 -- reported having been bitten.

Fortunately, multicolored Asian lady beetles don’t have stingers. They bite with their tiny, sharp mandibles (mouth parts). Joe was bitten while in a swarm in southern Ohio. He says it felt like a cat scratch or someone dragging a pin on his arm.

Ouch.

Joe and other scientists aren’t sure why Asian ladybugs bite. They might be trying to get moisture -- sweat. They might be grazing on microbes on your skin. (Yuck.) Or it might be that they think you’re
an aphid: a really big aphid who probably isn’t even excreting any honeydew. Go figure.

Twig

Hey, Editor! Joe Kovach, coordinator of Ohio State University’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, provided the information for this column. Plans for a simple, inexpensive home ladybeetle trap are available from (330) 263-3846 or at http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/%7Eipm/lady/blt1.htm.

“Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick,” a service of The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, is a weekly science column for kids. “Twig” is a bow tie-wearing cartoon walkingstick, a type of insect. He’s the voice of the column and appears at the left in the hard-copy version. “Bob the Bug,” Twig’s pal, is a pensive bald-headed bug of an unidentified type who doesn’t say much and appears in the bottom-right corner. For more information or to receive “Twig” columns by mail or e-mail, contact Kurt Knebusch, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691, (330) 263-3776, knebusch.1@osu.edu.