Bug has a long, colourful history

I’M BEHIND schedule with my gardening this year. Mind you, nature is a bit behind schedule too. Blackthorn blossom and primroses in May — they should be flourishing in March. The soil in the vegetable plots is cold.

I was doing a bit of digging the other day, trying to catch up, and I came across something rather odd. It was a pale coloured grub, a bit like a caterpillar, and it was huge — about the size of my little finger.

I thought I knew what it was, but I checked a book to be sure. I was right, for once. It was a ‘white grub’ or ‘chafer grub’ — the larva of a cockchafer.