Beetles are an insect belonging to the species and order of Coleoptera, and the superorder of Endopterygota. They are different from other insects in the fact that their front wings are hardened into wing cases which are known as “Elytra”. A very interesting beetle that we all have heard of in stories and mythology is the sacred Scarab Beetle. It symbolizes restoration of life and was depicted in many of the artworks and writings of ancient Egypt. Bright colors were often used depicting the Scarab in art and jewelry use. Many of the modern species that we know today in America have amazingly colored wing cases, shiny and luminous, just like the sacred Scarab Beetle.

“Weevils” belong to the order of Coleoptera too. They constitute one of the largest of all families with some 70, 000 different species. The Beetles have well over 300,000 species, with new ones being discovered every day. Beetles are found all over the Earth except in Polar Regions, and the sea, of course.

Beetles feed on fungi and plants. They have been known to eat other vertebrates, especially decomposing ones. Certain kinds of beetles are swiftly becoming an outstanding agricultural threat. Some kinds of beetles actually help crops by eating insects that cause damage. This is good, but the good beetles can also become a problem as we get invaded with the likes of Asian Lady Beetles who bite and spread stinky secretions inside of our homes. There are also wood boring beetles which can cause serious damage to trees, forests, and our general landscaping areas.

Beetles live in all different kinds of places throughout the entire world. Some live on plants, and some live under rocks, in and around old logs, and in your yard. Certain beetles have a tendency to like dark and moist places such as around and under decaying leaves. There are even beetles that live in water, but not the sea. There are no beetles in the sea, excepting a few species that live near the shore in the intertidal and littoral zones. You will also find no beetles in the Polar Regions. They do not like and can’t survive in freezing temperatures. Some can go into a sort of insect hibernation, or choose to winter in your home.

Beetles are highly adaptable and can live most anywhere. This is why they can also live in your house. In your home you will most likely find beetles hanging out on your plants and in other areas that simulate their natural habitat outside. A lot of times beetles can hitch a ride into your abode on cut flowers because some species love to feed on nectar and plant fiber.

Beetles like to live near their food source, and who wouldn’t. That is why some kinds will eat all of your plants in your garden.

Carpet Beetles love the natural fiber in rugs and that is why they lived there. Now-a-days many carpets are made of synthetic material, which they don’t like at all. You would be surprised at all of the different places beetles can live.

There are approximately 80 different kinds of beetles that live in the Arizona area. Some pose a problem, such as the Bark Beetle, while others do not. One special kind of beetle that has drawn attention is the Palo Verde Beetle. It looks like a huge flying cock roach and usually is as long as your hand’s width. They are harmless to humans and like to go after the roots of the Palo Verde Tree, hence their name. Their larvae are about 5 inches long. The Palo Verde Beetle usually likes to frequent Arizona during the summer monsoon season.

The Blister Beetle likes to take up residence around the Phoenix, Arizona area. They are a very brightly colored beetle with black wings, or wing casing, along with the head area being a bright reddish orange. Blister Beetles’ scientific name is “Lytta Magister”, leading the ones around the Phoenix area to call them Master Blister Beetles.

Blister Beetles like to make their appearance beginning in the spring, and they love to hang out in large numbers on the Brittlebush plant. Try to avoid these if you can because if they feel threatened they ooze out a secretion from their leg which not only smells horrible, but can inflict painful blisters on your skin. There have been cases where people have actually gone to the emergency room after getting “blistered” from these.

Get to know the beetles in your area and find out which ones can be a threat to you, your home, and surroundings with the help of your local pest control services.

Certain types of beetles can damage your home. As far as the risk of damage to your personal being it would depend. We already know that they can cause you stress and worry which keeps you awake at night. Asian Lady Beetles which closely resemble the old fashion lady bugs, we remember as a child for bringing good luck, are certainly not luck bringers. They bite, and it can be painful. They will even land on a child or baby and bite them. In addition to this many people are developing allergic reactions to them. When they come, they come in hordes. They can cover whole walls of your house and interior walls too. It’s terrible when an invasion of Asian Lady Bugs happens. They were initially brought to our country to help control agricultural pests, and seem to be the worse in the autumn.

Many types of beetles can wreak havoc with your landscape and trees, boring holes right into them. Whole forests have been damaged in the United States from beetles. Powderpost Beetles will set up housekeeping right in your home while laying eggs in your woodwork. They bore holes into wood and leave behind a powder type substance known as “frass”. They also go after trees. Some beetles aren’t real selective at times, they seem not to care if it is your house or a tree they are boring in to. Dead wood eating beetles can cause damage to your home just like the dreaded termite.

