Finding beetles

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Dak.the.bug

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Hello everyone.

I am looking to try and catch some beetles, preferably stags. Any advice on how I could go about doing this? I had read somewhere that you can catch them using a light, and a bag with a beer and banana mix squeezed out of it, and placing it under an oak tree or other hardwood tree and to keep checking on it between 10pm and 3am. Any easier ways?

Also, how about searching for the larvae of big beetles? I fear that the most I would end up finding are Japanese beetle grubs. 

 
I don't know your location but in Arizona and California, the easiest way to catch big beetles is setting up your own light or going to bright lights at gas stations, etc at night. You may even be able to find some nice stuff at your porch light on nice warm night. Check out some gas station lights in remote areas and see what you find.

 
Garin said:
I don't know your location but in Arizona and California, the easiest way to catch big beetles is setting up your own light or going to bright lights at gas stations, etc at night. You may even be able to find some nice stuff at your porch light on nice warm night. Check out some gas station lights in remote areas and see what you find.
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Thank you! I will try that. I'm in Maine, so we don't have too much here as far as big beetles go, but I do know we have one or two species of stags here. 

 
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I have a friend that collects stag beetles at gas station lights, store lights, etc and does pretty well. A nice warming evening after a rain and no moon or very little moon is best. Unless of course there is cloud cover than the moon is not a factor. Good luck and have fun!

 
If you want to find larvae, you can go to a hardwood forest and flip over rotten logs, you can also look inside tree holes to find larvae of the eastern Hercules beetles.

 
Specifically, live hardwood trees that have rotted out insides, oftentimes if there are dynastes inside you’ll see frass pellets in the wood, which is a giveaway that grubs are there. Be careful though, spiders, ants, and other creatures hide in the cool, moist insides and may defend themselves if bothered.

 
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