Japanese beetles "as though" (on first reading I thought 'as though' was a grammar error, so use quotes to show it is intentional) they were Russian ones

Last year, when we was were in Japan, we had got a found/collected two Japanese horned beetles - a male and a female. We put them in a box with plenty of soil and as result of their sensational (haha - 'sexsational') nights was eggs were laid into in the ground, and have now that are  transformed/developed into  now in eight nice larvae.
In Japanese, the word for horned beetles sounds like «kabutomushi». As «kabuto» sounds like Russian kakbudto (как будто) that which means «as though, like» , we gave them proper names - Kakbudto-Masha, Kakbudto-Misha, Kak-budto-Pasha, Kakbudto-Dasha, Kakbudto-Sasha and so on (after the dash - usual Russian names).
We change/changed(?) the soil carefully and are waiting for our larvae to change/metamorphose into the splendid beetles.

Treating Japanese beetles as though they were Russian ones

Last year, when we were in Japan, we got two Japanese horned beetles - a male and a female. We put them in a box with plenty of soil and as result of their sensational nights eggs were laid on the ground. Now are transformed into eight nice larvae.
In Japanese horned beetles sounds «kabotomushi». As «kabuto» sounds like Russian kakbudto (как будто) that means «as though, like» , we gave them proper names - Kakbudto-Masha, Kakbudto-Misha, Kak-budto-Pasha, Kakbudto-Dasha, Kakbudto-Sasha and so on (after the dash - usual Russian names).
We change the soil carefully and are waiting for our larvae to change into the splendid beetles.

Added "treating" because I wasnt sure of the title meaning.