I’ve met a few of these feisty chaps recently – Devil’s Coach Horse Beetle. At this time of year they’re busy mating and laying their eggs in damp areas under rotting leaves or moss – so don’t be too tidy in your garden, leave some nesting sites for them. They eat slugs – ’nuff said! 

The larvae live underground for several months eating soil invertebrates and worms before they pupate and emerge above ground as adults to eat slugs, snails, caterpillars, spider and woodlice. Hmmm, tasty, but these all the little things that many gardeners don’t want in the garden so we should welcome these beneficial insects (we’ll gloss over the worm eating bit – every friend has a flaw).

How to get the seven-year-old interested? They secrete a nasty smelling fluid from their tails when disturbed and they can give people a nasty nip. The superstitious have always associated them with the devil and it was once believed that if you squashed one, you’d be forgiven seven sins. Some claimed that they cast curses with their tails when they point them.