Maybug Larvae

[SusieCyclist]

Help!
I built 12 raised beds in my garden 4 years ago, with some successful growing but when I dug up my parsnips last month I noticed Maybug larvae (Cockchafers)in the bed. My neighbour, whose whole top garden is an allotment (and has been for 50 years) has told me I’ll need to dig the whole bed out Having read many recent articles about ‘no dig’ I’m not sure what advice to follow.
I’d be very grateful if anyone could help me?

[Snoop Puss]

You can get nematodes for treating chafer grubs. Not cheap, mind. But would save you digging. It's unlikely that they're just in the one bed, by the way. Did you find many grubs?

Hello and welcome, by the way. Plenty of no-diggers here, people like me who do a bit of mix 'n' match and people who like digging.

[Bren In Pots]

Snoop beat me to the nematodes answer so all I can add it to say hello SusieCyclist and welcome to the vine.

[Plot70]

If you are allowed chickens on your plot just dig and let them sort through the soil and pick the grubs out. They like the pupae too.

[ameno]

Assuming there aren't many, I'd just ignore them, to be honest.
Vegetables are not their favoured food, and although they will have a nibble they won't usually do too much harm. They'll also disappear on their own eventually and shouldn't come back. Cockchafers lay their eggs on grassy ground, as grass roots are their favoured food. The ones you have are probably either just leftover from when the area was grass (the larvae live several years), or else crawled their way from some neighbouring patch of grass.

[SusieCyclist]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice. I found 10 in a 2m x 0.75m. As a wildlife lover I’m keen to support wildlife but not happy to work so hard on my veg if they will be eating them (which my neighbour told me they would)

[Babru]

The RHS don't seem to view them as a great problem in gardens. https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/...garden-borders

Looking at other sites, it looks like they can damage grass and cereals. Like you, I don't want rid of things that don't do much damage. I'm happy to share, but not see my plants decimated.

And welcome to the vine.