A group of volunteers spent last Saturday cleaning the church, but the pests started to return the following day.

Brian Cowan, the church’s property committee convener, said the costs were adding up each time the church was cleaned.

The members just recently spent more than $300 to have the gutters cleared and are now looking at the carpet of the church as the next issue to address.

“At the moment, the smell of these beetles is not good,” Mr Cowan said.

“Some way or another we’ve got to find someone who can shampoo the carpets to get the smell out.”

Members of the community, scientists, environmental groups, Bathurst Regional Council and the media was invited to the church in February to see the infestation.

Mr Cowan classed the meeting as a success, but there had been no further progress made in ridding the building of the beetles.

“[The scientists] did take a whole pile of beetles away to check it out and they haven’t got back to me yet, but they were amazed at how many there were,” he said.

Council had not offered a solution as of yet, Mr Cowan said, but planned on treating the trees along the Vale Road, near the church, in October. 

He fears that if the beetles come back in mass in spring, it could be months before the congregation can return to the church.

“If the beetles don’t come back in spring we can use the church again, but if they do come back in spring we will be out of the church for 18 months,” Mr Cowan said.

The beetles first became a major problem at the church in February 2016.

Overcome by the mass of beetles, the congregation moved to the hall near the church for meetings, but that too has become a hot-spot for the insects.

Mr Cowan made the issue public in an effort to combat the beetles and prevent the iconic trees on Vale Road suffering the same fate.