The cockchafer are coming: First the insects almost died out - now they are becoming a nuisance
Created: 05/03/2022 13:54
By: Laura May
In the 1970s, the buzzing insects almost became extinct - these summers, thousands of them are appearing again, especially in southern Hesse and northern Baden.
Munich – May beetles are subject to a strict life cycle.
The newly hatched grubs take about four years to grow into a sexually mature animal.
The males die after mating, the females after laying their eggs.
May beetle season 2022: They infest trees and fields for seven weeks
By taking soil samples, experts are clear: 2022 is another so-called cockchafer year.
As the name suggests, there are a particularly large number of beetles buzzing around, especially in May and June.
The may beetles eat their way through the forest and fields in droves for around seven weeks.
Hessen Forst warns again this year of a large number of small crawlers.
They endanger agriculture and road closures can occur.
The loud buzzing is characteristic of the small insects.
In large numbers, they can devour entire deciduous forests.
However, most trees can recover from this.
A greater threat to nature are the larvae that infest the roots of trees and plants.
Cockchafers can become a real nuisance.
© Wolfgang Kumm/ dpa/ Symbolic image
May beetle plague from the 1950s: Insecticides almost eradicated them at the time
In Central Europe, especially between the 1950s and 1970s, people struggled with a large number of cockchafers.
They were collected in Vienna in 1951, shredded and processed into animal meal.
Until the 1970s, helicopters flew over the fields and sprayed the insecticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), which is now banned.
The chemical substance almost led to the extinction of the cockchafer.
Today the stock has recovered - and could now become a problem again.
May beetles and their larvae are also a welcome source of food for numerous animals such as birds, bats, shrews and wild boar.
