Bumbling beetles! It's the Cockchafer
May is the month of the Cockchafer, a big, bumbling beetle that may look and sound a bit scary, but this gentle giant is just looking for love.
Its curious common name is thought to derive from 'cock' meaning familiar - as in ‘cock sparrow’ - and 'chafer' meaning a gnawing beetle in the same family as the infamous Egyptian Scarab.
It’s also known as the May Bug, since most of them will emerge this month, but this is just one of an impressively long list of imaginative local nicknames that includes: Spang Beetle, Billy Witch, Dumbledarey, Mitchamador and Bummler.
The adults that are appearing now have spent at least three years underground as creamy-white grubs, munching on the roots of grasses and cereals.
Before agricultural intensification, these larvae were serious pests. In 1320, the people of Avignon, France took the Cockchafer to court, ordering it to leave town and relocate to a designated area. Of course, not a single Cockchafer complied and thousands were rounded up and killed. Today, they exist in much lower numbers and their main predators are crows, which love to snack on a fat, juicy Cockchafer grub, or ‘rookworm.’
It takes three to five years for the slow-growing grubs to reach their maximum size of around 4cm. They will then undergo a final moult and pupate in early autumn, emerging as an adult beetle six months later.
The freshly-emerged adults stay underground until spring, when they finally work their way to the surface and take flight.
Cockchafers are powerful but ponderous fliers. Used to a life in the dark, they fly at night and are attracted to light, frequently crashing into lit windows or careering into our homes.
They only live for six to eight weeks and their sole, and sometimes frantic, mission is to reproduce. Their impressive, feathery antennae are used to pick up and track down the chemical signals released by potential mates, and you can tell the sexes apart by counting the “leaves” - males have seven on their antennae, whereas females have only six.
After mating, each female will lay up to 80 eggs, burying them deep in the soil before bumbling off into the night.
Comments
Such a great little article about this generally unloved beetle .. which made me love it more! Thank you!
14 May 2026 10:28:00
I think they’re adorable, and I’ve often rescued these little guys from where I find them stranded on the sidewalk or on the roadside.
14 May 2026 10:30:00
How can we help the maybugs in our gardens?
14 May 2026 10:31:00
I love these things – when they turn up you know summer is on it’s way
14 May 2026 10:44:00
Really interesting. Saw them a lot growing up but not so much now. We just called them May bugs or June bugs as we also saw them in June.
14 May 2026 11:43:00
We used to see these on May in the garden I think I have seen their grubs under rotting wood. There are quite a few badgers about that come into our garage too
14 May 2026 11:56:00
What a wonderful beetle, I shall keep my eyes open, hopefully see one.
14 May 2026 12:11:00
We had one in our garden last week.
14 May 2026 12:51:00
In the last still picture is that beetle a female with some sort of egg-laying device at the end? Enjoyed the detail.
14 May 2026 13:54:00
Was previously scared of these as they crashed into my windows. But can now see that they are sweet guys.
14 May 2026 14:56:00
I love these creatures! Last year I rescued one from a watering can. It sat for several minutes on my hand drying out. Then, all sorted, it flew away. I’m just sorry that there aren’t many around anymore.
14 May 2026 17:51:00
What a great article and film! These bugs have very cute faces and almost look like they’re wearing a disguise. Love all their different names too, how we laughed!
14 May 2026 19:00:00
So nice to learn something about an entirely new (to me) and lovely little creature. Thank you.
14 May 2026 19:20:00
It is several years since I came upon a clutch of small Cockchafers on Hove lawns (just behind the sea front). Before that I stepped out of a train at Crowthorne station in Berkshire in the rain and just managed to grab a couple of large Cockchafers before they got trodden on. Lovely chunky things, second only to cicadas and praying mantises. Sweet and crunchy too – No, no! I mean ‘humbugs’. Name almost any insect and today I miss it.
14 May 2026 19:38:00
Absolutely fascinating little creatures- lovely article about their lifecycle. Thank you.
14 May 2026 19:42:00
Thanks so much for this, really interesting.
We used to see and more often hear Maybugs regularly. Sadly none have flown our way for two or three years. Perhaps this year we’ll be lucky.
