Our house is full of places
where animals live and overall we are happy with that and it rarely causes any
actual harm although occasionally something dies which needless to say can
smell a bit.
Fortunately, as always, the
natural world is well equipped to deal with any small corpses that are
inaccessible, (as they invariably are), and Burying or Carrion beetles are one
of the insects that make their living from such things. There are some 20 odd
species in
This year in September we
were finding Nicrophorus vespillo in
one part of our house and I would speculate that they had been on a dead
As with some other insects, notably some Bumble bee species, these Burying beetles carry with them several species of phoretic mites that use the beetle as transport from one corpse to another. The relationship between these mites and the beetles has generally been thought to be benign but there is extensive research continuing on what the actual relationships and effects are. Needless to say it’s too complicated a subject for me and to go into here but I’ve put a link below and to a great video.
Chris
LINK Phoretic mites and beetles
LINK Video burying beetle at work and larvae