Monday, March 28, 2011

I am a Ladybug killer...

Freely translated from Dutch –Lieveheersbeestjes – The Good Lord’s little beasts
Freely translated from English – Ladybugs – The lady got bugs

And my gosh I had bugs all right!

At one of the best dairy practical training practices I have even been, I had a close encounter with ladybugs and that changed my mind about them forever.


I was spending 3 months with a fantastic family and they were teaching me pretty much everything they knew about dairy farming in America. I would eat, sleep and work with the family and things were going great. They had converted their basement into a cozy bedroom for me, so I had my own space after hard day learning and working (read working as looking and absorbing on how they worked) and every night I would go to bed, feeling pretty happy about what I had seen and learned.

And then it started to warm up in America…

I was laying in my bed, reading my book, I can’t remember what particular book but the chances are great that it was a Stephen King novel and I didn’t have a little bedside lamp so I had the “big” ceiling light on. You see, this was pretty much a bulb with a wire sticking out of a plastic (not finished) ceiling. Which was all right by me, the house was pretty old and it gave it all a pretty comfy (in a strange way) feeling.

My book was very good but felt sleepy so I decided to go to sleep and i turned the light off…

Nothing is more scary than reading a Stephen King novel and then hearing creepy little noises from above you, after you turned off the light… TRUST ME, I KNOW…


So finally I got the nerve to sit up and pull on the little cord which would turn the light on. And what do I see…Like FIFTY ladybugs crawling out of the plastic besides the light bulb… O my Gosh! They were piling on top of each other trying to get out and dropping down on MY bed!

You see I am not a sissy, but I did NOT like that at all! It would have sent me flying if it were spiders but after all, it where just ladybugs, right???

So I decided to talk action, I couldn’t just lie there and pretend to sleep. So I got out my cigarette box (yes I know, the good old days…) took all my cigarettes out and decided to stuff them (as in the Ladybugs) in there, to let them go in the real world tomorrow morning. One by one I caught them and stuck them in my box. After I got them all crammed in (or so I thought), I put them beside me on the table and watched the box for a while.

Those stupid little buggars crawled so much that eventually they came out of the box! So I put my lighter on the box to seal it off, that’ll teach them!!!

Pretty content with myself but all awake again after my “hunting” I picked up my novel and read some more. Feeling pretty sleepy again I turned off the light…. And YES, the sound of hundreds of little feet started crawling above my head AGAIN…



This repeated itself three times! I would stuff Ladybugs in my box, try to sleep, get fustrated, stuff more ladybugs in the box, try to sleep...

At one point I knew I couldn’t stuff more Ladybugs in my little box, it was already crowded as it was, so I decided to do two things: you might know (if you read "Mouse hunt in granny pants") I normally sleep without peejees but on this occasion I thought It would be better to put on a t-shirt and to build myself a little cocoon of blankets and just hoped they wouldn’t crawl underneath the blankets…

I think I killed HUNDREDS of Lady Bugs in those months… and I can’t say I’m sorry…


...

28 comments:

A Work In Progress said...

I like lady bugs because they eat aphids, and I'm not very squeamish, but I think I would have been quite disturbed by hoards of ladybugs dropping out of the ceiling, too! Ick!

Sharon said...

Good time to tell you - after the fact - but lady bugs can bite and do. Yep, a good old Stephen King novel and lady bugs coming out of the ceiling...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

TexWisGirl said...

When they get into their "coming out" phase, they can be VERY annoying when they number in the hundreds. Eeek!

Francine said...

... not to mention that they stink too if they come in 'herds'....

Nancy Grossi ~ Churned In Cali ~ The Wife of a Dairyman said...

Oh that's too funny. I once went to a child's 3 year old bday party....with a ladybug theme....we were in their enclosed porch and let the kids release hundreds of ladybugs....the kids loved it.....I freaked out a bit. I can definitely relate to your story:)

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

We get tons of ladybugs, but since stinkbugs invaded the ladybugs don't seem so bad in comparison.
I'm reading a Stephen King right now - Duma Key. So good!!

LBB said...

AHHH! I'm freaking out a little just reading about it!! I would not be able to sleep in that room! They're harmless but with that many I couldn't handle it!

Unknown said...

I hate lady bugs - of course I hate all bugs! I know ladybugs don't hurt anything but bugs are just creepy!

Jade Rahl said...

O.O.....I would freak out. Creepy little sticky feet and flying around. -falls over-

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Rae said...

