What I Learned Today – Beetle Bath

I’ve been finding these beetles making waves in my bird bath this past week.  Sometimes doing the back stroke, sometimes the dog paddle, occasionally a pair of them would be doing some sort of synchronized dance, preparing for the beetle Olympics, no doubt.

At first I was alarmed, thinking some horrible invasive species had arrived to chomp on my tender tomatoes or, even worse, my lilies.  A quick internet search revealed; however, that this is a brown chafer beetle, the adult stage of those white grubs I dig up in the grass every now and then.  I don’t much care if they chow down on the grass roots, but further on-line reading indicates they may also like to nibble of some of the things I DO care about, such as corms (hello Crocus) and perennial roots.  Hmmm.  On the other hand, they are also a food source for small mammals and, I would assume, birds.

Liquid