[azubah]

Anyone had any experience with the swift moth? I have so far found 2 parsnips with dark brown tunnels in them and a 'maggot' like monster at the bottom. I think they are the larvae of swift moths. We have never had parsnips with holes in them like this before. It is not carrot fly. Much bigger. The top half of the parsnip was not edible.

[Yorkie]

What size are the maggots, and what do they look like?

I've not come across them before - which is not to say that you might not be right!

[sunshineband]

It is quite possible that these are swift moth larvae. They are pretty monstrous

I don't know of any sensible way of controlling them,except to reduce the future population by

a) destroying the grubs you find
b) tracking down a pupa in the surrounding ground, if you have a root with clear tunnelling damage and no grub in it.

We get a few  beetroot affected some years; other years nothing.

Hope it is not too big a problem for you

[azubah]

Thanks, folks.
The grubs are like housefly maggots with brownish/ pinkish heads. I have not inspected them close enough to see if they have legs or not.
Actually I was quite horrified to see them, they are so yucky.
I was slicing a parsnip to see how far the tunnel went, and when I got near the end saw a horrible slimy looking thing wiggling about inside its lair.
There is only one in each tunnel, and the tunnels are around the thickness of a pencil and a few inches long. The infected parsnips look badly canckered.
I hope we don't get any more this year.
I have been gardening for a few decades and have not seen any of these before.

[Salmo]

It probably is swift moth. Google swift moth caterpillar for images.