Heather Beetle 2014

After a few dry days of sunshine and light winds, it seems like 2014's burning season is suddenly upon us. Some good fires are being put in from Aberdeenshire and Angus to the Peak District, although many of the West Coast moors have stayed too wet to carry a flame, even through white grass. With the changing seasons, curlews have retuned and the snipe now drum at all hours, while the grouse pairs are becoming more territorial and the blackgame have begun to display in earnest.

When the average day temperature rises above 9degC, heather beetles come out of their hibernation and can be very conspicuous for a few days as they disperse. Beetles hibernate in the deep moss and leaf litter throughout the cold days, where the layers of vegetation protect them from the worst of the frost. Emerging on the first warm days of Spring, it is easy to find beetles as they take to the air and spread out in search of mates and breeding grounds.

Heather beetles are notoriously weak fliers, and they will often seem to drift with the wind whichever way it takes them. If they happen to "crash land", they may settle again for the year within a short distance of their hibernation site, but often they will travel for hundreds of yards.

2013 was a very quiet year for heather beetle damage, and the largest outbreaks were quite modest by comparison to some of the terrible damage caused in previous years. Perhaps this is linked to the long, cold winter which flared up again with a major fall of snow in March last year, and although it is still possible that the cold could come, the conditions for early spring 2014 are precisely the opposite, after the wettest winter on record. Perhaps this will lead to a bad year for beetle damage in 2014, and we rely on your feedback to trace beetle outbreaks wherever they take place.

The Heather Beetle Survey Form is available again from the Heather Trust website, and we are always very keen to hear from people who have spotted beetles or damage caused by beetles.

As Spring runs into Summer, we will be circulating our Heather Beetle Survey Form. In the meantime, why not have a look at our Members' Briefing on Heather Beetles