Every autumn, millions of lady bugs (or what appears to be millions) swarm around your home, looking for a nice place to spend the winter. Trust me, I know! I get them every year, which pushed me to do a little research!

But in reality, they are not truly lady bugs. They are actually "Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetles." These beetles are valuable to the environment because they control aphids. In fact, these multicolored lady beetles are much better at controlling aphids than the true lady bugs.

So, the first question you must want to know is how you can tell the difference between native lady bugs and the multicolored beetles. Well, lady bugs are bright red, whereas the multicolored lady beetles appear in shades of light to dark orange. They additionally have many variations of patterns of spots. While some barely have no spots at all, some tend to have countless spots. Looking closely at the multicolored lady beetles, it's clear that no two are alike.

These Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetles are not harmful, though, when they make it inside the house, though they can be very irritating when they show in great numbers. For example, imagine picking up a cup of tea and find yourself nearly swallowing a beetle that landed in your tea or was just hanging around the rim of the cup. No doubt that two or three lady beetles landing in your bowl of cereal will definitely make you lose your appetite. Now imagine having company come over and finding lady beetles in their food or beverages. Not a pretty sight!

Again, the beetles are not necessarily harmful inside the house, but when they swarm in the autumn, they can cause problems if they crawl into your furnace vent pipes and plug them up. They can plug attic vents, also.

When the beetles come in large groups, you can definitely smell them. The odor is a bit like burned rubber or hot asphalt. The odor is even stronger when the beetles feel threatened. Apparently they view being swept off the walls or vacuumed up as a threatening situation. Sometimes when threatened, the beetles ooze an orange liquid, in addition. These liquids can potentially stain walls and fabrics.

So how do you get rid of these pesky lady bug infestations? Well, here are five things you can do:

1. Suck up the beetles with a vacuum cleaner attachment.

This can be time-consuming, but it is a non-toxic and safe method to remove the beetles. When vacuuming up large numbers of Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetles, be careful that you don't leave the attachment hose draped across the vacuum cleaner in preparation for the next time you vacuum, otherwise the beetles will quickly find their way out of the vacuum bag and crawl around the house again. Try stuffing a paper towel into the end of the vacuum hose to solve this problem.

2. Seal up cracks or spaces around doors and windows.

By sealing up cracks and spaces it will make it harder for the beetles to get into the house. The beetles actually don't need a lot of space to crawl through. Even a door that fits the frame pretty well may still leave enough space to permit the beetles to enter your house.

3. Spray bug spray containing pyrethrins or permethrin around door and window frames.

These beetles will avoid crawling across bug spray with pyrethrins or permethrin, or if they do crawl across it, they will die shortly afterwards.

4. Use a garden hose to spray the beetles from the side of your home.

In the fall, when the beetles are crawling on the outside of your house by the hundreds of thousands, take your garden hose and use the sprayer attachment to spray them from the side of your house. To have an effect, you need to do this two or three times a day when the swarms are active.

5. Simply Learn to Accept the Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetles.

If you can't beat them, join them! We have to suppose that these Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetles are swarming around our homes simply because they are only trying to survive the winter, like all of us!

In the wonderful world of insects, these beetles are considered predators because they eat aphids and other plant pests. In the near future, though, these beetles may be in a low cycle, and then, we'll all wish there were more of them when the aphids begin attacking our crops, gardens and flowering plants.

This article was prepared with the help of LeAnn R. Ralph.