Return to the Pests & Diseases Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Friend or foe?
| | |
Posted by The_Grub Sydney (My Page) on Mon, Nov 10, 03 at 1:38
| I keep finding these curled, beige-coloured, crisp-shelled grubby thingummy do-dabs in the veggie patch. They live under the soil. If you can call it live. They dun move much and are therefore easy enough to crunch between thumb and forefinger. Are they good or bad? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| Are you talking about slaters?? |
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| Nah, not slaters. These are grub or caterpillar shaped, about 1.5cm long (half inch), crisp shell like a slater, but light brown in colour. |
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| Reads like the larvae of a scarab beetle e.g. Christmas Beetle, African Black Beetle or cane grub. A CSIRO Scientist, Dr. Robin Bedding, now retired, discovered over a decade ago nematode pathogenic parasites which will kill off a number of these troublesome grubs. Try Ecogrow Australia Pty Ltd at Bondi, Sydney they may be able to save you having to use a potent insecticide. |
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| I have them too. Don't know if they're friend or foe either. I treat them as friend until proven otherwise. |
RE: Friend or foe?:again
| | |
| Me again, they look like millipedes but without the legs, right? |
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| Yeh, yeh, that's it. A legless millipede. Must have spent too long down at the locally watering hole. They do seem to inhabit those areas not far from roots, which had me worried. But as nothing appears to be toppling over, maybe they are (harmless) Chrissy beetles as Sweeney suggests. Crazy world down there. Ta. |
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| Aren't they just the crispy outside of something that once used to be alive? |
RE: Friend or foe?
| | |
| No, not like cicada shells. These are living armour-plated (that's the exoskeleton) critters from the underworld. |
|
|
|
|
