The Deathwatch beetle is so-named from an old superstition that when people attending a deathbed – or were ‘on watch’ – in an old building, they would hear a tapping noise in the wood which, they believed, was an omen of death. The noise was made, however, by a male deathwatch beetle tapping its head against the wood to attract a female. The female responds, also by tapping and the process continues with the taps creating vibrations within the timber, until they locate each other.
Females use the smell of decaying wood to locate suitable trees or timber in which to lay eggs in crevices and holes in dead, or dying wood - mainly oak but also in elm, chestnut and other hardwoods. The emerging larvae bore into, and feed on, the timber. Wood is difficult to digest, and even though enzymes in the gut of larval deathwatch beetles can convert the cellulose into sugars, it may take up to 12 years before they pupate into adults.
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