Beetles do not have the ability to sting, as far as documented species go. There are some beetles that do inflict mighty pain with a bite which can cause blistering to the bitten area. There is actually a beetle called the Blistering Beetle. The main thing to worry about if bitten by a beetle is whether you are allergic or not. Once you establish that you are allergic to a certain substance you can learn to avoid the bite, as best as you can, and carry necessary medication to help you at a moment’s notice. Beetles belong to the species Coleoptera. The allergic reaction to a beetle bite would be the same as an allergic reaction to any other type of insect bite, such as a bee sting. These can be very serious for some and you might have to be rushed to an emergency room depending upon the seriousness of the reaction. It is sometimes hard to tell with a young child or baby and it is best not to take any chances when children are involved in such a scenario.

Asian Lady Bugs are becoming quite common in the United States, and they do bite. Some people just say “Ouch!” and have a little reddened area. Others are allergic. Carpet Beetles also bite.

Many of the ugly outdoors beetles, such as the Stag Beetle can inflict a surprisingly painful bite, even though this is not what they usually do. The main concern when bitten by a beetle (as mentioned earlier) is whether you are allergic or not.

The best thing to do if you already have beetles is to get hold of your reliable pest control guy or company for expert assistance and advice, right away. Why go through unnecessary suffering?

There are thousands of different kinds of beetles, around 300,000 species. Some beetles are okay, but there are also some very wicked beetles that can wreak havoc in your home and yard. Many of these are coming into the United States from other countries.

Asian Longhorned Beetles can be very destructive to your hardwood trees such as Maple and Elm. Emerald Ash Borers go after Ash trees, as their name implies. You will notice increased woodpecker activity if you have wood boring beetles because the wood peckers are trying to get the larvae hatched from the beetles laying eggs in the trees. Beetle larvae are a lot like maggots from fly eggs. Mountain Pine Beetles are killing whole forests. Japanese Beetles are horrible too, eating their way through most any plants in your landscaping.

As we go to the interior of your home we find an enemy in the form of the Asian Lady Beetle. They bite, and it hurts, also they spew out a foul smelling liquid from their leg joints which can stain your walls. These beetles can cover whole walls, get in your carpets, drapes, and everywhere. They look like the friendly old fashioned Lady Bug. The best thing to do is to contact a pest control and extermination company if you already have beetles.

The only sure way to prevent beetles from invading your environment is to employ the services of a professional Pest Control company. They will first examine your property, both inside and out to see if you already have a problem. If you only see an occasional beetle inside and out, you probably do not have a pest problem, but might be a candidate for such. With their professional advice and know-how they can guide you, get rid of any beetles you might have, and go over a preventive plan especially tailored to your needs. One good major thing that helps in preventing beetles from invading your personal space is to know their habits. What are they attracted to? Where do they hang out and breed in the yard? How do they get in my house, and what are they after? The life of most insects, including beetles, are solely spent looking for feeding sources or attaching themselves to feeding sources. They are not willing to leave a seemingly reliable source of food. It is a little easier getting rid of beetles inside as you have circumstances that are highly controllable. Outside can be a different matter as beetles bore into your trees sitting up habitats, breeding, and laying eggs. It is also difficult to control species that invade your landscaping and plants. They fly in from practically anywhere and you have the bait. Your beautiful trees and plants are the bait and attraction for their perfect life style. The best way to prevent beetles from invading your environment outside is to ask the experts and take their help.

On the average beetles are not dangerous to your pets. If they are used to eating them in large quantities they could get something called a “bezoar”, which is a hard mass which forms in the stomach or elsewhere in the digestive tract. Eating too many beetles can give them an upset stomach, diarrhea, and cause them to vomit up the offending substance. A bezoar is kind of like a blockage of rapidly consumed items that do not digest fast enough for proper elimination. Humans have also been known to get intestinal blockages, but not from eating beetles.

The infamous Asian Lady Beetle is always out creating havoc, and they will do it with your pet also, if they can. You will recognize these as the millions of bugs that descend on your house, covering walls, counter tops, and floors. They look like common Lady Bugs, except they bite. You really don’t have to worry about them biting your pet, as they mostly bite humans, including children. The danger with dogs and Asian Lady Beetles is once again the factor of eating them. The dogs try to gobble them up because there are so many of them. The hard and sharp edges of the wings become imbedded in the roof of their mouth and tongues like sharp popcorn hulls. These will require removal. It is fortunate that the Asian Lady Beetles let out a noxious spray which usually causes the dog to try to spit them out. Beetles are not dangerous for your pets unless they try rapidly devouring them.

