Households across the UK have reported loud bugs flying around their homes and 'whacking' them in the face. The annual invasion of cockchafers is once again upon us, as the inch-long insects enter their adult stage and suddenly appear everywhere.
This stage lasts for five to six weeks before the insects die as they live underground for three to four years as larvae feeding on grass roots and then emerge as flying adults. A female common cockchafer will lay up to 80 eggs around 8in underground, where the grubs will hatch after six weeks and feed on roots.
In the past week, many people have taken to Twitter to report the giant flying beetles in their homes. The insects are attracted to light and are common garden pests, as they eat grass roots and leave brown patches in gardens in their larvae stage, but are actually harmless to humans, reports Lancashire Live.
Does more need to be done to clamp down on dog fouling? Let us know
Clark Davis, of St Albans, Herts, said: “It sounded like a helicopter, but upon closer inspection was this weird-looking bug which I since found out is called a - wait for it - cockchafer. What an odd world we live in.”
Gaia Sophia said one of the bugs whacked her in the face, adding: “When a cockchafer hits you in the face you know about it.” ErikTat wrote: “Sitting down to watch TV and this giant bug hits me in the face, and then hits me in the face again.
"This isn’t a tiny bug, it’s a massive cockchafer and it’s scary!” The bugs are also known as doodlebugs or May or June bugs because they start appearing in May/June. They used to be abundant in Europe, but almost died out because of the use of pesticides.
However, since greener pesticides have been brought in, the numbers of the flying bugs have rocketed since the 1980s, making them once again a common sight in May and June. There are no chemical pesticides that have been approved to kill off the bugs, meaning they are increasingly abundant.
Paul Bates, the boss of Cleankill Pest Control, said cockchafers were not a public health pest but that they did make a very loud noise flying around. He said: “Sometimes they can cause a problem by coming down a chimney and scaring the homeowner.
"They make a very loud noise when flying around which can be a little scary for people but they pose no danger to health. They don’t sting.
"We occasionally get calls when people think they are cockroaches.” In Ancient Greece it was common practice for boys to catch a cockchafer, tie a linen thread to its feet and watch it flying in circles. There used to be millions of the insects, with 20 million individuals collected from an 18km-squared piece of woodland in 1911.
READ NEXT:
