New to gardening - what are these?

emmahooker23

Hope everyone is staying safe in these times. 
I have decided to plant some flowers and shrubs in a corner of our garden. It’s a new build and we have a patch that doesn’t get much sun so have spoken to a nursery and having some shade plants delivered tomorrow
I have just spent the past 2 hours removing the top layer of grass.

Next job is forking and turning the mud to remove any stones. Think that is what the next step is!
But, I have come across a lot of maggots or grubs, not sure what they are. 

My question is, do I need to get rid of these before planting the flowers/shrubs or will they not harm the plants? I haven’t dug any further, but there’s lots there when the grass is removed 

We would like to plant the flowers sooner rather than later so any advice would be appreciated
Thank you for your time and help

wild edges

Possibly these but they don't look like anything that will target live plants. The birds will probably hoover them up if they find them.

emmahooker23

wild edges said:

Possibly these but they don't look like anything that will target live plants. The birds will probably hoover them up if they find them.

The link didn’t work so not sure what you think they might be. I haven’t got any plants where I’ve found them, just removed the top layer of grass at the moment. Want to plant the flowers but won’t until I know it’s safe to do or whether I need to remove them somehow, and if I do, how

robairdmacraignil

Look like cut worms to me which are larvae of moths that eat plants. Would have probably been lined up to munch on your lawn before you lifted it. As mentioned birds like eating them so if you can encourage them to peck about the cleared ground they should sort out the problem. They probably would eat the flowers your going to plant as well in my opinion but they are more of a problem with small seedlings which are easier to kill.