'Horror movie scenes': Millions of giant beetles with a VERY unusual name descend on a property - as Australia's wet summer creates perfect breeding conditions
- Black bugs called redheaded cockchafers have terrorised a home in Tasmania
- Man stepped outside his Hamilton property and found 'gravel' everywhere
- Upon closer inspection it became clear it was thousands of crawling beetlesMillions of beetles have terrorised a home after intense wet weather battered Tasmania.
Kyle Manton was shocked when he stepped outside his home in Hamilton, Tasmania, to find a swarm of little black bugs crawling over each other outside his front door.
The little black bugs, called redheaded cockchafers, are seen swarming around his camera in the creepy footage. Social media users were stunned when they saw the footage.
'Horror movie stuff,' one commented.
'I wouldn't be able to leave the house,' a second agreed while a third called it the 'apocalypse.'Redheaded cockchafers are considered a pasture pest that's predominantly found in Australia south-east.
The beetles are a sign of wet weather and are found in higher rainfall zones.
Simon Grove, Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, was shocked by the number of beetles.
'The beetles concerned are prone to mass hatching's and are readily attracted to artificial light. But the sheer number of individuals in the video is extraordinary,' he said.
'I suspect this event occurred due to a 'perfect storm' of two favourable factors this year- an unusually wet spring (it's a La Niña year) combined with a sudden spell of warm, summer rain.'
They feed on roots and plants causing extensive damage to pastures.
outside his property (pictured)
Redheaded cockchafers (pictured) are a sign of wet weather and are found in higher rainfall zones
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Man in Hamilton, Tasmania woke up to a plague of redheaded cockchafers covering the ground outside his property (pictured)
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