Just a couple years ago, before they bulldozed some of the shops off the end of Tung Hotel Rd. nearest the train station, there was a little shack that would always hang little stalks of sugar cane from its interior ceiling this time of year, all with male horned beetles (gwaang) tethered to them. They also had a few females inside some hollowed out sticks of cane as well. It's an old tradition to have a competition where the males jostle for position on the cane over the female. One year I was able to go and hang out with the crowd and it made for a really fun time. Anybody know who's got the beetles and where these days ? I'm sure it's around somewhere, but maybe on the down-low.

I used to see them next to the Ping River at the Narawat Bridge

RTD: Last year I heard shouting on a pretty consistent basis during the evenings, coming from a garage right down my soi. Turns out it was beetle fighting. It lasted for a little bit over a month. Think they must be keeping it on the DL because of the gambling. If it happens again, I'll give you a ring. Lis

Seen the Beetles? Not since the 1960s.

OH, wait, you weren't even born then.

I love all those beetles with coloured wing cases. They make great photo ops.

My wife was raised in these parts and remembers about the beetles from her childhood summers spent in Fang. She says it all starts by catching a female usually by someone climbing a tree who knows what they are looking for to get one. She says the females are a bit longer and thinner than the males, and especially have a far less developed set of pinchers. Placing the female inside the section of sugar cane and suspending it from a ceiling overnight, in the morning there would be males, anywhere from 1 to 3 or so, clinging to the sugar cane. She could then sell the males to people who would fight them 1 on 1, when the betting occurred. They hiss at each other and bite each other. She could get 4-5 baht apiece for the males, and it was one of those country ways of making small money as a kid.

Thanks for the story, huli. I like bugs of all kinds, but I was rather shocked when this guy crawled up my sock. A Thai vendor pulled it off for me and stuffed it in a bag. And, she got bitten for her efforts. She then told me to sell it to another vendor, but I just gave it to him. I had no idea what it was at the time.

I heard there wouldn't be any this year. Someone said Yoko was in town and broke them up.

David