I'm not afraid of bugs, but the thought of that many ladybugs falling on me would make me scream. Sounds horrible.

Larkrise garden girl said...

Ladybugs and Stephen King you made me laugh. If I am lucky I get a half a dozen in my garden . But the thought of hundreds of them crawling on me. Yuk,I never knew lady bugs bite.Cheri

Dawn said...

Hahahaa...oh too funny.
(But not funny enough..I feel a little creepy...like I need to make the rounds for a bug check;))

farmer said...

I'm finally over my fear of them,but when I was a kid I was holding one and it took a pee on my hand,I was so grossed out I didn't like them for years!

Jeanie said...

A few lady bugs outside eating aphids is one thing....a crowd of them on the ceiling dropping on my bed would be something else entirely. I'm pretty sure I would have killed a few myself.

Ott, A. said...

that is soo annoying when they get in your house like that. i don't blaim you one bit for killing them.

Farm Girl said...

Why were there so many hatching there? Did you ever find out? I think I might of done the same too.

Kymberly Foster Seabolt said...

My guess is what you had are not true Ladybugs but "Asian Beetles?" (I think that's the name?) They are some import that, like so many harebrained ideas of humans, went awry. They were supposed to be an organic way to control pests and became pests themselves. We have had them so thick on the side of our house in certain weather that the white siding was spotted like a dalmation with clusters of them. My kids, then toddlers, stood on the porch screaming in terror as these THINGS just flew at their heads. We scooped up the kids and ran in the house but the darned bugs were literally trying to crawl in the cracks around doors in windows (in an old house these are many).

Mr. Wonderful was BIT by one as he was installing a light fixture. Thus marking our first ever "lady bug attack."

They smell when you kill them too.

Sherry (city chic on a farm) said...

I'm a lady bug killer too!! The ones we have around here are lady bug beetles (aka bean bugs). They aren't red. They feed on the aphids that eat the soy bean plants. They are beneficial for the plants, but a pain in the but when it gets cold and they need to hibernate. Ugh!!

Thankfully last year my bug guy sprayed the outside of the house down before it got cold so not as many got in the house last year. He said it will be even better when he does it again this fall. Whoo Hoo!!

What really sucks is they smell when you pick them up, they are attracted to the lights, and they swarm the windows on the south side of the house. Ugh!

MadSnapper said...

we found hundreds of lady bugs on our plants last year and thought oh goody, arent they cute. then i found out not all ladybugs are good for plants and of course our were not. we sprayed them. have never even thought about them coming in the house like that. wow. i would have killed them to. I love old houses like you described. my grandmothers had those lights in every room. in the kitchen, she took a string and tied it to the wall and when she came home at night she would swing her arm in the dark and connect with the string and turn the light on. she came home on a dark night and had forgotten to close a window, when she swung here arm she was attacked and was fighting and screaming. Once she got the string and pulled it, the paper towels on the wall had unrolled from the breeze from the window and she was battleing her paper towels. your story triggered this memory. she lived alone and work the 3 to 11 shift at the hospital so always came in at midnight.

Patrice said...

I love ladybugs, so I'll ignore some of the comments here. Thanks for visiting my blog and the new interview today. Any chance I could interview you? I'm a farmer's wife and I love farms. I hope my Barn Chicks who Blog interviews will help me to share their goodness with others. Please think about it and let me know.
Thanks,
Patrice
www.everydayruralty.com

bon bon said...

funny how reading a horror story can elevate even the lowly ladybug (or a hundred of them) to something worthy of a nightmare! :oD

Buttons Thoughts said...

Yikes I don't know what would be scarier Stephen King or the lady bugs he could probably write a great horror story about them. B

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

i wouldn't like that either...for some reason the asian beetles gather in a spare bedroom's bath on our second floor...i keep the door closed. right now i am battling stink bugs who enjoy buzzing and flying into my head...no kidding!

Unknown said...

Yep those were Asian Beetles or as my dearly departed Uncle Dick called them, "bitch bugs" because by his way of thinking ladies didn't stink or bite. We created a monster when we let these seemingly helpful buggars into our world. They are such a pain! You go girl!

p.s. The real lady bugs like to be outside, near tree roots, and by the ground. Oh! AND they really are red, not like the orangy color of these impostors!

Caron said...

I hate those Asian Beetles, but Lady Bugs are awesome. However, *nothing* is awesome dropping from the ceiling in the middle of the night!

Janice Grinyer said...

Ah, the blanket burrito method - that is usually the best way to sleep when camping too ;)!

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