To panic about what the hell this is in my garden? Pic attached

[Helppooo]

what on earth is this? Is it dangerous?

Cockchafer. I still remember hearing the most bizarre and LOUD noise in my house about ten years ago and freezing in terror in the next room. Didn't occur to me something that loud could be a bug.

We don't have any dangerous insects in the UK, you know! No need to be scared of any of them. Although cockchafers were outlawed (!) in C14 Avignon for destroying crops.

@BoredZelda Yes. Let it Be.

Where I live they are called Maggiolino. Harmless. They fly about, buz then crash into things. If they land on their backs they wiggle their feet in the air. Those who are not fussy can pick them up.Very docile. Then you throw it into the air and it will move on. Sometimes there’ll be a lot of them. Absolutely harmless

It's a female.

Thanks everyone!!

Billywitch. 🤩

This isn't a criticism of you OP honestly it isn't but.... I think it's really quite sad that we're becoming so unfamiliar with nature. I remember seeing tonnes of bugs as a kid and wouldn't think anything of this little beetle.

On a related note I've been getting loads of viral news articles on my facebook about killer snakes taking over Wales 🙄🙄🙄 The 'killer snakes' are fucking Adders!! Firstly it's absolutely amazing if they're increasing in number. Secondly are most of us seriously not aware that we have native snakes in the UK and that yes they're poisonous but incredibly aloof. Even if they're multiplying they're not going to suddenly start coming to our homes and claiming our first born children or anything 🤣

I think we really need to encourage our next generation to connect with nature and maybe they'll feel more empowered to protect it

Dumbledore was a cockchafer? 😲

We need a reboot of The Animals Of Farthing Wood

It's time to traumatise a new generation

Ringo or Paul?

In some regional dialects, at some times, yes, a dumbledore is a cockchafter. But more often, it's a bumblebee.

A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter—winged, horned, and spined—
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While ’mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands.
Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.—
My guests besmear my new-penned line,
Or bang at the lamp and fall supine.
“God’s humblest, they!” I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.

(Thomas Hardy, An August Midnight). Cockchafer meaning there I think - doesn't fit the behaviour of bees.

I once had an actual bat fly down my chimney. Not a euphemism.

I was just going to reply it was an awesome show but borderline traumatised me 🤣

😂

That’s Alan. I wondered where he’d gone.

It's a Cockchafer Beetle. They aren't dangerous to us. Their larvae can be a farm pest if there are a lot as they eat the roots of crops. In your garden the adult will just eat a few leaves. Leave him be!

It looks like a May Bug to me and it's a sign of good, balmy weather..

Don't know if this photo will post but this is the one I caught last night. Whoever said they stink was right-it was in the box a little while and did some little beetle poos and when I opened the lid it didn't half pong!

They live longer than that. A few years ago I found one very much the worse for wear, probably in a bit of a battle for a mate as there were dozens around that night. I put him in a box with some vegetation, (he’d lost all his legs bar one) and he lived for over a week, around ten days I think.

I freaked out when one of those flew into my bedroom. A giant, noisy, bumbling furry beetle with a sting! My dad said, "beetles don't have stings". Apparently, it's actually a tool that enables the females to lay their eggs into the ground.

Yes, and a garden forum on MN, too. This isn't really a post about being "unreasonable."

This. The poor thing wants you to fuck off and leave it be.

Genuinely fascinated by all this 😂

I was always scared of may bug as a child after being told they get stuck in your hair and have to be cut out. Doesn't help that they are big, loud, ungraceful idiots.