That’s No Ladybug On Your Window, and it Isn’t Nearly As Friendly

Can you really trust anything anymore?

Seriously...what kind of world do we live in, where you can't trust something like a ladybug? Think how many children's cartoons, commercials, and print ads.... that all feature ladybugs for whatever reason. Well, I suppose they use bears in advertising too, and we don't encourage kids to play with bears. But still...

So here's the deal. Regular, run-of-the-mill ladybugs are totally harmless. Borderline friendly, even. They just live their best life, being a bug, and causing no harm. But they have an evil doppelganger called the Asian Lady Beetle, or harmonia axyridis. You know, because around the office, we all just sit around identifying insects by their Latin name.

The two bugs are fairly easy to tell apart.

There are a couple of quick ways right off the bat. First, lady beetles have a white-ish head, with what looks kinda like an M. They also tend to be a bit more on the orange-y side, whereas ladybugs tend to be on the deeper red side, and their head is totally black. Here, check 'em out:

Also, lady beetles are more aggressive.

They will come at you, and actually, bite you! Even worse, if you kill one of the little jerks, they leave behind a yellow stain that stinks really bad. Some people say it smells a bit like dead leaves. I bet they smell like dirty skivvies.

We could sit here and compare the differences between the two all day, but I think we all get the picture. Well, again, the real picture is that Mother Nature hates us, and is always trying to ruin everything. For real, she never just lets us have nice things. I mean really, I'm all set with beetles that bite and smell bad.

Bad-smelling beetles to dirty-sounding towns. Welcome to Maine!