In this episode of the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin begin a multi-part investigation into a severe Asian Lady Beetle infestation at a listener’s home in North Georgia.

Through a detailed photo analysis, the team identifies critical vulnerabilities in the home’s design, including its wood siding, metal roofing, and sunny exposure, which create a perfect environment for beetles to “overwinter”. The discussion highlights how specific entry points—like gaps in vaulted tongue-and-groove ceilings and unsealed double doors—allow thousands of beetles to bypass local “un-treatable” labels. This first installment focuses on why these pests are attracted to specific structures and the importance of an “ounce of prevention” before the autumn migration begins.

Podcast Transcript:

Michael Wienecke: Hey, so here on the Peskies Pest Control Podcast, we are talking today—we had a listener from one of our YouTube videos about Asian Lady Beetles. She reached out to us. Travis, read exactly what she said. She’s been having this problem for quite some time.

Travis McGowin: Right, and to give people just a little backstory on that, basically, we have an area on our website that allows people to submit contact cards and ask us to basically reach out to them. And so, Laura had actually sent in a contact card through our website and this is what it said:

“Hello, I know we’re outside of your service area as we’re in Georgia and you’re in Alabama, but I watched your YouTube videos on Asian Lady Beetle infestations and it was the first thing that gave us real hope. We have a home here and can’t find anyone locally willing to tackle the problem. Everyone just says that there’s nothing that can be done. After seeing your approach, it seems like someone should be able to help. If you have any guidance, referrals in North Georgia, or even offer remote consulting, we’d truly appreciate it. Thanks so much for any direction you can provide. We’re desperate. Thank you, Laura.”

Michael Wienecke: First off, we are flattered that somebody would reach out that far and ask about some of these problems with Asian Lady Beetles. So, she sent us a ton of pictures, so we were just going to kind of go over each picture that we see and go from there.

Travis McGowin: Right, so she’s got the pictures that she emailed us. We’ve got them uploaded and we’re just going to talk through kind of one by one. Maybe anybody watching—obviously, if you’re listening, you won’t be able to see the pictures—but you’ll hear a description. If it sounds like something, maybe a condition or maybe similar to the way that your home is built, maybe it can kind of give you some insight and some guidance as to some ways that you might could help lessen the problem, prevent the problem. They do seem like they’ve been a lot worse this year than in the last couple years. We’re still having people with issues around here, and we’re almost to the end of February.

Michael Wienecke: Well, it’s all about the seasons, too. I mean, we’ve had extremely hot weather.

Travis McGowin: Right. So, I’m going to go ahead and pull us off the screen here and we’re going to look at the first picture—the outside of the house first. Obviously, a two-story house, porch, looks like there’s kind of a non-enclosed carport type area there. Looks like it may even—almost looks like a fireplace right there in the middle.

Michael Wienecke: Yes, right there. The little white recessed—

Travis McGowin: Right, and I see obviously the chimney has two stacks on it, so it may have an indoor and an outdoor fireplace, I’m not really sure. But, you know, based upon what we’re seeing, the house has wood siding. Go back to that other picture. So, let’s just talk about—she’s having issues with Asian Lady Beetles. With this first picture that I already looked at, I can already—I’ll bet it’s the front right-hand side of that house right there where the sun’s shining on it.

Travis McGowin: Well, yeah, that’s usually point number one. The vast majority of the people that have a problem with Asian Lady Beetles end up having a problem specifically on the side of the house that receives the most sunlight. The reason for that is because these beetles are looking for a place to overwinter to stay warm throughout the colder weather, and obviously they’re going to be drawn more towards a place that has sunlight because it’s warmer.

Michael Wienecke: Yep, the metal roof too. I mean, it’s going to be hot. And also, how sealable is a metal roof?

Travis McGowin: Especially with the textures and the different—I guess it’s corrugated surface of it—you’re going to have gaps. It’s not like it’s a flat piece of sheet metal. So, if there happen to be any gaps underneath that metal—a lot of times they’ll go over an existing roof with metal—there’s going to be gaps around the eaves. And especially with a home like this that looks like more of your log cabin style house or wood siding house, those can be a lot more prone to gaps, cracks, and crevices. Especially with wood having moisture, shrinking, contracting in and expanding because of moisture content—sometimes that can even put you at a higher risk.

Travis McGowin: So, we’re going to take a look now at another one. Here’s another one—this is an interesting one. What’s your first reaction here, Michael?

Michael Wienecke: So, I would say that we’ve got a pinch point right there on the left-hand corner. And it looks like it’s getting a little bit of water. And then the type of siding—what do they call that, the wooden shank siding—is not going to seal really well up against that trim piece. Being the sunny side of the house, I think that’s probably going to be the sunny side of the house.

