House longhorn beetle
The house longhorn beetle is a flat brown or black beetle with long feelers and a fine grey fuzz that makes it look grey. It often has two whitish spots on its back. Its babies live inside wooden beams and chew tunnels through them for years.
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Fun facts
Going from egg to beetle can take two to ten years, depending on the wood and the weather.
The grown-up beetle chews an oval hole about 6 to 10 millimetres wide to get out of the wood, and leaves powdery crumbs behind.
In the wild it helps old dead pine trees and fence posts rot away faster.
In South Africa it is called the Italian beetle, because it arrived in packing crates from Italy.
Most asked questions about House longhorn beetle
?Is the house longhorn beetle dangerous?
Not to people. But its larvae can damage the wooden beams of houses.
?How big is the house longhorn beetle?
It is about 8 to 20 millimetres long. Its larvae can reach 3 centimetres.
?What does the house longhorn beetle eat?
Only the larvae eat. They chew dead softwood like pine, fir and spruce.
Myth buster
Myth: The old house borer only lives in old houses.
Truth: Actually it is found more often in new houses. The fresh resin in newer wood attracts it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hylotrupes bajulus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cerambycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Old house borer, European house borer, Italian beetle
Where the facts come from
- Hylotrupes (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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