I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

--
Steve


Never shake the ketchup bottle. None'll come, and then a lot'll

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-10-18 14:28:39 +0100, "shazzbat"
said:

I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

Look horribly like vine weevil grubs to me.

Not those I'm afraid. I'm familiar with VW grubs, this is much bigger. There
are 6 legs which don't show up very well on the pic. The legs are all at the
front end, ie the end on the right of the pic. Very off-balance in the leg
department.

Steve

On 18 Oct, 16:19, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...



I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

chafer grubs

http://www.thenaturalgardener.co.uk/chafer_grub.php

Janet

Yes, chafer grubs. Foe.

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 harry wrote:

I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

chafer grubs

http://www.thenaturalgardener.co.uk/chafer_grub.php

Janet

Yes, chafer grubs. Foe.

Aka June bugs. I had masses of them in my compost heap a few years back.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

shazzbat wrote:
I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

Dunno - it looks like a beetle larva, something like a lamellicorn - but
it isn't that beetle, quite.

I'd put them in a box/tin, or better, the bottom half of a plastic milk
bottle, along with some of the soil or detritus they're living in, and
see what they turn into.

--
Rusty

On 18 Oct, 14:28, "shazzbat"
wrote:
I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

--
Steve

Never shake the ketchup bottle. None'll come, and then a lot'll

With others, this is a chafer grub. A root feeder so foe. However I've
never seen serious damage in a veg plot. Very damaging in lawns and it
gets worse when the badgers come along to dig them up.

Rod

David Rance wrote:

Aka June bugs. I had masses of them in my compost heap a few years back.

May bugs.

June bugs are stag beetles.

--
Rusty

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
shazzbat wrote:
I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

Dunno - it looks like a beetle larva, something like a lamellicorn - but
it isn't that beetle, quite.

I'd put them in a box/tin, or better, the bottom half of a plastic milk
bottle, along with some of the soil or detritus they're living in, and see
what they turn into.


I might be tempted to do that, too. They could be almost any beetle larva
but definitely not stag beetle as they live (preferably) in rotting apple
trees and take 7 years to turn into adults.
Tina

Christina Websell wrote:

I might be tempted to do that, too. They could be almost any beetle larva
but definitely not stag beetle as they live (preferably) in rotting apple
trees and take 7 years to turn into adults.

They like (or liked...) old elms too.

--
Rusty

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 Rusty Hinge wrote:

David Rance wrote:

Aka June bugs. I had masses of them in my compost heap a few years back.

June bugs are stag beetles.

Wrong. Google for June bug and you'll see that it isn't the stag beetle.

However I was wrong is saying that the chafer beetle was the same as the
June bug and you were correct in saying that it is the May bug.

However what I had was certainly the larva of the June bug and I
suspect, from the photo, that that is what Shazzbat has.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
shazzbat wrote:
I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

Dunno - it looks like a beetle larva, something like a lamellicorn - but
it isn't that beetle, quite.

I'd put them in a box/tin, or better, the bottom half of a plastic milk
bottle, along with some of the soil or detritus they're living in, and
see what they turn into.


I might be tempted to do that, too. They could be almost any beetle larva
but definitely not stag beetle as they live (preferably) in rotting apple
trees and take 7 years to turn into adults.
Tina

Thanks for the responses everybody. I'll accept that they're fairly benign
in the weeds on the allotment, at least they're not in my lawn. They can go
on the grass path between the plots and take their chances with the birds.

Steve

David Rance wrote:
On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 Rusty Hinge wrote:

David Rance wrote:

Aka June bugs. I had masses of them in my compost heap a few years back.

June bugs are stag beetles.

Wrong. Google for June bug and you'll see that it isn't the stag beetle.

Sod google - the stag beetle is a June bug, was a June bug when I were a
lad, and has been since time immemorial.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

Now, um, where are we?

However I was wrong is saying that the chafer beetle was the same as the
June bug and you were correct in saying that it is the May bug.

However what I had was certainly the larva of the June bug and I
suspect, from the photo, that that is what Shazzbat has.

The larva of the June bug is a maggot around the size of your thumb,
when it's mature, it can be found in tunnels in rotten wood. The ones
which abounded when I was a nipper ('40s and '50s) lived in old elm
stumps, and rendered them into the semblence of a giant's sponge.

My only beetlebook says they (stag beetles, that is) are often found in
oak or ash woods, and are mainly found in Britain south of Lincolnshire.
Since the book is translated from forn, (Danish, IIRC) I guess that
explains why only a few of the species have 'common names' along with
their posh Latin ones, and that the Lincolnshire reference was put in by
the translator.

IME, they are rarely found north of Suffolk.

--
Rusty

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 Rusty Hinge wrote:

June bugs are stag beetles.

Wrong. Google for June bug and you'll see that it isn't the stag
beetle.

Sod google - the stag beetle is a June bug, was a June bug when I were
a lad, and has been since time immemorial.

Sorry, you're a bit rusty! ;-)

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

Of course not! That's why I don't believe you! :-)

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk