I had to dig up my raised bed for an irrigation problem, and I found just bunches of these dudes. UGLY! Most of them are about an inch long. Can anyone tell me what they are, and what (if anything) I should be doing about them? The bed had mostly tomato plants in it, if that helps.
Thanks in advance!
Jill
Jill, it looks like a grub, but I don't know what kind of beetles you have out there. You could call your county ext office and see if they have a good way to treat them.
Thanks for the suggestion, fly_girl--I'll see what the good folks down there have to say.
Thanks!
Good luck, Jill, they are a nasty bugger if you have a lot of them, they go by how many you have by square foot or yard...something like that.
It's a Chafer grub, they can take around 3 years to mature and live on roots. They like strawberry roots but usually live in lawns or around shrub or tree roots. There's different types of Chafer beetles.
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/image?query='chafer%20grub'&invocationType=imageTab
It looks more like a Japanese Beetle Grub to me.
http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/hort/homehort/images/japgrub.jpg
http://fcn.agronomy.psu.edu/2007/white_grubs_in_pasture.pdf
Japanese beetles are one of the 'shining leaf chafers', Rutelinae.
They're for the June beetle Jill.
Thanks, all, for the ID!
Now, next question: should I be overly concerned about them, and if so, what should I do? When I dig and find them, I always squish them, but I'm wondering if I should be doing some sort of systematic treatment?
Jill, my understanding is that in small numbers they are not a problem but can be destructive in larger numbers, dunno what the "numbers" are, something like more than 3 for square foot or something. Anyways, wanted to post and say I saw "grubuster" at Walmart this morning- didn't know this was out there. It was expensive in my mind but I plan on getting some when I find some that were made in this decade (they were old). I'm certain I have too many all over. Millipedes, too, wonder if that stuff takes care of millipedes?
