Maggots in Oak Tree--What Did I Find?

[GaTrapper]

Hey Y'all,

I was out cutting up a few oaks that fell down during Hurricane Irma. I started cutting a downed black or red oak today and I noticed a little bit of rot in the rounds when cutting. That rot slowly grew from as wide as my finger to the width of my fist. Inside the rotted was full of this super rank mud. When splitting the wood I started noticing these maggots in the muddy, rotten area.

Are these really maggots or what?

[Don P]

Sort of. I think of "maggot" as a fly larvae. For these I'd bet they are really beetle larvae, but that is a guess and which beetle is a mystery to me. If you look at its face you can break it down one more into round or flat headed, number 13 and 14 here;
https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef017

[Logging logginglogging]

I have found larger fatter ones in wood before... mabye grubs?

[Ivan49]

Some good fish bait. I also think they are what we call wood grubs. That oak tree looks like it has oak wilt

[thecfarm]

I have found them the size of my finger. Chickens like them too.

[coxy]

if they have a fat body and a small tail they are called mousey's and work great for ice fishing