What is this insect i keep digging up?

[becky2812]

While I was digging my allotment for the first time this weekend, i dug up loads of earthworms, which is great. But I kept digging up these really fat white grub things with a brown head/face? Not really sure that they had any legs, and every time you touch them they curl upinto a C shape.
I'm struggling to find out what they are and if they will cause damage to my plants.
The nearest match i can find on google images is a vine weevil larva. Is it likely to be that?
Thanks

[binley100]

Sounds like it' s them to me, but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me if I'm wrong. I thought tho' that they lived in pots.
http://ladybirdplantcare.co.uk/vine_weevil.html

There's a piccie on here

[Jeanied]

What did you have growing where you have been digging, Becky? The vine weevil have a real passion for strawberry beds.

[becky2812]

Yeah they look a lot like that. Are they likely to eat my potatoes if i put them in? If so any idea what to do before i plant them? Sorry for all the questions, this is my first ever allotment!

[Nicos]

Chafer grub???...not good!....feed to the birds!!

[becky2812]

I don't think that they had the long leg bits at the front like the chafer bug. Or the dark bit at the end.

[Shadylane]

I know what you mean cause I've dug a few up but I can't remember what they're called. I have a feeling that they're not good. Are there loads? You'd be lucky not to get anything at all having a nibble but I doubt they'll do that much damage.
EDIT: Then again is it this: cutworm

[taff]

there's this site if you fancy doing exhaustive searches
Grubs | What's That Bug?

[Paulottie]

certainly sounds like a chaffer grub which is the grub of the mayfly....vine weevil not 'curly' and only 10-15 mm long.... there are 3 slight variations but all pretty gruesome.

They eat the roots of your plants...more likely shrubs than spuds. they have a long lifecycle ..years - forget how many(6-7 maybe)...but then emerge for a night or two in Spring to breed and give me the creeps. Horrid thing filled with the most foul smelling juice and most common in (but certainly no exclusively) newly broken grassland.

I flick em into an upturned dustbin lid ..blackbirds love em.

Nicos you say so much with so few words!

[Fernw]

I've had these and they are chafer grubs which tend to be around mostly mid spring to mid autumn in cultivated soil. Look similar to vine weevil but they have three pairs of legs near the head whereas vine weevil larvae are legless. Chafers eat roots so can kill small plants and make holes in root vegetables and potato tubers so definitely not good
I'd agree to let the birds have them!

[Two_Sheds]

certainly sounds like a chaffer grub which is the grub of the mayfly.

Sorry Paul, it's not. Mayflies lay their eggs in water.

The chafer grub is the larva of the Cockchafer aka June Bug etc.

You find loads of them when you dig over grassland. They eat the roots of grasses as they grow, killing it in bad infestations. Then rooks and crows come along and dig up the dead turf trying to get the grubs.

(I know bc I've got a circular area of dead turf around my holly in the front garden, and the school's playing field is a right mess).

[Nicos]

Nicos you say so much with so few words!

..never was one to natter on ad infinitum!!!

[Paulottie]

Well they come out in May round here.

Certainly called Maybugs/Maybeetles....apologies 'Mayfly' is a different thing....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly

[Nicos]

We've got loads of Chafer grubs at the moment- the chooks stand in a row at the fence waiting for us to chuck them over for them whilst we're working in the 'field' (... heave)


so- what is this grub we need to ID???

becky-have you come to any conclusions???

[Two_Sheds]

Well they come out in May round here.

and June up here (we're a bit more north than you). I remember sitting at an open air concert at the UEA, very civilised: classical music, picnics, g&t ... when suddenly the whole field just erupted in June bugs. They were in our hair, down our clothes... hideous, just hideous.

I'm terrified of them (along with flying ants)