Hollow and curly asparagus spears - why?

[T-lady]

I have some asparagus spears coming up sort of curled into the soil and hollowed out. I can't find anything on the interweb about this - can any of you give me an idea of what's going on?

[Glutton4...]

Are they old? Our Asparagus bed is now about 8 or 9 years old, and we get some odd-looking ones. Also, some very very fat ones, too!

[vicky]

Dry weather? A virus? We had a few last year but none so far this

[busyizzy]

We have had asparagus beetles on the allotment this year!

BBC - Gardening - Advice: Pest and disease identifier

[T-lady]

We've certainly had lots of dry weather, I can't remember when it rained last in this part of Lincolnshire! Perhaps I should give the bed a really good soaking?

The plants are only about 4 years old - last year was our first real year of harvesting them. I'm going to have a really good search for the hairy-grass beetle but I've not seen any yet.