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| Heather beetle grubs feeding on heather |
With heather now growing fast and plants beginning to show the first signs of budding flowers, now is the time to look out for beetle damage. If you notice signs of ill-looking or tatty heather over the next few weeks, you may have been the victim of heather beetle. Look out for patches or swathes of reddish heather, and keep an eye on areas which do not come into flower - heather beetles damage heather plants and dehydrate them, leading to a red discolouration which is often the easiest way to spot the areas where they have been most active. View our guide to identifying beetle damage for more detail.
By the time you notice damaged heather, most of the harm has already been done. Heather beetle larvae feed voraciously on growing heather stems, and their activity peaks in June and July. It is quite possible to suffer from extensive beetle damage without ever seeing a beetle or a larvae, and the little creatures can be hard to find without a trained eye. By the time that heather turns red, many of the culprits will have dropped off the heather plants to pupate in the moss underlayer, and heather beetle is often misdiagnosed because there are no obvious signs of the beetles or grubs themselves. The Heather Trust can usually confirm heather beetle damage from photographs, so if you see damaged heather and would like to find out more, let us know!
The Heather Trust has been leading the way on heather beetle in Britain over the past ten years. Our Heather Beetle Survey is the only one of its kind, gathering information on outbreaks and remedial work from Cornwall to Caithness. We're always interested to hear if you think you have been affected by heather beetle, so why not visit our dedicated heather beetle info page and download a survey form. We have received hundreds of survey returns over the past decade, and we're now starting to see trends and patterns in how outbreaks work, but the picture is still incomplete and requires further support and input.
Heather beetle damage will often restore itself - after all, heather beetles are part of a natural mechanism and have been eating heather for thousands of years. We are interested in these pests because we believe that there is increasingly evidence to show that recurring, cyclical outbreaks can destroy heather across massive areas, and the follow-up management which takes place after heather has been damaged can have a significant impact on how successful regeneration will be. Grazing patterns and heather management techniques can all have a part to play in restoring damaged heather, and this is where our research has been based in unique studies at Langholm Moor and in the Derbyshire Peak District.
To find out more about our work on heather beetle, why not browse our online resources or get in touch with us direct?
