Cockchafers grubs

[Scarymary]

We inherited a marvellous compost heap when we bought our home in the Charente two years ago. Last November we started to move the heap to a more practical position. As I started to dig into the soil, I kept coming across these fat, white grubs with a black/brown splodge at one end, which I thought were possibly stag-beetles or hawk moths larvae. So, I carefully put them to one side and when we'd shifted the heap, I put them back into the soil, made them comfortable and covered them back over again.

A few weeks ago a friend (a very knowledgable gardener) was looking over our garden and spotted one of the grubs in the soil. She reeled backwards and told me stories about the beasts that filled me with fear and terror. They were not the little sweeties that I'd hoped they were but were infact Cockchafers (the larvae of May Bugs) that live in the soil for up to five years and cause massive destruction to roots, bulbs, corms, grass infact anything and everything! A short while after that, I read about them in a Mr Bricolage gardening magazine and they said that you must do your duty to yourself, your neighbours and France and kill them. You can buy some nasty stuff to do the job but we just put them in a bag and chuck them on the fire. Don't squash them 'cos they pop and it's disgusting. We have found around two hundred so far. Be aware.

[Iceni]

Fair enough BUT stag beetle larva are so similar that this endangered beetle will be killed unless you spend a lot of time learning the difference and as you said, if you use poison all the good will go with very few bad.

If the larva have legs then normally they are good. We have masses of cockchafers flying when the season comes , they start as the sun goes down and are a ruddy pest but we have no damage to plants or roots from them, the odd wire worms do far more damage.

Cockchafers and young stag beetle larva can be very hard to distinguish and in the UK they now have to plant oak log circles just to stop them becoming totally extinct. Almost everything has something that eats it and that goes for cockchafers as well.

We have vine weevil larva in the ground here and find that the chickens like them, we have also seen a couple of the beetles. In the UK we had hundreds of weevils both as grub and beetle as nothing ate them, here the ground beetles eat them.

My attitude is unless 'I' know for certain that they do damage I leave them alone. That rule does not go for rabbits, cats on my land, wireworm, moles and mulot as they do untold damage. Everything else is safe.

Mr Bricolage is in the business of selling chemicals and spray on death - not of sustainable gardening. If your garden ecology is in ballance you will have less pests and more predators.

[Monsieurmousseux]

Perhaps these pictures will help. First, a cockchafer grub:

 

And now a stag beetle larva:

 

Enjoy your meal!

[Monsieurmousseux]

We, too, have found fat white grubs with brown heads in both compost heaps and in the (bought) compost in pots, especially containing last year's geraniums.

Neither of the two pictures above seems to be the right one, and I'm still trying to sort out what they are.

Vine weevil larvae also abound, and I remember this being a huge problem in the UK, when a Midlands fuchsia grower had his entire stock wiped out by the little herberts. Nothing is too evil for these grubs! I'm afraid I either despatch them with the boot or collect them and put them in a plant-pot saucer for the birds.

The mystery grubs I refer to are about an inch in length, and, unlike the cockchafer grub shown, do not seem to have a heavily patterned back, but remain smooth. They move very slowly, but can "escape" if you don't keep your eye on them. We tried to rear one in a jar of roots last year, but the poor beast died after several weeks.

The comment above about the unpleasant results of squashing the blighters certainly applies. Keep your face well away!

Any help in identifying them would be appreciated, as we value our wildlife, and do all we can to encourage diversity. On the other hand, I don't want anything noshing through our roof beams!

[Rayring]

We had a visit last year from a local woodworm and termite "expert" trying to sell his services. When showed the cockchafer grubs in our compost heap he confidently identified them as capricornes (death watch beetle larvae).

[TiffanyS<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1><U>hometown.aol.co.uktiffanystacpooleanimalmatters.html<U><FONT><P>]

[quote]Fair enough BUT stag beetle larva are so similar that this endangered beetle will be killed unless you spend a lot of time learning the difference and as you said, if you use poison all the good will ...[/quote]

I've been finding these white grubs too.... don't know what they are but was also told they eat the roots of plants and that I needed to get rid of them. However, it seems a bit like Canute and the waves, and I'm not prepared to poison

However, whenever my chickens see me reach for my spade now, they all come charging over to whereever I'm digging and seem delighted to pounce on every grub I unearth, although they seem less keen on the worms (eco-friendly chickens?). Do you know if the chickens are discerning enough to tell the difference between the cockchafer grubs and the vine weevils? Do they eat both, and how does one tell which grub is which? Don't want to be feeding endangered stag beetle grubs to them.....

 

 

[Monsieurmousseux]

Vine weevil grubs are only about 1 cm in length. The cockchafer grubs are larger by far.

The problem is telling the stag beetle grubs from the cockchafer ones.

As I researched this further, I came across a useful website, with numerous pictures of both adult and larval stages of various wood-loving insects. Click here. (See also the page that follows this one).

It also crossed my mind - rather late in the day - that the larvae we are finding in our compost heaps (or pots of old compost) are hardly likely to be a danger to our structural woodwork, as there seems to me to be no reason why a beam-chomping insect would lay its eggs in a compost heap!

So, whatever our big, fat, white grubs are, I doubt that they'll be the cause of your roof collapsing.

[TiffanyS<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1><U>hometown.aol.co.uktiffanystacpooleanimalmatters.html<U><FONT><P>]

[quote]Vine weevil grubs are only about 1 cm in length. The cockchafer grubs are larger by far. The problem is telling the stag beetle grubs from the cockchafer ones. As I researched this further, I came a...[/quote]

Beginning to look as though my grubs are stag beetle grubs (gulp) which I've been merrily turning over to the chickens. Like you, see no reason why wood eating grubs would be residing beneath my lawn and veg patch.... and they seem too pristine white to be cockchafers. So presumably I should break my hens of this habit?

Nice pics of DWB (Capricorn) and liked the comment that it should be the 'Horloge de l'amour' rather than the 'Horloge de la mort'! You gotta love the french for seeing it that way!!

[Monsieurmousseux]

Back in the UK, white grubs I used to find in turves, or under the lawn, were leatherjackets almost always. These have a greyish shade to them, though.

[Jonzjob]

Monsieurmousseux your photo of the Cockchafer made sweat appear on my brow!

About 18 months ago, when we were living in Stroud, Glos, we had a problem where the lawn started to look a bit odd and dead in places. I raked around a bit and found that you could lift it up as if it were carpet tiles ???? Underneath were hundreds of the things. Our lawn was not very big or good (I once layed claim to making 5 gallons of dandylion wine and every flower came from our smallish garden), but by the time we had unearthed all of the things we had about 10/15 square yards of bare ground. They all either went into the garden bonfire or on a deep tray for the birds. After a lot of research we found that you can get a nematode that loves them. Check out http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/cockchaf.htm it looks quite interestind and they have a distributer in Denmark if the U.K. people don't send them to France. Envioromently friendly little lovies toooo...

I wonder if they live in the Aude too?

John (who don't like gardening unless it's with a chain saw, long lopper, taille hias, etc.)