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I realise I may need a French forum for this but all our flora and fauna in this part of France seems to be remarkably similar to the UK so perhaps someone will know the answer. Or if any french residents have any ideas that would be good too.

Over the last few days our enormous lawn/orchard/meadow has been inundated with strange flying beetles. At first I thought they were bees but they are in fact large bee-size flying beetles with wing cases on their backs. They are a tan colour and fly lowish to the ground. The seem to arrive at about 3pm and stay around until about 8pm, just buzzing around low to the lawn, not even landing from what I can see. They are the persistent kind who want to get in the car when you open the door and dive bomb you if you are working nearby.

I haven't actually got a picture of one yet as it would involve killing one to get it. Does anyone hav any ideas what they are please? And how I could discourage them?

Hi Graye

I've no idea what kind of beetle you have, but I can't think of a single beetle which prefers flying to sitting. So, you're probably witnessing non-normal behaviour, which makes me wonder if, maybe, it's mating time for said beetles. A photo would help.

Apart from being a temporary pain in the bum, if they're doing no harm, why discourage them at all?

Mike

I'll try to get a picture this afternoon but it's very overcast today so perhaps they won't come.

Really the only objection is that there are so many of them that it makes it impossible to be out in the garden for that period of time. They don't just go about their beetle business, they want to get involved in whatever we are doing too!

A bit of research on Google suggests they might be Summer Chafers. They apparently are around in late June having hatched from larvae which has been eating the grass roots in the lawn and are known to swarm in the way these are doing. I'll see what else I can find...

Graye wrote:A bit of research on Google suggests they might be Summer Chafers.

Ooooohhh, the famous chafer... if you haven't encountered their lavae (spelling ) then count your self lucky, the little pests take 3 years to develop and eat EVERYTHING you want to , if you've got hordes, beware!

Yup - sounds like chaffers to me - also known as may bugs or cock chaffers. They are about the size of a pecan nut with a fluffy bottom and feathery antenae. They themselves don't do any harm (appparently) but their lavae eat at the roots of your crops.

And chickens like the larvae so all is not lost. They are more of a pest in the veg garden when you have a new bed which once had grass growing there, as they are lawn eaters from what I understand - though as my lawn goes brown and patchy in summer anyway I wouldn't be able to tell which patches were brown due to the chafer grubs!

So the grubs are those big white waxy ones I sometimes find when I turn the compost over? Or are those something else?

No, that's the mistake I made at first - the ones in your compost are GOOD ones that you shouldn't give to the chickens or kill, it's the ones you find in the soil that are the bad ones - they are all different species but with similar looking grubs.

Here is a brilliant link which shows the different grubs, their habitats etc.

http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/lar ... index.html

I load of cockchafer beetles flew into my sisters kitchen when I stayed over a few weeks ago, it was really funny, we had had a few to drink and some of us totally freaked out. not me though I picked them up and got them out of the window. Tricky fellows though their feet really stick to my jeans!!