14 May 2026 19:58:00
Brilliant!!
14 May 2026 20:30:00
Beautiful creature! I will look out for them now.
14 May 2026 20:37:00
I was scared when I was about 14, by one of these crashing into my bedroom and attaching itself to my bedside lampshade. I remember putting the whole lamp outside on the windowsill because it was buzzing! Love a Maybug :-)
14 May 2026 20:49:00
I found one of these bumbling beetles frantically spinning about on its back on my patio. I picked up and right sided the little love. I hope he or she is successful in their search for love!
14 May 2026 22:42:00
Before the internet, I sent a Maybug off in a jar for identification, as I had never seen one before! As the grubs live underground, is it possible that is why the Badgers dig holes in the turf?
15 May 2026 01:51:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
Possibly, Badgers will dig for beetle larvae
Really interesting! I’d never heard of them before.
15 May 2026 06:00:00
I found one outside our back door on the morning of 4th May. It was just sitting in the morning sun on a plastic container I’d left there. We live in Fernhurst and have quite a rural garden.
15 May 2026 06:39:00
So nice to learn something about an entirely new (to me) and lovely little creature. Thank you.
15 May 2026 06:44:00
Fascinating info. We get these in our garden. The cat loves to bring them into the house during May. Love the close up photos
15 May 2026 06:59:00
I believed that May bugs can give a nasty bite is this true?
15 May 2026 07:07:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
Maybugs don't bite or sting
I believed that May bugs can give a nasty bite is this true?
15 May 2026 07:08:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
No that isn't true, Maybugs don't bite or sting
Thanks, great article.
15 May 2026 07:40:00
Fascinating info. We get these in our garden. The cat loves to bring them into the house during May. Love the close up photos
15 May 2026 10:50:00
Thank you, very interesting. I’ve seen these creatures for many decades but have just found out how to tell male from female.
15 May 2026 14:59:00
Brilliant!
15 May 2026 16:11:00
Waaahhhh! What a marvellous creature! And those false eyelashes put anything we might don to attract a mate utterly pathetic. I’ve seen the grubs in the ground, but I’ve never met a cockchafer, how sad! I would love to meet one … or two … or more. T.S. Eliot wrote “The Addressing of Cats”; we need another poem about how to introduce oneself to a cockchafer.
15 May 2026 16:15:00
My stable lights attract them every May. They buzz around the fluorescent tubes and make a lot of noise when several appear at the same time. I’m not so keen when one lands on me, as their feet are quite prickly.
15 May 2026 17:27:00
Judging by the number of grubs I dig up I was surprised to read they are in decline. Eighteen in one pot today.
15 May 2026 18:25:00
Wonderful beetles and their coins ins the Rose Chafer will soon be out and about too. Love the beetles the most.. always think of Darwin’s quote along the lines of God was inordinately fond of beetles, evidenced by their vast and infinite variety. Their drastic decline in numbers is sad and desperate.
16 May 2026 06:52:00
I saw May bugs as a child in Dorset on a farm that had Jersey cows. I haven’t identified them recently, but I’m on the lookout! ☺️
16 May 2026 16:11:00
Not only grass and cereals. I was surprised when my Gooseberry bush suddenly shrivelled up and a gentle tug revealed a complete lack of roots. Turning the plot over to replace it I saw that it was full of Cockchafer grubs. My fruit bushes now grow elsewhere and the former plot is now grassed over.
16 May 2026 19:24:00
I found this article so very interesting as our lawn had originally been invaded by Cockchafer larva, which were so ugly, but as said the birds love them. Also seen them as a beetle and flying incredible insects.
17 May 2026 08:51:00
Thank you for this informative article. I filmed one the other day on my window, they are a piece of art and so nice to watch, they perform like a little dance !
18 May 2026 20:57:00
Fascinating creatures
19 May 2026 09:30:00
What a delight to see these beetles close-up, truly nature’s variety is stunning. We remember them, thirty years ago, flying around our back door light outside. Now, if we see one, we get very excited and nostalgic.
21 May 2026 09:49:00
Loved this…thank you
01 Jun 2026 20:23:00