by Curt Kovener 
With cool temperatures last week and Indian Summer like temperatures now going one, I should have known better. I have been in the country in the fall and know what happens this time of year, but other things like racking homemade wine and blowing leaves from the ever narrowing lane seemed to take precedence.
But Sunday afternoon, I saw the error of my procrastination.
There were ladybug beetles swarming in the hot autumn sun and I only thought I had the wilderness retreat sealed up. Going into the spare bedroom I was greeted with hundreds of ladybugs and scores of wasps lining the walls and ceiling. It was rather like a Stephen King novel.
I guess the window air conditioner should have been taken down a week or two earlier.
I don’t care how well insulated or sealed your house is, those #$%^& ladybugs will find a way in.
So keeping the bedroom door shut, I disconnected the window air conditioner and slid it inside to a waiting two wheel cart. I then closed the window and just before exiting to take the A/C unit to the basement for storage, sprayed then entire room with a product from a big box store called Bug Stop. Home Defense or anything that puts up a barrier against roaches, ants and spiders will do the job.
After getting the air conditioner secured for the winter, I peeked inside the spare bedroom and nearly all of the insects were now on the floor either deceased or in the final throes of regret for coming into the house.
I sprayed this water-based insecticide around the inside and outside of all doors and windows. You can’t keep the ladybugs from coming inside but if they cross this barrier, within about a foot you will find their deceased carcass ready for vacuuming.
Don’t try squishing these rascals. They give off an offensive odor. If you ever collected lightning bugs at night in your youth, and then sniffed the bottle/jar of dying lightning bugs the next morning, you’ll get an idea of what squished ladybugs smell like.
So the last thing I did before leaving the wilderness was to spray another round of the insecticide around doors and windows and along the baseboard. I’ll vacuum up all the corpses by the weekend.
