The first beetles of 2013 were spotted in Blackheath in Surrey on the 8th April. This is early for adult beetles to be up and about, although adult beetles were spotted in the Inner Hebrides in March last year.
The Heather Trust is planning a big push on beetle surveys for 2013. The information gathered in previous years has been extremely helpful and some themes and patterns are beginning to emerge in outbreaks, but without a constant flow of reports and surveys coming in, it's hard to keep an eye on what the beetles are doing.
Along with the survey, our research project in the Peak District is now underway, and we are making progress not only towards identifying some key causes of large scale heather beetle outbreaks but also to restoring beetle damage as quickly and as simply as possible after an outbreak.
With your help, we can continue to build a vital store of evidence around beetle outbreaks so that in the future, the destruction caused by attacks is easier to manage.
