Heather Beetle 2015

A view of 2014's beetle damage at Hedleyhope Fell, Co Durham

The Trust has been as busy as ever over the past few weeks, and it has been interesting to get out and have a look at some heather beetle damage in Scotland and England.

Much of this damage has been strangely prolonged this year, meaning that beetle larvae have been found above ground and damaging heather for much longer than usual. Interestingly, reports from Langholm Moor have described a kind of gradual, slow erosion of heather by beetle larvae over the course of almost three months, rather than the customary few weeks. This has been borne out elsewhere, and it seems that hopes that a cold spring would waylay beetle numbers have been dashed by this strange and unexpected response.

Elsewhere, we were asked to carry out a heather beetle advisory visit to Hedleyhope Fell at the bottom of Weardale in County Durham, where a large area of heather was destroyed by beetles in 2014. This area of mid-altitude heathland is owned by the Durham Wildlife Trust and provides an important habitat for black and red grouse, as well as short eared owls.

A year after the outbreak, most of the mature heather plants are totally dead and have begun to fall to pieces. Since the death of this heather canopy, new plants have responded nicely from seed and a flush of resurging crowberry gives the dead ground a refreshing splash of colour, but complications in grazing management mean that few of these plants will avoid some pressure from the local sheep during the winter.

While it is tempting to get stuck in and carry out some management on the damaged heather, unfavourable grazing arrangements mean that any regeneration from fire or cutting will become a magnet to passing livestock, and the overall effect could well be worse than doing nothing at all. It is very useful to keep an eye on beetle-damaged areas like Hedleyhope, particularly since they represent a challenge to management in a real-life environment where some issues are much harder to remedy than others.

Elsewhere, we have received reports of damage in North Wales and Perthshire, as well as a scattering of observations from across Britain - have a look at our Heather Beetle survey map 2015 to see how the year is shaping up for beetle.