Yuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!!!!!!

ewwwww!

Smash it, gross! I hate grubs . . .

It's the grub of a rhinoceros beetle and harmless, but an interesting form of life, as is the beetle. They don't eat plants, but they do help process the compost. I find lots of them in my compost pile. One of my neighbor's children took some of them to school and kept them in an aquarium for a science project.

Everything wants to live.

Here is a link that might be useful: About rhinoceros beetle grubs ...

I have found those in and around my compost heap too. They are huge :-)

I found a tomato hornworm yesterday in the grass. I put it on a brugmansia and it immediately wrapped itself in a leaf blanket. I thought he was looking for shelter from the coming rain and chill.

I always get a bit of rapid heartbeat when handling larger insects. I've not found the nerve to hold a mantid or spider yet, maybe someday.

i put them on the driveway ... usually takes minutes before some bird spots it ...

you do understand.. that population is the problem... one or two.. or a few.. isnt that big a deal ... right?????

ken

I give them to my chickens... they love them. Have problems swallowing them thou.

Looks like some good catfish bait!

These things gross me out. They are all in my yard. Everytime I dig I dig some up. However, I haven't noticed that they hurt anything. Now those tomato horn worms pkponder mentioned need to die a painful death!

I've found those huge things in my mulch pile.

if the armadillo's would dig there instead of
everywhere else...they'd get a full meal quickly.

I'd never seen such a big grub...like from HG Wells
food of the gods...LOL!

I get those in my compost pile ONLY when I add horse or cow manure to the pile.

Lorelei, I hadn't put that together, but I do occasionally add poop to the compost when I can get it :-)

The sweet hornworm is still rolled up in his leaf tent, I bet he will cocoon.
I love to see the big moths :-)

Lorelei, that's an interesting observation, but the piles of ground tree limbs that the tree trimmers have left for me to use as mulch is full of the huge grubs and there is no manure anywhere around. I just toss them aside as I fill the wheelbarrow.

It's curious that I don't see that many rhinoceros beetles. Just one or two now and then and often just an empty shell/skeleton. It seems they burrow because occasionally I see their head at the entrance of a little hole.

Sometimes I find them in the soil of a pot that I've topped with mulch, but the plants have not been harmed since they only eat dead plant matter serving to break it down faster, sort of like earth worms do.

This post was edited by roselee on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 11:04

I don't know what the relaitionship is but I finally made the connection with the manure in my compost when I stopped adding the manure. I very occasionally see them still but nothing like I used to. Now I let my manure sit for months and months and don't have the problem anymore. Once, I pulled over a dozen out of my pile.

Agreed that grubs are never a problem if you can count them on one hand per shovel full. I guess we're lucky that Japanese beetles can't survive here.

"I give them to my chickens"

But with big grubs they spend all their time playing keep-away and can't eat before they are swarmed, and two minutes later you can't dig another hole without hitting a chicken...

Yuck. I occasionally find these huge grubs whenever I move things around. They seem to hide under anything (protection from armadillos? My backyard got torn up a little bit lately...)

On this week's PBS/KLRU "Central Texas Gardener" John Dromgoole talks about making and using compost and shows some rhino beetle grubs. As you can see on the show the grubs are clean, dry and safe to handle. I've handled the beetles also with no problem except their feet are kind of stickery when they try to get away from you ... :-)

To watch the episode before it airs on Saturday click "This week's episode" on the right of the blog page. I'm watching it right now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Central Texas Gardener Blog

planting datura around your tomato patch will get the hornworms off the tomatoes. hawkmoths much prefer datura-or brugmansia, and the caterpillars will leave the tomatoes for them.