Travis McGowin: I think if you look at the second-floor deck on the right side—I think you’re up on that deck looking at the awning on the back side of that house.

Michael Wienecke: That’s what I was thinking. Rainwater alone just thinking it’s kind of pouring off that deck and just running right off the side of that siding.

Travis McGowin: So, here’s what I see, though. If you look at the way the roofline slopes down, and then you look at the awning coming off, you’ve got exposed wood right there that runs towards the main part of the house through the roofline. My guess would be that it’s probably not sealed up all that great—at least not from the standpoint of gaps and cracks that are large enough for an Asian Lady Beetle to get through.

Michael Wienecke: Seeing that picture, I would say that’s a really good harborage. And of course, if they’ve got a water issue going into that area and it’s hot, it’s going to kind of heat that up and just kind of make it a really great environment for all pests.

Travis McGowin: Well, and then I’ve got this angle too—so you can kind of see that second-floor side again. Also keep in mind that those two sets of the double doors there—if there are gaps or cracks in the seals in the center or around the doors—if this is the sunny side of the house, that might be a reason why they could be worse in that second-floor room. And then, of course, the bigger the window, the more heat and light it’s going to let in, and if you have Asian Lady Beetles inside your home, they’re going to be drawn towards those specific areas.

Michael Wienecke: Well, and look at the color of the house. The whole color’s brown except for that one area is a really light color.

Travis McGowin: Right. So, those are the only pictures that I have of the outside of the house, but now we’re going to transition over into the inside. In my house, I do get an occasional Asian Lady Beetle—I might at most in a room see two or three at a time. I have sheetrock. But if you had ceilings like this, you might be a little more prone to seeing Asian Lady Beetles. Sheetrock goes from floor to ceiling, across the ceiling, all the edges are really well sealed, taped, mudded, painted. But if you have tongue-and-groove or some type of wooden ceiling, obviously there’s gaps, cracks, and crevices.

Michael Wienecke: Well, and just judging by what I’m seeing here, it’s probably a pretty tight attic space.

Travis McGowin: Right, it could be. That vaulted portion—I’m not exactly sure which room that’s in—but that vaulted ceiling may not really have an attic space at all. And also, right there where the ceiling meets the brick—a lot of times you’ve got a little piece of trim or quarter-round right there, but you can still have gaps because nothing’s going to really sit flush up against brick much of the time.

Michael Wienecke: No, you’re right about that. As well as the windows—they look like they’re wooden windows. I have wooden windows at my house and out of all of the windows, I would say those are the least sealed.

Travis McGowin: Right. And this is just another view of that same room.

Michael Wienecke: So that’s that room with the light wooding on the other side. I’ll bet that that’s the area that she’s having the most issue.

Travis McGowin: Yep. And then if we look, you see vaulted ceiling, definitely the same texture on the ceiling throughout—almost looks like tongue-and-groove or something of that nature. It’s very pleasing to the eye, however there’s obviously gaps and things that you could see through that. Moving on to what looks like possibly a closet—so it looks like there’s almost maybe shiplap or something like that on the wall there. There again, a good bit of gaps, cracks, and crevices for them to come through and hide on.

Michael Wienecke: And I can’t remember how old she said the house was.

Travis McGowin: Right, and it could be older; however, there looks like there’s a lot of updated—I mean, recessed lights and things of that nature. Here’s yet another room. There again, we’ve got the wood, not sheetrock, but we’ve got the wood on the walls. Gaps, cracks, crevices. Moisture causes wood to contract and swell depending upon the moisture content. I see it in my own house sometimes when the humidity increases here in Alabama. I have one door in our bedroom that leads to the master bathroom, and the door doesn’t want to close very good because of the moisture content causing the wood in the door to swell a little bit.

Michael Wienecke: Right. Well, and like we were just talking about, the wooden windows do the same thing and they’re just not going to seal up properly. That room’s going to heat up really well and it’s going to be hard to control hot and cold compared to a large attic space.

Travis McGowin: Right. And so, moving on to the next one—this looks like it’s probably in the kitchen or something like that. Same throughout—same wood on the walls. That window actually looks like it’s just one whole rectangular window. What a view, though!

Michael Wienecke: Absolutely beautiful.

Travis McGowin: Double doors—big thing about double doors being, and I kind of mentioned this earlier, is that if you have your door seals that go down the center, if the door does not sit flush with the frame, you can have a lot of different entry points or possible access points through that.

Michael Wienecke: Yeah, it can be something as simple—I went to a customer’s house the other day. We had gotten rid of about 85% of his issue and went back, and his seals on his windows had just—they had cut them just a little bit too short, and just something that small those little guys can slide right on in.

