I was sitting out in the yard when I felt that dreaded “something” on the back of my neck. My fingers met with a hard bump rather than the expected soft squishy mosquito. As I brought my hand around to investigate, I saw the familiar orange and black ladybug. (You may call it a lady beetle) It had also peed on my finger.
Memories of being peed on by ladybugs are a part of my childhood. You pick them up, and they leave a puddle of yellow on your hand. What fun! Wellas the folly of youth gets bumped by the wisdom of age, I decided to investigate this phenomenon. Turns out, that’s not pee. …It’s blood. [insert dramatic eyebrow]
The “multicolored Asian lady beetle” (to use its proper name) is native to Asia, obviously, but is commonly found pretty much everywhere in North America as well. At first they arrived by accident, but on multiple occasions over the last century the US government purposely released large numbers of ladybugs into the wild. The reason is that they have quite the appetite for soft tree-dwelling insects like aphids, and don’t do any damage to plants themselves.
Back to the point of this story, when a ladybug feels threatened, it excretes a sticky yellow/orange goo that smells rather bad. That’s also their blood. For us humans, it’s really not much of a bother. Ladybugs don’t (can’t) sting or bite. Keep in mind, though, if you find a ladybug who is snug as a bug on your rug… tread carefully or else your rug will end up with a permanent yellow stain.
