Anyone Id This Creepy Crawly Please?

[Lickey]

I was working in the Lab late one night,, , , , Opps sorry, i was turning over the compost heaps today, and came across a 100 or so of these catarpillar type things, you can see the size of them compared to a lighter, they looked to have 6 front legs and a brownish face the size of a tamarind seed, at first i found the odd 1/2 and killed them, but when i turned over a big cluster, there seemed to be thousands of oval shaped pods, when i broke 1 in half it was totally brown in colour, so i would think thats the creepys crap!

Mrs rekons to kill them all, no good for Makua, then Thais will kill anything they dont understand insect/snake wise,

The 3rd pic is a large centipide from last year which i understand is harmless to humans and perhaps plants,

TIA for any advice, [and have i hit a crap mine with these in my compost heap?}

Cheers, Lickey..

[Gary A]

I have no idea what the big grubs are but what you call a centipede is actually a millipede and yes, they are harmless. Apparently the can damage seedlings in your garden so you won't want them there. Normally they eat dead leaves and rotten fruit.

[teletiger]

The first one is a beetle larva. Not sure of the name. Large brown ones. Sound like a b52 going past. Found in kee piles mostly. Same size as the rhino beetles.

Regards.

[neverdie]

Gary A,

There is actually a type of Centipede here in Thailand which can bite or sting or something, I am not sure that I would describe all of them as being harmless because aparently it hurts like all buggery

[jandtaa]

Hi Lickey could this be the wee beastie

Had a problem with various plants wilting and dying for no apparent reason a few years ago and took a while to discover these or very similar as the the culprit. the larvae eat decaying organic matter and small roots and by the third instar of their development can consume entire taproots. It seems the neem tree is the main host for the adult beetles (and seeing as we have a neem tree shading the area we were growing in it seemed to add up). Treatment seems to be chemical (have a nasty bottle that the wife bought sitting unused in the cupboard think it was dursban) or trapping . I applied extra organic matter in the form of partly rotted compost in the hope they would find it more digestible than the roots (although obviously this just helps to feed the population was just trying to save as many plants as poss and removed as many of the critters as I could by hand) have since moved my kitchen garden to another part of the site (unrelated to the pest problem ) I'll have a little dig under the neem tree and see if there's any signs of them once it stops raining (yeeha rain at last !!).

cheers Jandtaa 

Edited March 18, 2009 by jandtaa

[teletiger]

Just emptied out a bag of composted kee vaur onto the sunflowers. Lo and behold, about 25 of the grubs appeared. Never seen more than 1 or 2 in a bag before. Is it the time of year? On further inspection they do look like Giant centipede at some growth stage. Wifey is still insisting that they are beetles. The black dots down the side of the body, an indication of where the other legs come out? We kill them on sight, as they are as dangerous as a snake.

Good video on utube of one catching and killing a mouse.

Regards.

[PhilHarries]

Gary A,

There is actually a type of Centipede here in Thailand which can bite or sting or something, I am not sure that I would describe all of them as being harmless because aparently it hurts like all buggery

Centipedes and millipedes are different critters.

A centipede has only one pair of legs per body segment and tends to be a flatter body. In Thailand these can impart a very painful bite that has all the possibility of going septic. They are also fast moving being carnivorous thus having to catch their dinner so if you disturb one watch out.

A millipede has more than one pair of legs per body segment, tends to be a rounder body and curls up into a tight spiral/ball when disturbed. These are, by and large, harmless. These are slow moving as they feed off decaying vegetation that doesn't run away.

[jandtaa]

Gary A,

There is actually a type of Centipede here in Thailand which can bite or sting or something, I am not sure that I would describe all of them as being harmless because aparently it hurts like all buggery

Centipedes and millipedes are different critters.

A centipede has only one pair of legs per body segment and tends to be a flatter body. In Thailand these can impart a very painful bite that has all the possibility of going septic. They are also fast moving being carnivorous thus having to catch their dinner so if you disturb one watch out.

A millipede has more than one pair of legs per body segment, tends to be a rounder body and curls up into a tight spiral/ball when disturbed. These are, by and large, harmless. These are slow moving as they feed off decaying vegetation that doesn't run away.

yeah agree that Lickeys photo is a millipede always find a few in my compost heap. The wife is petrified of them and screams "aaaargh 100 legs clear clear" when they occasionally appear in the house. She admits they are harmless but it goes back to one crawling into her shorts when she was a wee girl, they seriously reduce her to tears !! Very different beast to the poisonous centipede, once had the delight of sampling one marinated in a bottle of lao kao during a bit of a session  with a neighbour who comes from Issan. He reckoned they're the viagra of the insect world although I don't reckon much was gonna rise to the occasion after all that whisky he'd necked !!

cheers Jandtaa   

[phaethon]

Millipedes don't have a larval stage, i.e. they don't pupate but emerge from eggs as hatchlings with a distinct head, three pairs of legs on the anterior segments and typically a total of seven segements with the posterior segemnts having no legs. With each moult they add segments until they reach their adult length.

