Christmas beetles where have they gone?

[XBROO]

I've notice this year I haven't seen many Chrissy beetles around, I think only about 3 or 4 that I saw this year. I remember years ago they were flying around everywhere this time of year.

[csv8]

Originally Posted by XBROO

I've notice this year I haven't seen many Chrissy beetles around, I think only about 3 or 4 that I saw this year. I remember years ago they were flying around everywhere this time of year.

CHRISTMAS beetles haven't made a comeback - instead a foreign invader is being mistaken for the native insects which once swarmed Sydney in early summer, according to the Australian Museum.

Sydneysiders have noticed small yellow-brown beetles in their yards - or drawn into their homes by lighting.

While Sydney has six species of Christmas beetles and one of them is also yellow-brown and around a centimetre long, these insects are almost certainly not Christmas beetles and are instead most likely to be a beetle called cyclocephala, Museum entomologist Chris Reid said. "They are an introduced species from South America and look a bit like one of our smaller Christmas beetles as they are both from the scarab beetle family," he said.

"Unfortunately it doesn't appear if Christmas beetles are making a comeback to the suburbs."

Mr Reid said Christmas beetles were once so common that in the 1920s they were reported to drown in huge numbers in Sydney Harbour, with tree branches bending into the water under the sheer weight of the massed beetles. Then Sydney started expanding and destroyed much of the habitat the beetles need to thrive.

"The adults need eucalypt leaves, and the larvae need the roots of grasses, presumably native grasses," he said.

"An important habitat for them, the Cumberland Plain woodland, was once widespread in Western Sydney, but less than 10 per cent remains."

Mr Reid said there were still populations of Christmas beetles in areas of open woodlands - on the southern borders of the Royal National Park and in the Blue Mountains.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/n...-1226542898214

[XBROO]

Thanks for that write up mate, poor chrissy beetles us humans **** everything up.

[naddis01]

They all came to our house

[OwnTheRoad]

They once were a common sight on the Morninton Peninsula in Vic ,I saw a few 2 years ago in Mt Martha but alas none here in Bittern .A real shame they seem to be gone.

[LG17]

There was only a couple spied up here too.
As a kid I used to love catching them and putting them on my older sisters - they hated it of course!

[XBROO]

Originally Posted by LG17

There was only a couple spied up here too.
As a kid I used to love catching them and putting them on my older sisters - they hated it of course!

HA HA HA my wife and daughter aren't missing them.

[poppa smurf]

I have them all.........ransom note to follow.......today the beetles, tomorrow the witchety grub's.....mwah! hah! Hah!

[Jim Goose]

Plenty of once common bug and insects have dissappeared from where I live... replaced by weirder looking bugs and insects which I have never seen before.

Sadder still is that i rarely ever see a single butterfly anymore of anykind! (I do see the occasional moth still).

Grey doves are another i rarely see anymore, even peewees have slowly disappeared.

[hendrixhc]

When we first moved up to the Adelaide Hills 6 or so years ago we had quite a few blue wrens around. Havent seen them much in the last few years until this year we have had quite a few back in the front yard.

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by XBROO

I've notice this year I haven't seen many Chrissy beetles around, I think only about 3 or 4 that I saw this year. I remember years ago they were flying around everywhere this time of year.

They were here in their thousands a couple of weeks ago, it is now new year so they buggered off

[BPXR6T]

I don't miss them. I remember eating one that had dive bombed into a bowl of peanuts at a BBQ. Not pleasant.

[Russ]

I remember at least 30 years ago when making some deliveries in Berry NSW just before Xmas and the bloody things were piled up in the gutters and splattered all over the roads, the stench was so bad that the local council had the street washing vehicle washing down the roads a couple of times a day due to the local shop owners complaining about the foul odour coming into the stores. To make things even worse the temperature was above 30 deg C each day for the duration :( Never seen anything like it since, we've had bugger all of them this year down the coast however I expect that the plague proportions of bats we had for about a month or two before Xmas may be the reason

[LTDHO]

They are now known as 'Holiday beetles'. LOL

In all seriousness, OP is right. I haven't seen one in years, they used to come in the 1000's years ago.

[MarkAW]

You might find that a large number have been poisoned.

Every time my wife sees a brown patch on our lawn (forget the fact that we have dogs of our own and dogs that come to our house for grooming), she screams about lawn beetle and demands that the lawn be given a dose of fertiliser/beetle & grub killer. I'm sure she's not the only one who does this.

[BLDNUT01]

Now Known as the Ba humbug

[tankclare]

We had them here almost as bad as the flies. Thousands of them. Seem to have died down in the last week or two though.

[davenl5l]

ride a harley with a open face helmet you will soon find all the missing bugs

[ebxr8240]

One was shot the other died from cancer..
The other two are alive .. Lol...