LESLIE: Well, spring has sprung and Christopher in Pennsylvania knows this by all of the ladybugs that have invaded his home. Welcome.
CHRISTOPHER: Hello. Actually, it’s not me lucky. It’s actually my son … (PA system)
TOM: OK.
CHRISTOPHER: … and his fiancée. They’re getting married on Saturday and they’re getting married in this house that they just bought that’s infested with these ladybugs.
LESLIE: And this is your wedding present to them?
CHRISTOPHER: (laughing) Yeah, sure. How do I get rid of them?
TOM: Well, what you need to do is, first of all, physically vacuum up all that you can get your hands on.
CHRISTOPHER: Oh, yeah.
TOM: The good news is that ladybugs don’t cause any damage to the house itself; they don’t really eat anything. But if they’re taking over this house the best thing to do is to vacuum them all up. Now, if you have a serious, ongoing infestation it really is a job for a pest control operator because they’ll apply a chemical – usually cyflurin or something of that nature – that when done properly and the right amounts can completely wipe out the infestation and make sure they won’t come back. On an ongoing basis you want to look for the cracks and the gaps in the walls and the windows and areas like that where ladybugs love to enter your house and find their way in and then make ladybug babies and they just keep going and going and going. But that’s the best way. Vacuum up everything that you can see and then get a pest control operator to put a proper application down there and you’ll get rid of them once and you won’t have to deal with it again.
CHRISTOPHER: Alright, and it’s called cyflurin.
TOM: Cyflurin.
CHRISTOPHER: How do you spell that?
TOM: C-y-f-l-u-r-i-n.
CHRISTOPHER: … l-u-r-n.
TOM: It’s not something that you can buy over the counter, Chris, though. You need to have a professional pest control operator do the job for you.
CHRISTOPHER: Alright.
LESLIE: And you know what? Christopher, when you’re vacuuming up these ladybugs, at the end of the wand or somewhere where you can get into, put like a piece of fabric or even like, you know, a knee-high pantyhose on there so that as you’re sucking up these ladybugs they end up in that pantyhose or in that cloth; then you can just take that out and do what you will.
TOM: Take them outside.
CHRISTOPHER: Now, the vacuum cleaner has a bag in it …
LESLIE: OK.
CHRISTOPHER: … and she’s just been taking it and throwing it in the woodstove. But she’s been doing this everyday.
TOM: She’s been incinerating those suckers. (laughing)
CHRISTOPHER: (chuckling) But she’s been doing (laughing) – it’s been two weeks. She claims she puts a bag in every week – everyday.
TOM: Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER: (laughing) It’s funny.
LESLIE: Oh, my goodness.
CHRISTOPHER: Hey, thanks a lot.
TOM: Alright, Christopher. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
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