Congratulations, Ian, you now know what the dreaded vine weevil larva look like :-((((( They are indeed nasties and need to be got rid of. Presumably the plant in the pot was dead and had no roots left.

Thankyou Bulbaholic, I have never met these fellows before. Having about 60 pots with succulents etc and a lot of Mediteranean bits and pieces, I will buy some liquid weevil killer and treat the lot.Thankyou

Vine weevil !!! :o((((
ooooooooooooooooooooerrrrr ..:o(((

Kill them! Squash them!! Nasty little things.... :-(

Exterminate !!!

As well as using the vine weevil killer I would also be thinking of making a visual inspection of all my pots. I know that 60 pots is a lot and that this is not a good time of year to start repotting but ................

if you have fish they love them.

Is this the time of year that the grubs appear?

I "think" that the grubs can be present in the compost for a long time, so the eggs for these would have been laid in the summer and have now hatched out into the grubs. These will happily chomp their way through the roots of plants until they are fat enough to pupate into beetles. I usually come across them in my primula pots either when repotting after flowering or earlier in the spring when the plant starts to fall over :-( Interestingly I have never found a chrysalis or seen an illustration of one.

Thanks Bulbaholic

Checked my other pots ,found no more beasties. Thank you all , my robin is very happy with me ,I am "his favourate"

Lol. Ian :o)

I don't (want to) believe it. I have just put some 'show bench' sempervivums into their winter quarters and noted that one didn't look very happy - in fact I could lift all of its rosettes off individually. Yes, it was those little b's in the compost. I now have 25 single semps in a pan ratehr than one large one :-(

I am so sorry Bulbaholic , I will never mention the little "B's" again.