Help! hundreds of small worm / brown maggoty things around my patio

[handlemecarefully]

This is so strange and it is freaking me out.

We appear to have an investation of small worm / brown maggoty / larvae type things around the (external) perimeter of our house. They are at ground level where the base of the wall intersects with the patio.

They seem to be burrowing in / out of the 'cement' stuff at the base of the wall / intersection with the patio. I keep sweeping them up and dumping them in the pond at the bottom of my garden, but then more appear.

This has been going on for about 5 days.

They are about 2-4 cms long and pale brown in colour.

We are ultra fastidious and clean people, and there are no piles of rubbish or muck in our garden (or house for that matter)so can't think what has caused them.

Anybody come across anything like this? / have any idea what it is and whether it will cause any structural damage to the house?

I've tried searching on the web but have drawn a blank....

could they be crane fly larvae \link{http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/RockfordCenter/newsletters/morrisonj/Issue3Vol5Article5.htm\pic}

Would love to but I am a technophobe . Take my digital camera photocard to camera shop to be developed I'm that much of luddite!

Iota - they look totally like the picture of the larvae!

Now concerned that the base of the walls around my house are a 'moist place' (do I have damp?)

Am going into neurotic meltdown...

I live next door to a farmer's field.....

LOL - you should ahve a damp course above the soil level so I expect that you're safe

they like fields - they like my back lawn

Do you get lots of larvae too Iota?

loads over my pati as well. i just lifted a black bag to put in the bin cupboard and found loads.

I usually get a large flock of birds on my lawn and loads of small holes in it - who needs an aerator?

Ahhh - starting to feel calmer now I know what it is. Thanks both...

Pour boiling water on them to kill them. Make sure you get it down the holes too

Will do Fugly - funnily enough was musing over doing precisely that!

So what were they ?

crane fly eat wasp larva. if you have a glut.of them there will be less wasps.