Not very ladylike
Posted by Fred Speer on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 @ 11:36 AM
Swarm of insects on campus continues to bug students
Phillip Pluta
Issue date: 10/21/09
Section: Campus
ISU is being invaded by pests.
"I got attacked by a lot of them when I was coming from the College of Business," said Durell Miller, a junior insurance and risk management major.
"They bite," said Savanna Hubler, a sophomore criminology major.
"They're ladybugs," said Peter Scott, an associate professor of
biology. "But they're actually a kind of beetle, and there is more than one species; each one very hard to identify."
He said the multi-colored bugs seen around campus are most likely Asian ladybird beetles. Scott said they were brought from Asia to be used as garden pest control and are the most common species in Indiana.
"They sometimes prey on other ladybirds," he added.
Asian ladybird beetles can have highly variable color patterns, ranging from red with no spots to all black with various spot colors. mostly prey on soft-bodied insects and sometimes even each other in their larvae stage. They have been reported to spread rapidly and are also known to outcompete other native ladybird beetle species.
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