The grubs look much more like beetle larvae. Larvae can be very difficult to identify but the brown patch just above the spot on the first segment makes it look very like this:

[From: http://www.malaeng.com/blog/?paged=2&s=ขา]

The eventually turn into Rhinoceros Beetles AKA Fighting Beetles as persuading a pair of (horned) males to fight over a female is, apparently, a favourite pastime in CM.

Edited March 18, 2009 by phaethon

[sbk]

It looks like the grubs I have dug up in my garden and after going "ew ew" was informed that they are beetle larvae.

[phaethon]

Duplicate post - K.

Edited March 18, 2009 by phaethon

[PhilHarries]

once had the delight of sampling one marinated in a bottle of lao kao during a bit of a session  with a neighbour who comes from Issan. He reckoned they're the viagra of the insect world although I don't reckon much was gonna rise to the occasion after all that whisky he'd necked !!

cheers Jandtaa   

Ah! Someone else who has sampled this little bit of Issan "culture".

Real tasty ain't it?.................not!

[jandtaa]

Millipedes don't have a larval stage, i.e. they don't pupate but emerge from eggs as hatchlings with a distinct head, three pairs of legs on the anterior segments and typically a total of seven segements with the posterior segemnts having no legs. With each moult they add segments until they reach their adult length.

The grubs look much more like beetle larvae. Larvae can be very difficult to identify but the brown patch just above the spot on the first segment makes it look very like this:

The eventually turn into Rhinoceros Beetles AKA Fighting Beetles as persuading a pair of (horned) males to fight over a female is, apparently, a favourite pastime in CM.

Ee thats the bugger !!

kids go mad over them buy 'em in the local market !! Wont be killing any more hel_l I'm gonna farm 'em !! Great site for identification and Thai language as well cheers Phaethon you're a star !!

Jandtaa 

Edited March 18, 2009 by jandtaa

[Gary A]

Gary A,

There is actually a type of Centipede here in Thailand which can bite or sting or something, I am not sure that I would describe all of them as being harmless because aparently it hurts like all buggery

I don't kill millipedes, scorpions or snakes, BUT, I kill centipedes on sight, all of them. Yes, you are right, they won't kill you but they will make you want to die. Millipedes are indeed a different creature.

[JungleBiker]

A glimpse of the future...

"...egg laying since October 2009".

[phaethon]

A centipede has only one pair of legs per body segment and tends to be a flatter body. In Thailand these can impart a very painful bite that has all the possibility of going septic. They are also fast moving being carnivorous thus having to catch their dinner so if you disturb one watch out.

Recent thread on Scolopendra: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Dangerous-Bu...nt-t246731.html

[teletiger]

Is that a prediction JB?....OK I got it....Dohhh. Took down my poster of obama Bin Laden (Hey...what are all those red flags?)

Spider- pig is my new hero. I'll be trotting along now.

Regards.

[BigSnake]

Don't know, but I bet they would be very Tasty if cook right. Nay

[teletiger]

Why would you want to cook away all that nutrition BS?

I remember my introduction to "dancing prawns". Well....some of it. After the third fistful, I decided...nah...not for me. Too gritty, swallow another beer. I then realized...they're still moving! Sitting still, pissed, smiling, trying to look cool, is no easy matter after "dancing prawns".

Will open another bag of Kee vuar in the morning and send you the contents After you use the wire cutters on their impressive mandibles, I suggest lightly sauted in butter.

Regards.

[Lickey]

Thanks for the info posters, yes, certainly looks like its the rhino beetle, tasty or not, dont know, will leave that to the labour to test, they usually pick up small black scorpions, pull off the tail and eat alive,

When i read Phaethons web site about them, it brought back memories of last year on the farm, a papaya [ripe] had a large hole and when i tapped the fruit something made a hissing sound, so it must have been a rhino beetle eating.

Other than that there apperance is negible, Now that we established what the grub is, does anybody think that the pellets of shit they have made could be of use? something like worm castings, there must be 3 full shovel loads of these pellets in the compost heap,

The compost was made from banana culms,tamarind leaves,2 bags chicken shit,kitchen waste,and un-treated sawdust,

Thanks for any views on this, Cheers, Lickey..

[Lickey]

Ive just searched the web for 2 hours and the only stuff i could find about rhino beetle crap is in these 2 links

http://www.bangkokpost.com/181008_News/18Oct2008_news24.php

Quote, where ever you find these beetles the ground will be rich and fertile, or something like that,

I found some more today in a banana culm and sawdust only compost heap, in other heaps without banana waste, no grubs, so banana seems the key here,

Will take some of the pellets and spread round some red tomatoes, the crap pellets are very hard, so might need to break them up first, and if they work ok, thankyou mother nature for helping me helping you,,

Pleased, Lickey..