How to help stags in your garden
LEAVE OLD STUMPS AND DEAD WOOD ALONE Female stags lay their eggs in rotting log piles and the roots of various rotten trees, including oak, apple, ash and cherry. Leave fallen trees in large pieces in contact with the soil so that the wood remains moist and is able to rot. Don't remove tree stumps if you are cutting down a dead, unsafe tree. And please don't burn the dead wood.
STAG BEETLES ARE HARMLESS and do not attack living wood, or timber used in furniture, buildings or fences unless it is very rotten, so do not be tempted to kill them. Please leave them well alone.
BE ALERT FOR PREDATORS such as magpies and cats. Try and scare magpies away and keep your own pets indoors during the evening when stag beetles are .ying and vulnerable.
COVER WATER BUTTS and also provide an access out of ponds for beetles such as a small plank. If you see a dead-looking beetle in water please take it out - they oftern revive!
TRY AND AVOID DECKING YOUR GARDEN
DO NOT MOW YOUR LAWN in large areas during the period the beetles are emerging.
BUY UNTREATED WOODCHIPS OR MULCH which can also provide ideal habitat for females to lay their eggs in and a food supply for the larvae.
IF YOU FIND A DEAD STAG BEETLE, please wrap it carefully and send it to:
Great Stag Hunt
People's Trust for Endangered Species
15 Cloisters House
8 Battersea Park Road
London
SW8 4BG
Carefully enclose it in both a box and an airtight envelope with details of exactly where you found it. We shall pass it on to researchers who are studying beetle sizes.
