Interesting wood bug

[boda65]

I found this caterpillar while splitting wood this morning.I find it amazing how this critter can bore into solid hardwood. I'm not sure what the wood is, it smells like oak but doesn't look much like it. It was not rotten at all, very solid except the tunnels this guy was making.

I don't know if he would live when thawed, but I fed him to the chickens just to be sure. The hens found him quite tasty.

 

[stihl sawing]

i see them in wood all the time, Don't know what they are though. Thet may be the larvae for the beetle that kills the trees.

 

[MH49]

Found the same thing

I found the same thing in a big elm I cut up, it was full of them. They went in the stove with the Elm, I never thought about feeding them to the chickens....

 

[Ikeholt]

I'd say it's a carpenter worm. Turns into a big moth if the chickens don't eat it first. Somewhat common, somewhat damaging, not a big threat in most parts.

 

[Ductape]

When i find them, i bash their guts out right on the splitter. :deadhorse:

 

[wdchuck]

He's a heartwood drying technician.

 

[reccutter]

I had many of those in a maple recently,kept the boys and their tanka busy transporting to their mass burial ground. others did seem to lubricate splitter beam well. as many as there were, hope I got a pile to go back to.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I put all the grubs I find in a can and save them for ice fishing. The smaller ones drive perch wild!!!

 

[Mntn Man]

I put all the grubs I find in a can and save them for ice fishing. The smaller ones drive perch wild!!!

My thoughts exactly.

 

[yooper]

thats a peanut butter grub, very tasty and full of good protein.

 

[stihl sawing]

thats a peanut butter grub, very tasty and full of good protein.

Hmmm, I'll have to try one next time.

 

[freemind]

I found the same thing in a big elm I cut up, it was full of them. They went in the stove with the Elm, I never thought about feeding them to the chickens....

+1
That is the only place I have found them too. Dead standing elm. Never found them in live trees.

 

[unclemoustache]

Ask Woodbooga. He ought to know a wood-bug-a! :biggrinbounce2:

 

[stihl sawing]

Ask Woodbooga. He ought to know a wood-bug-a! :biggrinbounce2:

He might even know it personally.

 

[clinchscavalry]

I think some are larva of Betsy Beetles

http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/bimg138.html


When I was splitting some wood a couple weeks ago that had been on the ground for over a year, the rounds were full of large larva, some of which were three inches long. I contemplated saving them in the freezer for fish bait, but I figured I could "cultivate" many more.

The link says their larva are only 1 1/2 in. long so I might have something else, but the grubs and adults were found in the same pieces of wood.