that time I grew some beetles…

The woods surrounding my parent’s property are covered in birdhouses my dad built and hung. He has a snake camera that he uses to peek inside. Often we take walks just going birdhouse to birdhouse checking to see what, if anything, is living inside.

Last summer on one of these walks, we found a fallen birdhouse. It was wet and rotting. When he picked it up we realized there were a handful of big fat white grubs munching on the decaying material. In true dad form, he asked if I wanted them (because what daughter doesn’t want some!) I said ‘heck yes!’, we gathered some of the surrounding dirt and popped it all in an old screw box he had laying around the garage.

I brought that box home, misted it regularly and gave them fresh dirt as often as they needed. (They went through a surprising amount of dirt/rotting log, leaving massive poop pellets in its place!) After a bit of time passed, nearly all of my grubs had made themselves cozy little cocoons. They looked just like clumps of dirt.

They’d been hanging out in their cocoons for what felt like forever. I’d just about given up on them. I’d gone from checking on them quite frequently with great enthusiasm to barely ever looking in the box because I knew nothing had changed.

Until last week! It finally happened!

I opened the box and right on top was a big fat healthy June Bug! I couldn’t have been more excited if I tried. There’s something so satisfying about being able to witness nature do its thang like that.

Right now I have two hatched beetles and another three cocoons left PLUS a handful of juicy looking grubs. I’ve got my fingers crossed for more beetles to hatch soon.

I’ll keep ya updated if anything else exciting happens! 😉