RULE #1 - Never break your own rule.

When I was growing up I liked lady bugs. They were cute, I usually only saw one at a time, and I was told they bring good luck.

Over the last few years though I have developed a different feeling towards ladybugs. It started in the fall of 2000. I had been living in the house I live in now for a few months and noticed I had a few lady bugs in the house. I never had ladybugs in the house before, and didn't think much of it. Then one day I went into my bedroom and there were about 50 at a time crawling the walls and windows. I thought I would be sick.

I went into the kitchen. If you know me and bugs, if there are bugs in the kitchen, then I am not in the kitchen, and I am certainly not eating in the kitchen. There were probably 3-5 lady bugs in every corner, 10-15 ladybugs swarming around the light, the living room light had about 5 swarming around it and all I kept hearing was them bumping into the light over and over and over again.

I went out my back door to get away from it and stepped into a swarm of ladybugs, they were flying everywhere. My back yard was infested with them. I thought I was in some freak sci-fi movie. I decided to spray bug spray around the perimeter of my house. I sprayed at least one whole can of bug spray and maybe two. I went inside and tried to get them all. It took several days to get rid of them.

A few days later it seemed like things were better. I found a few dead on the kitchen floor. I opened the kitchen door to sweep them outside and what I saw was unbelievable. I must have hit a nest. I called my neighbor to come over and take a picture (and of course I can't find the picture right now, but I found this picture on line.) What I had on my back porch was about 3-5 times what you see in this picture.) Thankfully they were all dead.

My new rule after that was the first lady bug I see I will go around the perimeter of the house and spray. I have done this every year I have lived here and it has paid off. Every year that is, until this year...

I saw the first lady bug two days ago. I have been busy, I'll get to it I said. Well I looked out my kitchen window today and saw the swarm. I grabbed every can of spray I had (almost grabbed the oven cleaner) and headed out to spray around the house. What a nasty job. The front of my house and on the sides, you don't even see a ladybug. But then the back. They were swarming in the air, covering my grill, all over the porch, the ceiling, the floor, the siding on the house, ME!

My neighbor was out cutting the grass and I am sure if he saw me I provided some great entertainment. I was spraying ladybugs flying (so it looked like I was just spraying the air). Then I thought one was crawling on me and I started my "I am so freaked out, jumping up and down, shaking my hair, get it off of me, make it stop" dance. I was flailing my arms hitting them away from me. Then I ran out of ammo (bug spray) and went back into the house for more. (Do I or do I not take the oven cleaner??? Eh, better not. I used ant spray, hornet spray, wasp spray, (almost accidentally grabbed Pledge furniture cleaner.) I went back out armed for the next round of battle. I am sure at this point I looked pretty rough because I kept messing my hair up thinking there were ladybugs in my hair. What the neighbors must be saying... I sprayed some more until I just couldn't take it anymore. My back porch was soaking wet with bug spray. I went inside and checked myself all over to make sure there weren't any crawling on me. I think I won the battle.

Next year, I will spray the house as soon as I see the first ladybug. No exceptions.