When beetles are the most active would depend upon their species. Take the Asian Lady Beetle for example. They seem to come in droves around autumn time depending upon your geographical location. A lot of beetles don’t like cold weather of any sort so they have a tendency to spend their winters in your home, if they can. In areas where it is warm all year round this is not a factor. Japanese Beetles which invade much of the Eastern United States are usually laid as eggs in the soil or ground. After they leave the larvae stage, they emerge as adults. This usually happens around June of each year. Japanese Beetles undergo a flurry of activity in late June. After this they slow down and begin to die. You will often see their dead bodies littering the landscape as they usually only live about 45 days at the longest.

A good majority of beetles are active at night. The ones with chemical defense might also be active in the day time. You will often see a beetle clinging to a plant or something in the daytime almost like it is asleep. The Bombardier Beetles known to live near the ground, are one of the beetles with chemical defense. This is how they got their name. If something or someone disturbs them, they let out a very hot and smelly spray from the tip of their stomach or abdomen. Beetles are most active in the night time as a general rule.

Beetles do like to have hiding places and don’t enjoy living along side of humans. Some insects such as fruit flies and ants seem oblivious to humans and their activities. This is not so for the beetle, if you disturb them they are likely to get out of your way. They do not like being captured.

On occasion you might have a Japanese Beetle,May Beetle, or a June Beetle land on you. The June Beetle is often called a June Bug. They seem almost blind at times as they fly around. You have seen them, they are green, and sometimes can get under your clothing. Calling a June Beetle a June Bug is not taxonomically correct. These beetles will do a slight pinching bite if you try to hold them captive, even though they are not made to bite humans. No harm usually comes from a beetle bite unless you are allergic to them which is highly unlikely, but it can happen. Beetles hide in their natural habitat outside, such as plants, trees, and dark and moist places like under rocks and old logs. They can hide on plants, in boxes, packages, and other items to get a ride into your house. If you need to have a pest control agent come to your home to look for beetles inside and in the yard they will know exactly where to look. Leave it to the experts to know all of the common hiding places for beetles.

The birthing cycle of beetles include being laid as an egg and hatching into larval. The life cycle is a complete metamorphosis with four stages which are all very different from each other. It starts out in stage one which is the egg, then goes on to stage two, which is the larval, and on to stage three which is a pupal, then the final stage, the adult.

The larval is like the baby of the beetle. The larval shed, or molt at least seven times before becoming a pupal. They have a very strong appetite and eat off of their environment. Some may shed as many as ten times. The larval does not feed during shedding.

The pupal is the child of the beetle. We know that larval is similar to the maggots as produced by the common fly, but what is the pupal like? The pupal is where the biggest change takes place as the beetle develops into a full sized adult. It is similar to the butterfly while they are in their cocoon and they emerge as a full grown butterfly.

This is a part of the beetle’s life cycle. Each time they change they are entering another cycle. The pupal is formed from the larval and becomes dormant for a while why it takes on the form of the adult beetle.

The time of this transformation depends upon what kind of beetle it is. Some pupas take only thirty days to develop, while others take as long as two or three years. The birthing and life cycle of the beetle is amazing, indeed.

Beetles are very distinctive when it comes to their natural history. They are representatives of approximately a fifth of the living organisms on the whole Earth. They are also the largest order of insects. There are well over 300,000 species in the order Coleoptera and new ones are continually being discovered.

The oldest known insect fossils date back to the Lower Permian Period which was part of the late Paleozoic. This was about 270 million years ago. The fossils closely relate to the beetle as we know it, though they had several more antennae (segmented antennae). These fossil insects were classified and placed in the family of Tshekardocoleidae, but they had the “Elytra” for what the beetle is known. The Elytra is the hard wing casing on the Beetle’s front wings which sets them apart from other insects.

During the time of the Jurassic Period there was a huge increase relating to the kinds of beetles. Herbivorous and carnivorous beetles stepped forward, dividing their differences, and food preferences, in history. Yes, there are carnivorous beetles, or flesh eating beetles.

Flesh eating beetles are called Dermestids. Dermestid is derived from the Greek language and it means “skin”. The flesh eating beetle which are still around today eat the skins, or the flesh off of dead bodies, such as old animals in a process called Skeletonization. The eggs of the beetle turn into larvae just like the common fly’s eggs. We call them maggots. The history of the Beetle is quite interesting and very long.