ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — You went outside, felt how beautiful it was and said to yourself, "This is the perfect weekend to set up those Halloween decorations." You start to get some stuff up, and then you feel a little bite.
You might have come face to face with an Asian Lady Beetle! They may look like ladybugs, however, Asian Lady Beetles can be slightly larger and come in various shades of red and orange. Another way to tell the two apart is by looking at the bug's head. The Asian Lady Beetles have a noticeable "M" marking near its shell.
"They're bad because there's so many of them and they're invasive," Ric Arguello, an exterminator at Babes Termites and Pest Control said. "In the fall, they get into people's homes and businesses and everything."
Around this time of the year, the business's line is ringing off the hook. Many customers are asking why they're seeing so many of the insects.
"In Asia, where they came from, they would overwinter on mountainsides," Arguello said. "Well, we don't have any. We got a lot of houses, so they find that warmth and then just find a crack to get in, and then wait it out until spring hits."
So these bugs are staying for months and not paying rent? They'd go down in history as some of the worst house guests ever. But Arguello says you shouldn't have an issue getting rid of these pests.
"A lot of people use like a soapy water solution on the outside of their house," Arguello added. "That'll kill them. [You can also vacuum] them up or you could hire someone like us to put a residual down."
An Asian Lady Beetle can live anywhere between 30 and 90 days, though most are expected to die off when we start to have a consistent freeze.