[azubah]

I noticed a few carrot seedlings lying rootless on their sides yesterday.
I am growing them in a water tank full of growbag compost.
I had a bit of a dig and found a grub, which I squashed. Today I found another carrot lying on its side, so I had a dig nearby and found another grub. I hope that I can get them all before all the carrots are destroyed!
I have had this problem before and have found this the best way of dealing with it. I have resown in the carrot free areas.

[Salmo]

Any chance of a photo of grub or the damage?

[azubah]

I've squashed the grubs, but they are white, and look like fat maggots with a light brown head, and curl round into a c shape. They come in a range of sizes depending on how long they have been munching away since they hatched. They live underground and so you don't see them until they have done the damage.
The damage they do is to eat the roots. I found the carrot seedlings lying flat on the soil and on picking them up there are no roots at all. They destroyed only around half a dozen seedlings before I realised they were there and found them, but in previous years they did a lot more damage because I did not know what was doing it.
The adults are black beetles with jointed antannae.

[Rampant_Weasel]

surely must be chafer grub?

[azubah]

Have a look at this link:

http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/factsheets/InsectFactSheets/html/Black_Vine_Weevil.html

[Mrs Bee]

I think they are vine weevils.  I think the chafer grubs are pale brown.
 
SOunds exactly like the little b........rs Ihad in my pots some while back. They like living in compost and killed off everything I had in them. I hate the wretched things as much as I hate slugs, rats and foxes And they get in everything once you get them in the compost.

There are two ways to exterminate one is with nematodes and the other is with provado but I wouldn't use the provado on edibles.

The adults are sneaky little swine too. If you go near them they keep very still and play dead until you go. If you kill them by hand make sure they are really squished as they are tough.

They like cool and dark and often come out at twilight hunting for new ground to lay their eggs in. ANd writing this I am fully aware that I forgot to treat my pots in the AUtumn darn it. 

[sunshineband]

http://www.fruitdisease.co.uk/EntomologyResearchPage3.asp

There are photos of the grubs part of the way down this article, so you can double check you are treating the right thing 


Grubs don't get longer than half an inch