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30-06-2010, 12:08 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Isle of Wight
Posts: 539
| | | Beetle swarm - help!
I've just been down to the beach with a friend and we had to leave due to tiny beetles everywhere and landing on our skin, eyes, clothes, hair and in our drinks. I normally notice a few around in the evening there but never as bad as this and so much so that we've had to leave. They are small, black, measuring approx 2mm by 1mm in size with a hard casing over their wings and no they bear no resemblance to thunder flies. Any idea what they are and why they're behaving like this suddenly - it is a little humid today? I'm hoping it's something like Mayflies or flyng ant swarms and that they will have bogged off on Sunday when I'm down there for a big beach BBQ I've organised?
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against such creatures per se but not is such huge horrible numbers - at least they don't seem to bite |
30-06-2010, 12:35 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Watford, Hertfordshire.
Posts: 4,862
| | | Re: Beetle swarm - help!
Thrips? Thrips - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A quote:
"In the right conditions, many species can exponentially increase in population size and form large swarms, making them an irritation to humans."
Jim |
30-06-2010, 12:43 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,247
| | | Re: Beetle swarm - help!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Ford  Thrips? Thrips - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A quote:
"In the right conditions, many species can exponentially increase in population size and form large swarms, making them an irritation to humans."
Jim | Doubt it Jim, Madelinew clearly says they bear no resemblance to thrips (aka thunderflies), and the description definitely sounds like a beetle species. I suspect they may be pollen beetles - were there lots of flowers nearby Madelinew?
henrya
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Sometimes ice cream just has to take priority over everything. |
30-06-2010, 12:48 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Isle of Wight
Posts: 539
| | | Re: Beetle swarm - help!
I'm not aware of any large quanties of flowers. There are lots of trees around though in front of which is a line of beach huts and then the beach. |
30-06-2010, 12:52 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Isle of Wight
Posts: 539
| | | Re: Beetle swarm - help!
They certainly look like the pollen beetle images I googled and their prevalence amongst oilseed rape would explain why they are particularly attracted to yellow clothing. Anyone know anything about their lifecycle? Will they settle down to manageable numbers? Been waiting ages for summer - why does it have to be blighted the second it gets here?  |
02-07-2010, 08:27 AM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Isle of Wight
Posts: 539
| | | Re: Beetle swarm - help!
I did a search yesterday and eventually came up with a sap beetle Cybocephalus fodori which makes sense bearing in mind the number of trees nearby. There were swarms of them yesterday that were akin to midge swarms. By 8pm they vanished so I hope they are dying down now!
Beetle link as follows and it's number 7 on the list http://376991811814222031-a-18027447...attredirects=0 | | |
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