I've opened new Twitter account @ElytraFads and trying to follow what's Tweeple say about beetles on-line. To my big disappointment, search for word "beetle" is quite difficult actually: majority of Tweets are about Volkswagen car, also commonly called beetle - rather than about small animal creatures from Coleoptera order. However there are some occasional personal tweets, like "OMG - big black beetle came to my room !" or "I just squashed a beetle". LOL
There are also few tweets which reflect different events which can all together be categorized as "Beetles invasion". In fact, one of the latest search trends on Google is : "Emerald ash borer beetle invasion". I've stumbled upon one link on Twitter and then did a bit more search about this beetle. Apparently it is quite a big problem in US - because there are many news, articles, even whole websites dedicated to it and its destroying of many ash trees.
Here is just one of them: Emerald ash borer beetle
Emerald ash borer probably arrived in the United States on solid wood packing material carried in cargo ships or airplanes originating in its native Asia.
Its Elytra looks beautiful though, as its name implies :
Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire)
Geographical range
Native range: The emerald ash borer’s native range includes China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Russian Far East...
Known introduced range: In North America, EAB infestations are known to exist in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia, as well as the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It has also recently been discovered in the Moscow region of Russia
Here is one whole website (blog) dedicated to this problem:
Don't Move Firewood
(@dntmovefirewood on Twitter, they publish latest Updates about ongoing infestation and their campaign "Don't Move Firewood" - I just joined as one of followers)
Strange though, but I couldn't find on eBay selling any single specimen of it! :) eBay search only given few results for insecticides and 1 book about it.
However some similar Agrilus sp. (species from SE Asia & Africa) are sold by insect dealers for collectors in price range from 1$ to 7$ per specimen. on another website I found Agrilus sp. from Kazahstan for 6 Euro (about 9$US ?) - which quite likely might be exact species of this Agrilus planipennis.
Perhaps those people should try to cook those beetles - that might solve the problem ! :) In Asia, S. Amerca, Africa - there are many various inseacts used as foods this one - from category of metallic wood-boring beetles (Buprestidae Family) - and there are even already quite a few cook-books
ants, water bugs, spiders, centipedes, and their kin
