Acer been nibbled by chafer grubs! Help

Magical Meerkat

Hello

I have an Acer that I have had for many many years. I noticed it had some bark peeling from the bottom in winter and was concerned about it. However its leaves grew in spring and it looked really healthy except for one branch. 

I looked at it again today because it looked worse and as I removed some of the soil from the trunk I noticed it looked like it had been ring barked!!!!! After further investigation I found 20 huge chafer grubs in the pot and they have chewed loads of the roots and bark off. 

I removed all the soil and grubs and have repotted it. Do you think it's possible it could repair itself or is it a total goner? 

I've cover the damaged bark area with compost so it's sitting slightly lower in the pot. I'm not sure if that better or Not? 

Here's a couple of pictures.

wild edges

I'd say that's a stag beetle larvae not a chafer larvae. Either way neither should attack a living tree so it's likely that other factors have caused the decay and they're just cashing in on the rotten material.

Stag beetles are getting very rare now by the way so if you're lucky enough to host them then please don't kill them or start chucking bug killer around the place.

Magical Meerkat

wild edges said:

I'd say that's a stag beetle larvae not a chafer larvae. Either way neither should attack a living tree so it's likely that other factors have caused the decay and they're just cashing in on the rotten material.

Stag beetles are getting very rare now by the way so if you're lucky enough to host them then please don't kill them or start chucking bug killer around the place.

Hi wild edges 

It's definitely a chafer grub. We get lots here both the may bug and the rose chafer and they do eat live roots. Stag beetle larvae are much bigger and yes like rotting wood. 

Don't worry I garden for wildlife, so I just moved them to large border, so they can continue munching away. We never use bug killer or anything like that. 

wild edges

Fair enough. I can't see the grub well enough to ID or tell the size I was just going on the habitat. It looked bigger than a cockchafer grub from the picture. I'm surprised that cockchafer grubs have done that to a mature tree but I guess they had no other source of food in that pot. Do you think there might be vine weevil in there too?