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Pest Management Priducts Division of CSPA
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Even though there are measures that can be taken to eliminate the beetles as they appear in the house, the long-term solution to eliminating your beetle "problem" in the house is prevention.
Outdoors preventative tactics
Beginning in the early fall, monitor the sunlit side of your buildings for swarming beetles. These are areas where they will collect prior to moving into hibernation sites. You can apply an insecticide registered for outdoor use. If it is practical, caulk obvious cracks and spaces where the beetles can gain access, check attic vent screens and repair if necessary, caulk wherever a pipe, conduit, telephone or cable TV wire goes through the siding, and ensure that the weather seal on basement windows is tight.
Indoors preventative tactics
Making the effort to eliminate points of entry from the outside into hibernating areas is helpful. The real key to prevention is to also conduct the same inspection on the inside walls and make repairs, where necessary. After all, you probably wouldn't care how many multi-colored Asian lady beetles were hibernating under your siding, in your walls voids and attic if none of them entered your living space. Pay close attention and caulk all those places where pipes, conduits and wires come through the walls. Use a vacuum to eliminate the existing beetles.
Sealing exterior gaps and cracks around windows, doors, eaves, roofs, siding and other points of access before the beetles appear can prevent unwanted entry. Experience suggests, however, that comprehensive pest proofing is time-consuming, often impractical and usually not 100% effective. For large infestations with intolerable numbers of beetles, spraying pyrethroid insecticides such as permethrin or esfenvalerate to the outside of buildings when the beetles appear may help prevent pest entry. Homeowner insecticides other than pyrethroids usually do not provide satisfactory prevention. For insecticides to be effective, they must be applied before insects begin to enter buildings, which is early- to mid-October for multicolored Asian beetles. Common examples of insecticides available to the public include those containing cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, or permethrin. Be sure the product you intend to use is labeled for use on the exterior of buildings. Apply the insecticide according to label directions to siding, foundation, windowsills, and door thresholds, paying particular attention to the south and west sides where the insects are most common.
