I was digging up an old standing dead tree to make room for more fruit trees this bare root season. After it was out of the ground, these things fell out of the root ball. I have never seen these before, they look like a cross between a potato bug and a giant maggot. Anyone have any Idea’s? My location is in northern CA about 90 miles north of Sacramento in the foothills.
They are beetle larvae. Grubs are a generic term given to them. If they have a grey tip to the tale they are likely Japanese Beatle grub and they are typically larger than other grub worms. The smaller brown Beatle grubs which are whiter without the grey tale are typically called generically cut worms here and cut tomatoes off ground level when planted.
Thanks. Are they beneficial? I don’t want to let them go if they are going to harm my fruit trees.
Unfortunately they are not beneficial. This link should tell you more Japanese beetle - Wikipedia
Here is how to get rid of Japanese beetles http://www.amazon.com/Milky-Spore-Japanese-Beetle-Killer/dp/B00D8NJIVI/ref=sr_1_3/188-9351725-8490704?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1449347239&sr=1-3&keywords=milky+spore
Way too big for Jap Beetle. Likely junebugs of some type, I find them in my debris/compost pile.
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I think they could be grubs of some large beetles. At least that’s what I was told once when they showed up in a potted cherry. They ate the roots back to nubs. Nearly killed the trees.
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Just as a side note the black crappie in farm ponds here really love grubs. Pays for the digging and there is not much better than fried crappie.
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Looks like June bug grubs . They love rotten wood . I get lots of these in my wood chip piles .
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Apparently the june bugs larvae have a grey tale as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B86lSXKp5iA.
They’re as common as the dirt you found them in. They aren’t any good, but nothing to worry about. I couldn’t raise a single shovel full of dirt in my yard without bringing up a few. I was planting my garden once after tilling and I had a big fat momma Robin who just followed alongside me waiting for me to toss out the grubs as I came to them. I think with a little time she would have taken them from my hand.
Toss them out and continue. If you have skunks around you’ll find small dig holes in your yard…that’s what they’re after.
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Found out many of the names I grew up calling things were incorrect. The white grubs I was told my entire life were cut worms. We always saw them cut our tomatoes off ground level unless we protected them. This link talks about 4 types and the real cut worm is not white http://whitegrub.com/default.aspx. Does not change what they do or how we deal with them in the gardens. It does change which stuff is effective on which group. No wonder I have so many moles.
skunks eat grubs?. I always wondered why this area had so many skunks.
My ground is packed with all kinds of grubs. Many of them are Japanese beetles. I take care to wash the bare root trees well before sending trees to another state. Grubs are probably an indicator of good soil.
Skunks eat damn near anything, but they seem to really adore grubs.
Raccoon’s like them too. As do moles.Most are not beneficial. At my cottage we have some wood beetles that eat rotten wood while in larvae form, I guess they are not really harmful.
Those look like green fruit beetle larvae:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/grfruitbeetle.html
The larvae that I encounter are white like yours and less gray than the one in the UCD IPM photo.
They are great for plowing through a compost pile at that stage. Then they hatch out and the beetles zip around like hover crafts and plow through fruit. I smash the larvae on sight when turning over compost and crush the beetles on sight as well.