Travis McGowin: Right, it doesn’t take a very big gap. And then this is just the same kind of a different view of what looks like the master bedroom, maybe. But there again, you got a fireplace. It looks like it runs all the way up above that TV, so it might be a true fireplace as opposed to an insert. I would assume it probably is a true fireplace if it’s got a chimney like it does on the outside of the house, and they can come down those as well. You and I, Michael, have both seen an older house that we treated—the one actually in the YouTube video that Laura references—had just hundreds and hundreds of Asian Lady Beetles laying at the base of the fireplace.

Michael Wienecke: Her home was, I would say, older than this home. But just looking at the home, tell me how you feel, but do you think that this home is treatable?

Travis McGowin: Absolutely. So, that’s why I feel like in a sense where you get people who run a pest control company or operate a pest control company or even just work for one, and they get these questions where it’s like, “Okay, can we treat this? Can we do anything with this?” I don’t feel like in the pest control world that there should be many times when the answer is “no.” Because even if we couldn’t go as far in treatment with Laura’s house as we did with the other house that we did the YouTube video on, there’s still plenty that can be done. You can always treat gaps, cracks, and crevices around the inside and outside of the house. Most every house is going to have some type of attic space. Attic spaces can be treated. Gaps, cracks, and crevices can be treated with liquids, they can be treated with dusts, aerosols. So, I really feel like you might have to set realistic expectations with the customer and say, “Hey, we can only do so much. I can’t promise your problem’s going to completely disappear. However, it should be better.” Or what I tell people sometimes is, “Hey, we’re going to apply this treatment. I’m not certain we can stop them from coming in—a lot of times when you’re seeing them, it’s already too late, they’ve already migrated in—however, I can try to help you only clean up dead ones instead of seeing live ones everywhere.”

Michael Wienecke: Well, I mean, you’re trying for a 95% reduction is what we like to say because it’s a flying insect, right? It can fly from house to house and they are extremely persistent.

Travis McGowin: Yeah, they are. Them and the other one that goes hand-in-hand with them is stink bugs. Stink bugs will typically be occupying a house just like Asian Lady Beetles would, and there again, they’re looking for a place to overwinter, they’re looking for a place to stay warm during the colder temperatures.

Travis McGowin: So, you know, let’s talk a little bit about specifically treating this house. If you’re going to treat the house for Laura and try to help her out here, how do you think you’d start on the outside of this house, Michael?

Michael Wienecke: So, first thing is we’re going to get the consultation—I mean, that’s going to be our most important. Speak to her about where she’s seeing them the most. Like I said, we’d talked about that right-hand side of the house. We’d go inside, I’d assess if I could get in the crawlspace—it’d be great to get some dust in there. When I say treat the attic, not the whole entire attic—just around the eaves to those entry points where those pests can get in. Then on the inside, we’re going to treat around the windows, cracks and crevices, getting kind of a good barrier around there. Getting an aerosol in between those cracks and crevices that’s going to leave us a really good residual as well as killing those little guys on contact.

Travis McGowin: Right, and they’re going to typically—once they make entry into the house—they’re going to typically want to go towards a window because it’s obviously warmer if sunlight’s coming through, there’s light outside, so a lot of times they think they’re going towards daylight when in fact they’re just stuck behind a glass window.

Michael Wienecke: Oh, 100%. Well, and then I mean, it’s always good to treat obviously the highest areas where they’re coming in. Those beautiful doors right there are very large entry points. Garage doors are always really good spots. Just looking at that window right there, it also looks like it’s on the sunny side and it’s pretty low grade, so that’d be a really good entry point for them. So again, treating around the base of the home as well.

Travis McGowin: Yeah, and just going back to this—now that we’ve kind of looked through the photos—it’s kind of obvious that there’s probably not much of an attic space above that second floor that comes to that balcony right there. As you can see, if we swap over to this picture, I believe that’s what we’re looking at right there. At a minimum, you could at least apply some treatment to this attic space, and around the exterior, if there are gaps, cracks, crevices around the doors and windows, you certainly could treat around those. Even right there where the air conditioning unit is—you’re talking about where the lines go into the house—there’s a gap usually around there that’s sometimes not very well sealed up. So, I think it’s very dismissive for a company to say, “Hey, there’s nothing we can do, you’re just going to have to live with them.” I really do feel like there is some relief that could be sought here and gained here at this customer’s property.

Michael Wienecke: Well, and then I mean just on the exterior treatment—treating around the windows, treating around the eaves, treating around the walls, treating around the sunny side of the house. You have to follow the label—it’s a spot treatment, it’s a perimeter treatment. But the label doesn’t say that a spot can be to the top of the house or to the bottom of the house; it’s still a spot.

