Flat Headed Borer Grub

White worm w/ odd head
Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 8:50 AM
White worm w/ odd head
Hi. Two of these worms have come off the firewood in the last couple days, here in PA. Just wondering what they are. The picture should provide a lot of info.
Thanks!!
Diane B.
SE Pennsylvania

Flat Headed Borer Grub
Flat Headed Borer Grub

Hi Diane,
This is a Flat Headed Borer Grub in the family Buprestidae, known as the Metallic Wood Borers or Jewel Beetles.  You can match your photo to one we located on a Forestry Images website or to the images on BugGuide. Many of the adult beetles are quite gorgeous and are sometimes made into jewelry in tropical counties.  Sadly, we are not skilled enough to tell you the exact species.  Flat Headed Borers often live many years as grubs feeding on wood.  We have heard reports of the Golden Buprestid, Buprestis aurulenta, emerging from furniture 50 years after it was built.  You can confirm this online in numerous places including a Canadian Forestry site.  We have received our own report of an adult Golden Buprestid emerging from an 8 year old pine cutting board.  If your firewood is local, you have a different species of Flat Headed Borer as the Golden Buprestid is native to the Pacific Northwest.

9 thoughts on “Flat Headed Borer Grub”

  1. Several years ago I got some dead mesquite wood in AZ, took it home to MT, stacked and dried it for 5 years and then made a small jewel chest for my granddaughter. The wood had been sawed, planed, and sanded during the construction. Upon completion of third coat of urethane on the chest a flatheaded borer emerged. They are quite resilient, I guess.

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  2. I live in northeastern washington and just put a piece of dry rot would in stove and a piece of wood broke off before I got it into stove and there was 2 of these worms.

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  3. I live in south Mississippi. Yesterday I knocked down six pine stumps, the trees were hit by lightning 4 years ago. I found two dozen of these critters in the dead stumps. Wonder if they would be good for fish bait ?

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