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Although initially terrified of these little creatures when we first bought our house we have grown to really enjoy their company!  However, we now have quite a few sunning themselves on our walls and they disappear under our roof tiles and then into the roof space every evening.  They make a terrible scratching sound during the night and although annoying we can live with that.  We would prefer to leave them alone but are concerned that over time they might do damage to the fabric of the building or chew through cables etc. (like mice?).  Can anyone enlighten us?  In any case, not sure we could do anything about them as they get into the tiniest of spaces.
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We have loads of 'gekkos' (as we call them) around.  You'll see them at any time of day, but mostly they come out to play at around 17.00.  Well ........... when I say "come out to play", Mrs G reckons that it's mating that they're up to !! [:-))]  I really wouldn't know about these things.

The livestock has been particularly active this summer. There's a little green frog who keeps on turning up in whatever I leave lying around outside: the other day I was making a cup of tea in the kitchen and found him looking at me from 1 metre away on the worktop!  He was removed.

Two days ago, a massive (and I mean massive) flying beetle came to have a look at us.  He stayed around for half an hour or so and then took off like a helicopter and flew off.  I'll put up a pic of him later.

Finally the pipistrelle bat which resides behind one of the shutters decided that he'd spend the day under our garden umbrella. Bit of a surprise when i opened it up.    

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Looks like a capricorne beetle to me - that's the mummy or daddy of the larvae that's just chewed it's way through your woodwork......I beleive though that they are a protected species, so you shouldn't kill them.

Lou

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From trawling the web, it looks like Grande Capricorne or Capricorne du Chene (makes sense as we live adjacent to an oak forest).

Seemingly the grubs only feed on live wood. 

We get regular phone calls from people telling us that there's a major outbreak in our area and we really need to get them in.  These people are more invasive than the beetles. 

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[quote user="Gitesforsale"]I wouldn't keep this thing in your house: you could find all your untreated woodwork infested in no time. Petit ou grand capricorne = petits ou grands dégâts!
[/quote]

Thanks for your concern.

However, it's the 1st one we've seen in 8 years and it arrived on the terrace well away from the house, sat around for a while and departed in to the bois.

It's a concern of course, but if I worried about everything that might afflict us, I'd have grey hair.  I don't of course !!

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