About those grubs

 After that destructive summer storm back in June, the Sasquatch came across some interesting grubs while cutting the base of a broken tree.

They are big!  After checking around online, he determined they are the grub stage of the Eastern Hercules Beetle.  They remain in this stage (molting 3 times) for nearly two years.

Checking around inside the stump that remained, the Sasquatch found over 30 of these grubs living in there.  Eating the tree from the inside out.

The photo below is looking down into the cut off tree stump.  All of the dark brown stuff is their poop!  That's what happens with their high fiber diet!

This photo is also of the stump. You can see the channels they've carved out while eating the wood.

After doing the fact finding on the grubs, the Sasquatch felt bad about opening up their tree and making them easily available for raccoons and skunks to raid for a fat tasty snack.

He read online that they can be raised in containers...so he thought that might be an interesting project and picked out about 12 of them and put them in a square plastic tub with some of their litter.

You can actually buy food for them...a sort of broken down wood fiber, or you can buy wood pellets (made for heat stoves) and let them decompose with a bit of moisture.

So far, so good.  The grubs seem to be doing well. The Sasquatch also covered the stump opening as protection for the beetles left behind.

We haven't noticed these beetles around our home before but by a strange coincidence...the Sasquatch found a dead adult Hercules Beetle in a vacuum cleaner cannister that had been stored outside.

This was a female - so no horns.

There are actually online sellers for Hercules Beetles...grubs, live adults, and dead adults.

Anywhere from $15 to $50.  Who would imagine?

This photo is from a website...a male.  The adults are 2 to 3 inches long not counting the horn.  They only live about 3 to 6 months.

It will be interesting to watch these grubs change and develop.