Walnut Creek residents are up to their ankles in beetles

DEAR JOAN >> Can you help us? We have been utterly inundated with beetles.

We’ve lived in this location for 10 years, and we’ve never experienced this before. The beetles are about half an inch long. They’re in the house. They’re in the flower pots. They’re in the barn. They’re all over the place.

They run, but they don’t fly.

— George Doddington, Walnut Creek

DEAR GEORGE >> This is the year that just keeps giving, isn’t it?

I consulted with Steve Schutz, scientific programs manager with the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District, and he says your visitors appear to be common ground beetles.

When it comes to insects running around your house and making things uncomfortable, ground beetles aren’t the worst thing you could find. In fact, the beetles are darn useful — outdoors.

Both the adults and the larvae feed on soil-dwelling insect larvae and pupae, as well as snails and slugs. They also will eat seeds, including weed seeds, and organic litter, all of which keeps your yard a bit tidier and trouble free.

I’m not sure why they’re inside your house. Their presence might indicate you’ve got an abundance of other insects they’re feeding on.

If you have outdoor potted plants that you brought inside, you might have brought beetle eggs with them. They lay eggs in moist soil. If you think the beetles might have gained entry this way, re-pot the plants with fresh soil after scrubbing out the container.

Their lifespan, from egg to adult, is about a year, unless accidentally squished underfoot or eaten by a bird. While you’ve never seen one fly, they are capable of it, although they usually prefer to run — very fast.

I’d definitely sweep them out of the house, but they are earning their keep outdoors.

DEAR JOAN >> We have mourning doves — J.P., for John Prine, and Fiona, for John’s wife — that built a nest in one of the hanging pots on my porch. The eggs hatched on Cinco de Mayo, so we named the babies Diego and Frida. They both fledged on May 18, right on schedule.

Diego and Frida hung around the yard with J.P. and Fiona, learning to fly, for about two days. Then Diego left on May 20.

A week later, Frida is still hanging around with J.P. and Fiona, who even is still feeding Frida. Frida doesn’t seem to have a problem flying.

J.P. and Fiona periodically check out the hanging pots on the porch as if getting ready to make a new nest, but never seem to leave Frida alone long enough to accomplish a new family. I have seen them nuzzling and mating, though.

Isn’t it unusual for the baby to still be hanging around and for mom and dad to still be watching her and feeding her? I don’t think they are ever gone long enough from around my yard to have a nest elsewhere.

— Maria Nadauld, Hayward

DEAR MARIA >> As many human parents can attest, not all children leave the nest at the same time. Mourning doves are excellent parents, however, and when the time is right, they’ll send Frida on her way.