They are very beneficial in the pile but he decided to feed them to the chickens. Photo from Tony Manasseri shows the Rhinoceros Beetle larvae or grubs he found in his compost pile. This is comparable to a fifty-year-old man walking a mile with a Cadillac on his back. One bug scientist glued weights on a rhinoceros beetle's back and found it could carry up to one hundred times its own weight, although it did get tired. Ounce for ounce, these giant beetles are among the world's strongest animals. Kept in cages and fed a special diet, they will live up to two years. Perfect specimens are sold for as much as $3,000. In Japan they are kept as pets and sold in stores. Often found in the compost pile, where they are totally beneficial. Collectors prize the adults, fishermen prize the larvae. INSIGHT: The adults are ferocious-looking but harmless. ORGANIC CONTROL: None needed usually but when out of control and hurting plant roots or stem tissue, they can be controlled with spinosad products. NATURAL CONTROL: Insectivorous animals such as opossums and armadillos love them, especially the giant larvae. Adults will feed on sap from tree saplings.ĮCONOMIC IMPORTANCE: Add fascination to nature, help in the decay of organic material and the stimulation of biological activity. Larvae feed on and help break down decaying wood and other organic matter.
The books say they may feed some on plants, mostly nectar. Adults are found around lights at night and are attracted to rotting fruits and tree sap.įEEDING HABITS: We had never found adults feeding on plants until talking with a tree grower that had problems and later receiving the photographs shown here. HABITAT: Larvae found in sawdust, rotting stumps and compost piles. Pupal cases of wood debris are formed in the late summer. Females deposit eggs into piles of decaying wood in stumps, logs and dead trees.
The larvae are huge grub worms.īIOLOGY AND LIFE CYCLE: Complete metamorphosis.
IDENTIFICATION: Very large beetles with horns males have more prominent horns than the females. Males are slightly larger than the females. The Eastern Hercules beetle is the largest beetle in the US. SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Order Coleoptera, family Rhinoceros Beetle Family (Scarabaeidae), several species. Enjoy the photos and read the updated data about these beasts.ĬOMMON NAMES: Rhinoceros beetles, Hercules beetles, and Ox beetles. Elaine Wilson from Graford, TX also provided some wonderful photos of these beetles doing more damage than we were aware they did. We recently received a question from a about listener about these interesting insects.
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