Travis McGowin: Right, right. It reminds me a lot of one of the houses that I have down here in my neck of the woods in the Montgomery area. The customer—the wife—is actually allergic to them, and what some people may not know, the Asian Lady Beetles actually can bite. Yes, they can. I have been bitten on the back of the neck by one actually here in my office. So, I have been on the receiving end of that. But she is actually allergic and has a bit of a reaction to those. So, they live in a two-story house that has wood on it—it’s a log cabin style house. And that’s the problem that they’ve run into: the contraction and the swelling of the wood opens up gaps. It doesn’t matter how much sealant you put in those gaps, eventually you’re going to have to reapply it because of the nature of the wood on the outside. So, come September, October every single year, we really do a good job of treating around the outside. And we haven’t been able to prevent them 100%—however, we’ve made life a lot more livable in their house because of the treatment that we have been able to do.

Michael Wienecke: Well, and you have to look at the outside environment, the condition of the home—if it’s a wooden structure, if it’s a brick structure. We’re seeing a lot of issues with this board-and-batten style structure—it just leaves a lot of open cracks and crevices in these newer homes that are being built.

Travis McGowin: Right, and unfortunately, the homes are built so fast these days a lot of times. You hope that you’ve got a great builder and a great set of contractors, no corners are being cut, everything’s being sealed in like it’s supposed to. And even the best builder may sometimes miss something. You go into these attics that have been spray foamed, and what do you find? You still find bugs. Because even spray foam is not 100% the be-all and end-all of sealing things up. No matter how diligent you try to be to seal something out, unfortunately, if it wants to find a way in, a lot of times it will find a way in, even with spray foam trying to inhibit that.

Michael Wienecke: Oh, you’re not going to seal Asian Lady Beetles out. It’s not going to happen. You have to do a combination of, I would say, decluttering your gutters, making sure there’s not a hole in your roof. I think I had them so bad, I discovered I had a water leak in my roof. So just things of that nature. If you’re having these issues and you may or may not know it, it’s going to be hard to get rid of that issue even with treatment.

Travis McGowin: Yeah, and not only do they invade, but they can actually leave some nasty evidence behind that they’ve been there. I’ve got a customer—fairly new house, only a couple years old—the house is white, solid white on the outside from the eaves all the way to the ground. They had a wave of these Asian Lady Beetles come in and settle primarily at the highest points of the house around the eaves, and when they were gone, they left this just nasty blackish-brownish film on the eaves of this house that the customer’s going to have to have cleaned at some point. So they can make a mess, and then not only that, they can actually cause you to have Asian Lady Beetles year after year after year because, like a lot of insects, they can leave a pheromone that says, “Hey, this is a great spot, this is our new Airbnb—come on in in the fall.”

Michael Wienecke: And they can cause house fires. I did see where the curly-cue light—they get in between the light from the heat and they can actually cause it to ignite.

Travis McGowin: And we just thought they were just annoying! They can actually be dangerous. That’s great.

Michael Wienecke: Yes, yes.

Travis McGowin: But like I said, to kind of summarize it all up, I can understand Laura being frustrated because no matter how many times you clean, you can vacuum all you want to, the next day it’s like you never vacuumed, it’s like you never cleaned. They’re back. Eventually they can’t escape, so they just die there in your house, and it is frustrating. I do feel like someone out there could give them some relief. If we were in Georgia, obviously we would be more than happy to go and treat this property for her and get her on the right path to having some relief, too. But I do think in this case, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s my catchphrase, but it’s so true, especially in our pest control world. Because a house like this, or even the one in my area that has Asian Lady Beetles every year, if you know it’s coming, applying a great exterior treatment when this wave of Asian Lady Beetles comes through could potentially save you a lot of headache throughout the fall and winter.

Michael Wienecke: Definitely. Well, with what we’re looking at, I didn’t see any of that—the landscape looked good, there wasn’t any overgrowth or anything like that. She is on top of a mountain.

Travis McGowin: Well, but you know, just from a pesticide application type standpoint, I mean, I think you could come in there probably September-ish, give or take, as long as you weren’t already seeing them, and do a good treatment—especially problem areas: gaps, cracks, crevices around doors, windows, the foundation, the eaves, that sort of thing. And probably put a good barrier out there so that when they do inevitably find their way back to the warm side of the house and land on it and crawl, it would probably take care of a good portion of them right out the gate before they ever got in.

Michael Wienecke: Well, I’m just glad she reached out to us from Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama. I just thought that was really, really awesome and that’s what we set out to do anyway was to help people. So, it seems like that’s what we’re doing, so we’re excited about that.

Travis McGowin: Absolutely.

The post Listener Deep Dive: Reviewing Laura’s Infestation (Part 1) appeared first on Peskies Pest Control Montgomery.