Can anyone Help identifying these larvae

m.crippin

Hi all,

hoping someone can help me identify these larvae which have appeared out of our new patio over the last couple of weeks, they seem to be nocturnal and there’s hundreds of them roughly 2-3cm in size. They seem to be small worms but I’m struggling to understand what they are and if they’re harmful or not.

I’d prefer to deal with them naturally if possible as we have a dog and toddler so if I can avoid chemicals that’d be ideal. 

Thanks in advance for your help

mike 

BobTheGardener

Those look Fly larvae, possibly Crane fly (known as leatherjackets.) They live in the soil for much of their lives, eating the roots of grass before emerging briefly as adult flies to mate, lay eggs in the soil and so repeat the cycle.  They will likely have climbed from your lawn onto your patio to escape being drowned by all the recent rain.

You can buy nematode predators to treat the lawn, but those must be applied at the right times of year (April/May and Sep/Oct) so there is no quick resolution, I'm afraid.

m.crippin

Thanks Bob, good to know they’re not harmful

Dovefromabove

Birds, especially starlings, love them 👍