The Souvenir We Didn’t Want

Insect Hitchhikers

Tick…tick.  Tick-tick-tick. Tick.

No, it wasn’t a bomb, and it wasn’t the cute clock in the corner. Roger and I looked at each other, thinking, Really? How many more can there be?!! We recognized that annoying ticking. It was yet another Asian lady beetle bumping against the ceiling near the light. When will it end?

Since camping near Montgomery, Alabama, in November, we’ve been swatting these little beasts daily. They’re wannabe ladybugs, as evidenced when I tried singing the children’s old rhyme: “Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, Your house is on fire and your children are gone.” Crickets.

Afternoon Swarms

During our first afternoon at Gunter Hill, we noticed the little boogers decorating our white RV and truck. And then I started finding them inside—on the ceiling, on my pillow, and sometimes even in my hair. Then one day I turned on the bedroom air conditioner and twenty or thirty fell down onto the comforter. Ugh. Just ugh.

To be honest, Asian lady beetles aren’t the worst bugs you could encounter. They don’t bite (usually)—although Roger did wake up one morning with a trail of 29 suspicious bites across his lower back. (Don't worry; not posting a picture.) They aren’t ugly like the ubiquitous love bugs. But they are tenacious, and they do stink when you smash them. And leave an orange smear if you aren’t careful.

Google Research

Of course I did what any self-respecting and desperate RVer does: I Google’d them, just as I did when I believed we had a carpenter ant infestation a few years ago. (Catch that story here: https://www.juliergreenwalt.com/post/sometimes-i-fight-the-wrong-battle). I was not happy to discover Asian lady beetles are an invasive species originally introduced in the United States by our very own Department of Agriculture. Back in 1910 and again in the 1980s and 1990s, they were brought in to help control aphids and other crop-damaging insects. Somebody thought this was a great idea because these tiny beetles are effective predators, a much better alternative to harmful pesticides.

And I really, really think somebody out there owes me an apology every time I swat a red dot with legs off my pillow.

Unfortunately, what they didn’t know hurts me. The Department of Agriculture somehow missed the fact that these tiny beetles reproduce faster than bunnies, crowd out native ladybugs, and generally act like they own the place every fall. Not a single U.S. state is exempt from their presence.

Where do RVs come in? Well, Asian lady beetles like warmth in the winter. When it starts getting cold outside, they invite themselves into your warm spaces to overwinter, whether it’s a sticks-and-bricks house or a home on wheels. And unlike many other insects, their lifespan is one to three YEARS. So during the winter, they set up their own little campsite in your RV, go dormant, and jump out to greet you in the spring. Oh, and as you travel, you spread the riches.

The Cure

So what can we do? As of this writing, it’s been three weeks since we moved on from Alabama and not a day has gone by without one of us committing insect murder. Back to Google, hoping for deliverance.

Look up any website purporting to give expert advice on eradicating Asian lady beetles and you’ll find two distinct categories. The first category includes suggestions for keeping the bugs out of your home; the second has suggestions for getting rid of your current insect roomies.

To start, these websites instruct you to seal up every opening the bugs could be using as an on-ramp to your interior. Context, people, context! An RV has loads of these openings, some of which should NOT be closed off. From wiring paths to slide-outs to tiny gaps at the bottom of every window frame (what are those for, anyway?!!)—your chances of shutting down every beetle thruway is about as great as your chances of scoring a pull-through campsite in Yosemite. (If you don’t know, Yosemite doesn’t have pull-through sites. In fact, with a total of 381 campsites for RVs in Yosemite Valley, only eight are large enough to accommodate a 40-foot RV. But I digress.)

For an RV, suggestions that might actually help keep out Asian lady beetles include the following:

• Use mesh magnet curtains over the door(s), windows, and roof vents.

• Scent your space with cloves, bay leaves, peppermint oil, and/or lemon oil.

• Set up an LED trap: Put a bowl of soapy water somewhere an LED light can be trained on it. Bugs reportedly will fly to the light, dive into the reflection, and end up in the water.

Now that last suggestion sounds like an evening’s entertainment to me. But I’m also entertained by counting the zzzts! of those bluelight bug zappers we all used to hang on the back patio.

For Roger and me, since we’re well beyond the “keeping them out” phase, the internet suggests vacuuming up the bugs in such a way that we can release them outside (avoids stink and stain). I can do that. Or maybe I can just light the chocolate peppermint candle I picked up at the Lodge Factory store yesterday and hope our miniature hitchhikers hightail it out of here.

Hospitality NOT Required

I’m confident we will conquer these uninvited guests. I have a mission and I am determined to rid our living space of this souvenir we didn't want. I am not required to extend hospitality in this case, and I will not stop until no red dots with legs remain in our 300 square feet, give or take. (For more on appropriate hospitality in small spaces, check out this post: https://www.juliergreenwalt.com/post/hospitality-in-300-square-feet-give-or-take.)

And that makes me think about other areas in life where I am that determined, that mission-minded. Sure, we all want a bug-free space to live in. And we’ll spend great amounts of time and energy making sure our spaces remain bug-free. But how about the invasive, toxic thoughts that can so easily fill our mental space? How determined are we to do as Paul suggests in Philippians 4:8 to eradicate them? I’ve quoted it before when discussing the worry whirlpool (https://www.juliergreenwalt.com/post/worry-rocks-the-boat-even-in-our-favorite-harbor) and it’s worth repeating in this context:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” 

It takes practice, lots of practice, and focused determination, but Paul also assures us that we can “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). And the result of learning to firmly evict whatever is unworthy from our mental living space is a deeply satisfying, no regrets life.

Take that, invasive mind bugs!

Have you ever dealt with a seemingly unending pest? How did you handle it? Share in the comments—I look forward to reading your stories.