Grubs in Chestnuts

I recently grabbed a few chestnuts from a couple of large Chinese Chestnut trees in my home town.  Great looking trees and huge chestnuts.  Put most of the seed in moist sphagnum moss and pitched in the refrigerator.  Had about a dozen left over after filling several bags and put these leftovers in a seal plastic container. also in the refrigerator.  Opened it a couple weeks later and found that a couple dozen white grubs had exited the chestnuts and were at the bottom of the bowl. Grubs are about 1/4" to 3/8" long and fat, like a well fed maggot.  Examined the chestnuts and found the small holes that they had burrowed out of.  Looks like 50% of these chestnuts were infested.  Has anyone seen anything like that with their chestnuts before?

I have several Dunstan Chestnut hybrids planted and oldest ones are only three years old, so not many chestnuts yet. I will be sprouting the seed from these chinese trees indoors, and I'm sure I can find the ones that haven't been effected, but if they are something really obnoxious, I might just burn all of them.  

Our native pecans get grubs like that. Not sure if it's the same species. They usually aren't in a very high percentage of nuts. The farmers don't usually do anything for control. I've seen live grubs in bags of nuts at roadside stands. It's pretty disgusting, but doesn't  seem to concern the locals.  They say the grubs are always there but only noticeable with fresh nuts. I guess it's the equivalent of the grasshoppers combines grind up in wheat that end up in flour.

You can freeze the ones you want to eat. At least any eggs won't hatch and grubs can't grow.

I've been wondering if all nuts are susceptible to the same grubs. I believe they are actually catipillars, larvae of moths. My trees are all young, but I have hazelnuts and carpathian walnuts that produce nuts. I will have pecans and chestnuts.

Chestnut weevils are a common issue, although I haven't dealt with them (as of yet) on my young trees probably because of isolation from any others around. Here's another thread about them,

Chestnut Weevil Control

 Years ago we had a bumper crop of chestnuts at a house I rented. One morning, I noticed small white grubs next to the heavy plastic bowl they we sitting in. Not only did the make their way out of the chestnuts. That ate through the heavy commercial plaic bowl as well. I was told that freezing the chestnuts would kill them but have never tried it.   Larry

Thanks everyone, it seems these things might be fairly common.  I'll dig up some entomology books and track these suckers down.