This is a Rhinocerous beetle grub, they eat the hearts out of palm trees. I put a nickle beside him to give you an idea of how big this one is(and he's not full grown yet, lol)
And you thought Japanese beetle grubs were bad.......
Like they say, "everything grows BIG in Texas". Ugly little varmit!
Looks like the makings of a good varmit stew Susie. Too bad CC is not visiting!!
That is just the nastiest thing ever, especially since it does damage. Now if it would eat aphids......
Robinz
Susie, what do they morph into?
So that is where rhino come from! LOL He is a nasty little bugger!
That is huge ...
I think this is the one it turns into. http://bugguide.net/node/view/2877
That's pretty ugly too.
Double yuck!!!!!!!
Yuck here also.
Aaaaw Tracey, I was gonna send you one for a pet.
I would like one!!! My car is going and I could ride it to work....LOL
Nancy Lee
In our neck of the woods, the Yellow-crowned night-heron stops by in the mornings and plucks those big beetles and GULP! another one gone. It's the only bird I've seen who searches and destroys...uh...eats them. Bless the birds...in this case :-)
The Rhinoceros Beetle larvae doesn't kill palm trees, or any other tree...it feeds on decaying matter...such as rotten wood. They are huge and ugly...but they don't need to take a bad rap, they have enough against them as it is, LOL....the reason I know this is because I did research on them when I found a massive grub in a rotting tree trunk..here's a link: http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_beetles/R_Beetle.htm
Debra~
One word: Ewwwwwww
This grub is bad, I found him eating the corm of my banana tree. My friend who has the tropical nursery has a horrible time with these grubs, she will go to pick up a potted palm and the whole center from the soil up has been eaten and it's full of these grubs. They call them "rhino beetles" and all the nurseries will tell you they are a pest. They are these beetles right here http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/bimg144.html
Here is one link to a coconut beetle that is a pest too
http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=173&fr=1&sts=
Ditto on the YUCK, Suz!~
Save me a few tho. I know of a couple people who need those as pets!!! I bet they would wrap up really nice!
Mel, Lauren said I should sell him on ebay, lol. I found one site that sells grubs. I couldn't believe it! I put this one in a little pot for you, will save it till you come visit.