[MickyB]

I have noticed some of these when digging up the spuds, one appeared to be burrowing into a spud, is it wireworm? They don't look to be the same as the images on the web. The second photo shows it next to an earth worm to give an idea of the size of the thing.

[mumofstig]

It's a centipede and

Centipedes eat other insects such as woodlice

not your potatoes

http://www.lboro.org/~wwatch/Infopages/insectfactsheets/centipedesandmillipedes.htm

[MickyB]

It had half of it's body burrowed into the potato, I pulled it out to take the photo  it makes me wonder as I haven't seen anything other than these in the soil and the potatoes are full of holes (I have just peeled some) and it did look like it was having a good munch on the spuds - it must of been trying to hide from me  .

[al78]

It had half of it's body burrowed into the potato, I pulled it out to take the photo  it makes me wonder as I haven't seen anything other than these in the soil and the potatoes are full of holes (I have just peeled some) and it did look like it was having a good munch on the spuds - it must of been trying to hide from me  .

Maybe it was feeding on a small slug which had originally created the hole in the potato.

[Salmo]

Definately centipedes and therefore goodies not to be harmed. They are predators and feed on eggs and lavea of soil pests. The fact that it was in your potato is purely coincidental.

[JayG]

The key difference, as per Mum's link, is the number of legs per body segment (centipedes have one pair, millipedes two.)

Doesn't mean that you should squash anything just because it has too many legs though, although some common millipedes, like the spotted snake millipede, are a little bit marginal in their menu choices under certain weather conditions. 

[mumofstig]

Anything that can move quick is usually a predator, so leave them alone 

[MickyB]

I will not squish   

How similar are these to the wireworm for size, colour, etc?

[JayG]

Wireworms are the larvae of the click beetle, so like their parents only have 6 legs.

They vary in size and colour as they grow but don't look anything like your centipede at any stage.

[Aunt Sally]

Wire worm (quite different):

[maxie]

I have a lot of these on my plot and they are often in my potatoes often in snail holes,i used to blame them for damage and feed t5hem to my chickens but like has been said maybe they are after snails.

[MickyB]

Thanks for the photo and description. 

I was wondering just what has been (and is) doing the damage to my potatoes, I thought maybe they looked similar and I was confusing the two, OK so it is not the centipede's doing the damage so what else could it be? I have not seen any wire worms at all at any time, if the scab is bad enough will it run deep into the potato? I am left with less than half of what I started with after peeling.

[New shoot]

Most likely to be slug damage.  The small black ones that live in the soil can do a lot of damage to spuds.

You can get slug resistant varieties. I always grow these as my plot is slug-friendly clay soil and they have a field day otherwise 

[sunshineband]

I hope you never do find any wireworms 

[Aunt Sally]

I could send you some to sprinkle around your potato patch if you like, Sunny