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Have you had these in your garden? Should I worry about them?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhocoris_apterus

They look quite pretty - I'm afraid I don't know if they're a cause for concern or just a sign that your garden is healthy!

Wulf

They're firebugs. Ahhh ... you're in Poland. That'll explain why most of the information pertaining to them are in German. Firebugs are found mainly in Southern and Central Europe with the odd forray into Southern England.

This site, albeit a dreadful translation, explains more:

http://www.pelion.info/fauna_heteroptera_papterus.html

Thanks. We've got clumps of them having orgies in the decaying leaves on our garden walk and I'm looking at a few of them having a go at it in a jar on my desk right now.

Another site says they are "a considerable pest on hollyhocks and mallows in the summer," but other sites say they mainly eat fallen seeds (from lime trees and mallows). We do have a lime, so I bet that's what they're snacking on between copulations.

I had a few of them in Germany, but can't remember seeing them here, either... They never seemed a pest, though. The quantities might get annoying - I remember that year when we had so many ladybirds that you couldn't cycle without literally breathing them in, if you kept you mouth open. And they are supposed to be a beneficial insect!

The dear old Gendarmes or Cherche-Midis, as they are called in France.

They are nothing to worry about. Just enjoy their bright colours! If anything they are a good thing to have in the garden - I swear the colonies that lived on my cabbages ate the Cabbage White caterpillars!

In Poland they call them kowale bezskrzydle (wingless blacksmiths) and tramwajarze (tram drivers).

I'm not sure why wingless blacksmiths (have you seen any winged blacksmiths? there must be a flying insect called the blacksmith), but they're called tram drivers because they lock together during mating and go around that way, looking a bit like the two-wagon trams typical here.

The mating strategy, apparently, is to get in first and to stay there so no one else can get in second. "Oh, this is nice, darling. Care for a stroll round the park?"

Yes they are funny when locked together like that! The translations of what they are called in French is 'policemen' (? why ?) and 'search for' either 'midday' or 'the south of France' (Midi) not sure which!

MMM wrote:

The translations of what they are called in French is 'policemen'

Perhaps it's because they lock together = "handcuffed"?

(OMG, am I really thinking about the mating habits of insects that rarely grace the UK with their presence?)

Perhaps it's because they lock together = "handcuffed"?

According to Alison Wonderland:

These red and black bugs are called 'Fire bugs' in english and 'Gendarmes' [military soldier- the now have a blue uniform but the original uniform in the 16th century was a red velvet coat ,'soldats' [soldiers] , 'punaise au corps de feu' [bug with a firey body] and 'cherche-midi' [midday seeker] in french.