What to do when ladybirds come to stay
SIR – Robert Hickman (Letters, October 14) asks what he should do about the ladybirds coming into his house.
The answer is: leave them be. They are simply looking for a suitable place to hibernate.
Every year we get a lovely little collection of them in the corner of our bedroom window. They have recently appeared and will be happily snoozing until they decide it is time to set off again into the great aphid-infested outdoors.
We put a post-it note next to them to remind our cleaning lady not to hoover them up. Ian Mabberley
Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
SIR – We have been invaded by ladybirds for the last few years.
They congregate in the corners of our wooden-framed doubleglazed windows and smell horrible (they are the ones that have lots of black spots).
I have tried several options and spent a considerable amount of money trying to get rid of them, but have at last found a solution. I get a small knob of Vicks VapoRub (which you would normally rub on your chest) and smear it into the corner of the window frame. Works a treat – they obviously don’t like it. It needs to be reapplied after a few weeks. Lesley Woodward
Cambridge
SIR – Warm homes can prevent ladybirds from hibernating, so starvation may follow over the winter.
We lift our aphid-eating friends into a jar with a piece of paper and deposit them in a garden shed or bosky spot. Chris Bailey
Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire
SIR – We had an infestation of ladybirds in our bathroom last week.
However, we didn’t need to take any action because house spiders had streaked into the bathroom earlier in the month at the first sign of cold weather, and they made short work of this unexpected food supply. Hugh Foster
Farnborough, Hampshire