Creepy Ladybugs?

When I was a kid ladybugs were these cute little red bugs that showed up occasionally.  Decades later they are brown, swarm and are kind of obnoxious.

Right now the south side of the house is swarming with probably thousands of these critters.  They stunk and they like to huddle together in giant globs of bugs in the corner of my great room.

Anyone else think these things are pests?  Any way to deter them?

Eric

Harmonia_axyridis
Probably not the ladybugs you remember.

maybe there cold? or breeding?

I think Pearl has it right - the orangey ones are Japanese ladybugs, an invasive. The ladybugs you remember are the red ones.

And yes, very obnoxious - the are crawling g through my windows into the house every day. Just when the stink bugs are going away...

Yeah, I am pretty sure these were introduced as a biological control and eventually got out of hand.  Actually the day was sunny, warm and beautiful.

I once read that they only swarm like this when it was a warm day that followed several cold days.  The gist was something like they had been tucked in for the winter but the warm weather unexpectedly woke them up.  The reasoning then says that the swarming action is a desperate attempt to find some other place to hide as their previous place is too warm and they are actually dying of heat which is why they want inside the house and only swarm on the sunny side of the house.

I don’t know if this is correct, but it would seem to explain their behavior.

Eric

They bite people when provoked or to get salt! And they crawl into peoples home in winter...
Makes you wonder if these people who do biological control don't research anything before just doing whatever turns a profit.
Why was this ever allowed by the goverments to spread worldwide? They're everywhere, only to be stopped by sexual transmitted mites and stockings in vacuum cleaners..
People spray any insect in sight mostly and especially if it stinks when hit with a weapon.
"Get the spray out hon, i see another one of those stinky ladybugs!"

they are attracted to anything white.
rumor or not so much rumor has it that some scientist released them by the plane load to combat pine beetles , turns out it did not work and created the problem we now have with them