19 replies to this topic

[yorkshirechris]

Probably asking on the complete wrong forum here but...

A few weeks ago I found two beetles in the little spare room... the room where our cats used to sleep/eat/answer the call of nature a few months ago, which have since gone, and the room has been cleaned/hoovered, obviously not perfect but there's no visible remains of food/litter etc.
The beetles were just "dead" on the carpet so I naturally got rid of them.

I then found another "dead" one in my bedroom, which is next door, around the same time...

I left a towel on the landing last night before bed and this morning when I went to put it in the washing machine this morning to my horror one of these beetles was crawling in it so I killed it... and threw it outside...

And now to my surprise this evening there's another one, this time in the dining room, wriggling on its back.

The offending beetles are about 15mm long, black in colour, have 6 legs, and two "antennae".

Below is a pic of the one I found in the dining room, but this is AFTER I killed it by means of fire (lighter) so the antennae have been singed off. Can anyone identify it, i.e. why is it here, what it feeds on, how to get rid of them? It's not a big problem, but I HATE creepy crawly things like this.



The house is clean and there isn't anywhere I can access to my knowledge that has any of these things in, like a nest or anything, so I'm stuck as to where they're coming from, and why they're invading my house?!

I've looked on Google to try identify it there but had no luck so... any help appreciated please

[sweetser]

I know this will not help you but if you want I can post the beetle song that my dad taught me years ago?

lmao

[analogue_radio]

I'm not from PETA but why did you kill it & then throw it outside..? surely you could've just thrown it outside and saved a little life?

It's abdomen looks like a woodlouse, perhaps some cousin of it? no idea.

[HARBER07]

I know this will not help you but if you want I can post the beetle song that my dad taught me years ago?

Go-on, post it up!

[Amy]

It's a [baby] Devil's Coach Horse beetle...... They grow up to about 28mm, so they must be young ones!

Usually live outside, maybe they've nested somewhere with an easy way into the room?

Edited by Amy, 13 July 2008 - 05:29 PM.

[yorkshirechris]

It's a [baby] Devil's Coach Horse beetle...... They grow up to about 28mm, so they must be young ones!

Usually live outside, maybe they've nested somewhere with an easy way into the room?

It is? :/ are they harmless? Can I destroy the nest somehow without finding it?

It's weird... the little spare room, my bedroom, and the dining room are all on the same side of the house.. can they nest within wall cavities?

Come to think of it, I recently re-opened a hole from the dining room to outside because I put the TV aerial back in there, but I sealed up the hole from the outside with silicone but didn't bother with the inside, do you think they could be nesting in the cavity and one got in through the new hole?

What about the woodlouse theory, are they related? Because I also have a woodlouse problem in the hallway... the other night I had to sweep up 10 within a couple of hours... although after sealing around the laminate floor/door and putting some powder down they seem to have calmed down a bit...

[XxsarahxX]

eew its horrid! ive never seen a beetle like that before we usually just get loads of daddy longlegs

[yorkshirechris]

I'm not from PETA but why did you kill it & then throw it outside..? surely you could've just thrown it outside and saved a little life?

... I wanted to "immobilise" the first one before it got into the rest of the washing and then I wouldn't be able to find it... as for the second one... I just felt like burning it if you want the number for the RSPCA I can get it for you..

[sweetser]

I'm not from PETA but why did you kill it & then throw it outside..? surely you could've just thrown it outside and saved a little life?

... I wanted to "immobilise" the first one before it got into the rest of the washing and then I wouldn't be able to find it... as for the second one... I just felt like burning it if you want the number for the RSPCA I can get it for you..

hahaha thats something i would do

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Im seriously ithinking about reporting you to the BPL

[analogue_radio]

Not a problem, I've got in contact with PETA and they're sending around this member to sort you out.



Perhaps that's not such a bad thing

[oli8925]

goooooood mornin'!






i like bug things. the bigger and weirder the better. theyre interesting to look at and observe

flies and wasps just cheese me off tho. so i do similar things to them so i cant judge. but you need to really overkill wasps. they never die the little buggers!

[minili]

I hate bugs and spiders I get lots of those silly spindly spiders which can barely take their own weight in my house, at least because they're so pathetic they aren't very scary!

I also get some MASSIVE spiders sometimes, Josh loves them and decided to catch one and wave it in my face once... Not realising quite how scared of them I am - I almost burst into tears at the sight of it LOL

Mainly I just get little moths and flies because I have an upstairs maisonette so I get downstairs' heat and heat from the roof, so it gets a bit warm and I have to leave windows open, the little mothies love it

[GottaDesigner]

What you need, my friends, is one of these little beauties:



Tis an Australian Bearded Dragon. Very tame lizards, whose sole purpose in life is to munch any insect they come across. I've had two to date... and I highly recommend them

As for the Devil's Coachman Beetle, they're harmless in the main. The only things you need to watch out for are their front and back ends. One inflicts a nasty bite and the other a nasty smell.