As a kid I used to love catching ladybugs and looking for their lucky spots, learning how they ate aphids (I'm still not quite sure what an aphid looks like, but whatever), reading books about them and so forth.
But now there's an invasion of the Multicolored Asian Ladybeetles, which look a bit like lady bugs, except that they are more oval in shape, less perfectly red in color and the come in HOARDS.
I realize there are places they have not reached yet, but Wisconsin is not one of those places. And in the fall we have swarms of these horrid bugs crawling into whatever sheltered holes they can find, along with seven million of their brethren.
They then cling to walls, crawl across ceilings and hide in the folds of old clothing until spring. Many of them do not survive the cold winter, and they simply die where they are. But since they have that lovely hard exoskeleton, they remain as crunchy dirt for the unwary foot.
What's worse is that they don't all die, so when you're sweeping out your used-only-in-summer buildings at camp the next spring the nasty, horrid things go into your dust pile, and after you come back from lunch break half of them have crawled away.
And they BITE.
I don't care how many aphids or juniper beetles they eat, they are DISGUSTING.
I occasionally wonder if the magic has gone out of finding these obscure but bright and colorful bugs--certainly any child who brings me a ladybeetle claiming it's a ladybug is in for a rather long rant about how gross they are, rather than tales of luck and legend.
I can't even recall the last time I saw a true ladybug, either. Maybe I'll be reading my niece the 'Grumpy Multicolored Asian Ladybeetle' in a few years. And won't that be depressing.
How cute!!
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