I was repotting a bunch of trees and plants this weekend when I made a nasty discovery!
I thought I had a cockchafer infestation, but now I wonder if maybe they were these bad boys:
Do any of you know anything about insects? I figured they were cockchafers and left them to the ravenous mynah birds who swooped down and ate them the minute I went inside.
If they were stag beetles though, I’d have preferred not to kill them.
From what I’ve read, stag’s don’t feed on roots though, which the larvas I found were defintely doing (all the trees were very stunted compared to the ones in grub-free pots.
And here was me thinking this post was about too much starch in your underwear.
Anyway, if those beasties have already destroyed your plant, why not leave them there? When they hatch out, they’ll come out as those beautiful emerald green scarab beetles.
Stag beetle larvae eat leaf litter and rotten wood – not live roots.
[quote=“sandman”]And here was me thinking this post was about too much starch in your underwear.
Anyway, if those beasties have already destroyed your plant, why not leave them there? When they hatch out, they’ll come out as those beautiful emerald green scarab beetles.
Stag beetle larvae eat leaf litter and rotten wood – not live roots.[/quote]
Funny thing is that we call the Christmas beetles in Australia.
