Stag Beetle
MAKER : Abigail Burt
FOUNDRY : ORE AND INGOT
PATINA : Abigail Burt
SPECIES INFORMATION
The Stag Beetle
Stag beetles live in hedgerows, woodlands and traditional orchards, gardens and parks both in Britain and across Western Europe.
Across most of Britain they are extremely rare or extinct, however they inhabit areas of southern England, the Severn valley and coastal areas of the southwest.
Stag beetles eat decaying wood. They spend most of their life underground, emerging from around May until the end of the summer.
Their characteristic stag like feature is in fact large mandibles, used to win a mate through fighting and displays of courtship. You are most likely to spot a male stag beetle when they fly around at dusk searching for a female.
These magnificent beetles are Red listed in many European countries and have undergone a decline across Europe.
Stag beetles are not dangerous, and they do not damage wood, only feeding on rotting wood. Please make your garden stag beetle friendly, by following this advice from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species:
Leave tree stumps in place if possible; they can become garden features with plants growing over them.
Try not to use pesticides.
Keep a lid on your water butt as stag beetles are known to fall in and drown.
Avoid using polythene sheeting to control weeds. Newly emerging stag beetles can get trapped beneath it in spring and die.
If you find larvae in the bottom of rotten fence posts and need to move them, dig a hole elsewhere in your garden and put them in together with some of the rotting wood from the original site. Cover loosely with soil.