what's eating my lettuce ?

[staris]

my lettuce is being eaten by some kind of maggot, the lettuce starts to wilt and die and when you pull them up there are yellowish maggots eating and the roots, another plot holder is having the same problem, sorry about the picture quality it was taken with my mobile.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2695/dsc00119kxr.jpg

[staris]

[SPUDLY]

Looks like wireworm to me!

Have a look here
http://www.pestspotter.co.uk/crop/lettuce.htm

Found this also.
Traps can be made using chunks of potato buried in the ground attached to skewers for easy removal; hopefully the wireworms tunnel into the potato which is then picked up and destroyed.
For a biological control the nematode Heterorhabditis megadis will attack wireworms. It is temperature sensitive so can only be used when the soil is at or above 12 C. The best time to apply is in August or September when the wireworms are hatching. Application may have to be repeated the following year due to the long lifecycle of the worms.

[staris]

i think you are right spudly looks like wireworm, the allotments have only recently been dug over and in that link you sent me it says that they normally live in grassland, i lost a load of cabbages last year looks it it was probably what got them as well.
the worse thing is that i've got all my potatoes planted in the same area, anyone had this problem before ?  :(

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's common when plots have just been broken in, as it normally lives on grass roots. After a few years, most of them disappear.