Save stag beetles - take a plastic bucket, woodchips and

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Save stag beetles - take a plastic bucket, woodchips and

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Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 8:25 am Post subject: Save stag beetles - take a plastic bucket, woodchips and

some sticky back plastic. No, just joking about the last one, please don't use sticky back plastic with stag beetles.

https://www.speciesdata.co.uk/cgi-bin/stagproj/BB4bIntro.htm

The Peopleï¿½s Trust for Endangered Species, of whom I've never heard, and whose motives/aims I am not familiar with, "is launching a new project to help monitor our largest terrestrial and most charismatic beetle, the stag beetle, up and down the country. The Bury Buckets 4 Beetles project, or BB4B, is a great way for everyone to get involved in conservation at a local level and do something practical to help."

We have only seen stag beetles when we lived in the middle of town but with some untended scrub nearby; my guess is it was a lucky coincidence that it never got tidied and provided a home for the grubs. Out in simply charming suburbia

we've yet to spot one. I don't know whether this would be worth doing but it would be fun to let the neighbours see us making it

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 9:22 am Post subject:
It sais up and down the country - I thought stag beatles were confined to the south east. Anyone know their range? Not seen any here.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 9:29 am Post subject:

I found the news story about the initiative in the latest issue of The Garden (the RHS magazine) and they say "Most are found south of an imaginary line drawn from the Wash to the Bristol Channel, although the trust is keen for gardeners further north to join in, as the buckets would provide an excellent habitat for a number of other species" (The Garden, April 2005).

So sounds like it might be worth trying, especially for anyone with children because exploring the results will be fun. Perhaps I ought to get myself some children after all

I've only ever seen them down here, not when I lived in the Midlands, but then I might have just not seen them. (Stag beetle, not children).

How far north has anyone seen a stag beetle?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 11:10 am Post subject:
What do you need to do?

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 11:17 am Post subject:

Drill big holes in a plastic bucket, fill with 1/4 soil and 3/4 hardwood, bury, top up with the same mix as it rots down, dig up in 2007 and count the stag beetle larvae

Judy, the leaflet on the website (PDF) has this list of sightings:

"Beetle hot-spots
●Berkshire
●Buckinghamshire
●Dorset
●Essex
●Hampshire
●Hertfordshire
●Greater London
●Kent
●Oxfordshire
●Surrey
●Suffolk
●West Sussex

On the edge of their range
●Avon
●Bedfordshire
●Cambridgeshire
●Clwyd
●Cornwall
●Devon
●Dyfed
●East Sussex
●Gloucestershire
●Herefordshire and Worcestershire
●Lincolnshire
●Norfolk
●Somerset
●South Glamorgan
●War wickshire
●West Glamorgan
●Wiltshire
●Yorkshire

Have they become extinct in the areas below?
●Cumbria
●Shropshire
●Derbyshire
●Nottinghamshire

Please keep a special eye open if you visit the
following places: Richmond Park, Wimbledon
Common, the New Forest and Epping Forest.
These may become Special Areas for
Conservation (SACs) and we need to monitor
them carefully, so records are especially welcome."

From the leaflet at (right click and save to disk, I would)

https://www.speciesdata.co.uk/cgi-bin/stagproj/BB4B%20leaflet%20final.pdf

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 1:23 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

What do you need to do?

errrmm - didn't your mother explain?

or has bugs told you that they stork will bring them to spare bedroom, and leave them under the lemon trees?

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 05 2:35 pm Post subject:
thanks, bugs, glad to see Dyfed is included in the range, if at the edge, so hope yet. Seing a wild, live stag beatle is on my list of 'must do before I die' (wearing the 'aurora' T shirt )

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