[Babstreefern]

I hope you guys can tell me what the following insect description is:

An inch long thingy, orange and looks like its built like a tank.  I've come across three in my allotment, and I found one in my daughter's garden when I was doing her "make-over" on Saturday.  It got accidentally squashed and it was a cream coloured oooze.

It makes me shudder thinking about them.  I always find them buried in the soil.

[mashauk]

Is it sort of wavy at the sides?  Sounds like a slug if it is, we had orange ones, got really big and nasty.

[sunshineband]

A fat wireworm 

[SnooziSuzi]

did it have a darker orange head and lots of legs?  if so could be wireworm, or if it's creamy coloured with a brown head and grub like then it's a vineweevil grub

Wireworm pic

Vineweevil pic

[LivvyW]

Cbuld it be a chafer grub?

[mumofstig]

now that does look alien

[savbo]

hmmm I think we need more info - legs? Shiny or rough? head? thickness? stright or curled into a C?

We're not far from Denton so we might have them as well...

M

[Babstreefern]

Nothing like them in the pictures.

It wasn't slimy like a slug, but it has no legs.  It seems to have ridges at the sides, like armour plating - that's why I thought it was built like a tank. 

Next time, I come across another one, I will take a picture of it.

[Faz]

Sounds like a cockchafer in its cocoon to me, ready to hatch out very soon! Did the pointy end wiggle round in a little circle when you moved it? My daughter is scared of them lol!

[Trebor]

I would say it sounds like a chrysalis – of exactly what you will have to wait and see! (Put it in a jam jar and see what hatches out if you are curious).

[SnooziSuzi]

Was thinking about this.... was it THIS little fella?.   I find loads of them in my garden and the chooks just love them!   

When they squeeze them with their beaks the chrysalis pops and loads of creamy goo comes out *blegh!*  Doesn't stop the chooks from eating them like they're going out of fashion!!

The info along with the pic says it's a deaths head hawkmoth.  there's loads of pics of them if you google it.

I also get loads of these Swift Moth caterpillars.  Usually they are found chewing away at doc plant roots (and presumably my veggies if they get the chance  ) but again, my chooks go wild for them!

[Faz]

Hey SnooziSuzi they are the things I assumed were cockchafer chrysalises - turns out they are a little more exotic 

[HLS]

I've seen them, too, and had also assumed they were something rather less attractive than hawk moths.  Thanks for the information!