Found this chafer grub living happily in the horse muck! Now these horrible things munch on my lettuce and cabbage roots but they are normally only half this size!
We feed them to the hens. Little Ginger got in there first (note grub in her mouth) and this piccy shows Boccy running after her which went on for a good few minutes! Eventually Boccy caught up with her and a tug of war ensued. The grub sort of exploded.....
You are obviously feeding your grubs well! Yuk. I don't mind handling slugs, but these grubs would take a bit of getting used to... Just as well you've got your feathered friends to help you dispose of them.
LOL Wulf, that's my left hand. I didn't want my filthy tomato and blackberry stained right hand fingernails in the photo - a lot of trouble went into only showing the clean ones!!!
They turn into cockchafers which is some kind of beetle. I don't know any more about them and wouldn't recognise the beetle if I saw one - the photos I've seen just look like - well - beetles!
The grubs are known for eating grass roots and leaving brown patches in lawns, but they are in my veggie patch too. It's probably because it was rather overgrown with great clumps of grass all over it when we bought the house last year.
You're holding it in your bare hand!! It's HUGE! I'm not good with creepy crawly things. I planted my front garden with lots of insect and wildlife friendly plants, I now have the biggest spiders in there that I've ever seen this side of the Sahara....complete strangers stand looking at my garden pointing at the spiders....I feel shakey every time I have to walk down the path (I've taken to waving my arms maddly in front of me to try to break the webs they string across the path before my head does...). And you're holding that monster in your bare hand! Kinda looks like an anemic prawn though....I think I need to lie down...
The bare hand is just for show in the photos - normally only touch them with gloves. If you think that's bad, just imagine the hens eating them! And then all that juicy protein goes into their eggs.......
Good to see you back. I know what you mean about, erm, healthy spiders. It must be a Lewisham thing - my garden is also full of arachnids. Mind you, I'd rather have architects like the spiders than pests like the flies, so I'm not too bothered!
I planted my front garden with lots of insect and wildlife friendly plants, I now have the biggest spiders in there that I've ever seen this side of the Sahara....complete strangers stand looking at my garden pointing at the spiders....I feel shakey every time I have to walk down the path (I've taken to waving my arms maddly in front of me to try to break the webs they string across the path before my head does...). And you're holding that monster in your bare hand! Kinda looks like an anemic prawn though....I think I need to lie down... 
- normally only touch them with gloves. If you think that's bad, just imagine the hens eating them! And then all that juicy protein goes into their eggs.......