Ladybugs Have a Taste For Wine

Anybody who enjoys a ladybug’s majestic appearance needs to smell the things sometime–they smell terrible!  Ladybugs release a noxious odor, and if you find yourself in a particular area where ladybugs are congregating then you will most certainly catch a whif.  Many of you may think that the fact that ladybugs smell like old diapers in the hot sun is not such a big deal, but if you owned a vineyard then you would likely have a different assessment since ladybugs often taint wine with their foul odor.  This is a problem in wine country and it is a problem that has caught the attention of academics in the field of entomology.

University researchers were tasked with identifying the compounds in a ladybug’s emissions, and vineyard owners are hoping that perhaps the experts can help them.  Even a very small amount of a ladybugs odor can destroy the good taste of wine, and ladybug epidemics on vineyards have been known to shut vineyards down completely, as there was seemingly no solution to the ladybug problem.

Although it looks like entomologists have made good use of their grant money by identifying the nasty smelling compounds in a ladybugs odor, I don’t see how simply identifying these odors is going to help the poor vineyard owners. Perhaps the entomologists can develop a chemical cocktail that will neutralize the odor.  But, if you find that your favorite cheap wine from Wal-mart is no longer available, then you may just have everybody’s favorite red and black spotted insects to blame.

Have you ever noticed the foul odor that trails ladybugs?