Feuillant Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 We have been digging over our compost heap and it is full of these grubs.They are about an inch long and sometimes a centimetre in diametre (to mix measures).They have brown heads, and as well as finding them in the well rotted compost we have also found them in rotten wood.We found that they could be stag beetle larvae, but there seem to be too many for that (I am very fond of stag beetles, so I wish they were).Any ideas? If they are desirable, fine, but if not, it's an early Christmas dinner for the chickens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantine<br><br><br><br>Susie Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 I'd like to know too. When I turned my compost bin a few weeks ago there were dozens of them in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkfluff<P>Big Wet Drops and Lots of Them, Are a Sure Sign of Rain!<P> Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 I think they are chafer bugs they eat amongst other things potatoes I left some spuds in a little late and a few of them had these bugs living in the side munching away at the spuds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris pp Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 Can I refer you to our site? It's actually a copy of an article I wrote. Stag beetles Lucanus cervushttp://www.planetepassion.com Best, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feuillant Posted November 23, 2005 Author Share Posted November 23, 2005 thanks for the replies, guys.There's no picture of the larvae on your site - can you tell me what the differences are between these and the chafer grubs (which we don't much want)?No worries about the "untidiness" of our place, however - we always leave wood lying around and don't use chemicals. It helps if we re-name things, too - eg we have a wild flower meadow, not a lawn...less mowing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris pp Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Sorry about that, I have put a picture on a URL link below. In many ways it is not easy to describe the difference between a stag beetle larva and a chafer larva. From your description of where you found the "grubs" they are 99% sure to be Stag beetles - this is typical including the compost. I think there is a project in the UK which involves putting a large container of compost in the ground with the top level with the surrounding surface, then covering this with a small quantity of wood. This is then carefully sorted through after a year or two to detect the presence of larva - this is to increase the available information on its current range. Can I give a bit of a warning about "doing picture searches" on the web? Recently I have come across several pictures with the wrong species name - always try and find several sources to compare.Link for "grub" http://www.planetepassion.com/luca4.gif Hope it helps, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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