Asian beetles look like our native ladybugs, but they are different in being much more of a nuisance.
Each of the nice days that I mostly sit in my recliner as my knee slowly recovers, I watch as the beetles that came in last fall migrate to the south screen on my open patio door, my view of the yard and the bird feeders.
Each evening, they leave the screen and work back to fluorescent light on the other side of the room, settling in there until I turn that off and then head towards the bathroom where I have a night light on.
Each morning, I find some on the floor; some near the light; some here and there to begin their push to the south windows again. On the windows and screen, they slowly crawl around trying to find an escape route to the outside, ending up along the casings and on the screen; where Scott brings out the vacuum and sucks up another bunch.
The vacuum has the aroma of dead beetles; a distinctive, acrid, bad smell, not something found with ladybugs.
I spent 4 hours concentrating on the bugs as they crawled around the screen and window. It appears that they pause at times and then continue crawling, exploring each crack and opening sort of randomly; repeating their failed searches. I suppose a few do get out, but it seems the likelihood is no more than having a room full of typing monkeys produce a book of good poetry (something that a nation full of poets rarely accomplishes).
Today, I am opening the screen with the hope that more go out than come back in. Being here in SE MN, surrounded by soybean fields; the summer host for most of the beetles, it is hard to be free of them. Maybe my legislators will put up 50 foot screen border wall to keep these illegal immigrants out.
