Bugs in your house? Might be easier to keep them out than kill them…

Q – I love ladybugs. It's just that I don't love them inside my house. Why suddenly are we seeing a bunch of them in our home and how can I get rid of them?

Angela in Sandy Springs

A – Ladybugs, stinkbugs, kudzu bugs, anything along those lines are all coming out of the woodwork this time of year and they are all looking for the same thing, how get out of your house.

Ladybugs can pretty easily find a crevice to get inside our homes to spend the winter, but just like other over-wintering pests, they really struggle at finding their way back outside.

So the number one best thing you can do is to seal entry points into your home – around windows, around where your utilities run into your house, around vents – just wherever there is a gap seal it with caulk or hardware cloth and try to keep them out come next fall.

Now then, to get rid of the ones you have inside, anything with Pyrethrin as an active ingredient will do the trick. (Pyrethrin also works great on house flies come summer).

If you find a huge amount of the l’bugs – and believe me that is possible, I have seen people carry 5 gallon buckets of them out of their house – stick the end of your vacuum cleaner hose into the pile and just suck them up.

Quick and easy, you do it several times if you need to then just empty outside, or into a trash bag, seal and toss.

Kill the pests, clean up the remains, and seal their entry ways. That will keep them out of your house.