Beetles that bite

There are actually three poisonous beetles in Denmark, but they only cause a problem for humans if you eat them. All the other beetles are no problem whatsoever. They aren’t at all interested in humans. They are herbivores and scavengers, they wouldn’t even dream of sucking blood, and the ones that are predators only go for the small insects, worms, snails and slugs. But you do need to handle the larger beetles with some respect. If you try to pick them up and treat them too harshly, or maybe accidentally squeeze them somehow, they will bite – and they mean it!

Some of the beetles, for example, the large black longhorn beetle, which you can find in various conifer trees, has such large and powerful jaws that it can bite through human skin without a problem – and it won’t put up with anything. The black longhorn beetle is so well known for its biting abilities, that in Sweden it is known as “biting beetle”.

It can be an interesting project to catch some different beetles in small jars, and have a closer look at their jaws, before you let them go again. You can compare them and see how different they are depending on what they prefer to feed on.