That Might be a Mistake

I was just talking to my next door neighbour who has just started gardening this year (we have now a little garden community around us) mostly to grow vegetables. He finally planted out his Pea's last night  and he was telling my that some of them had been gotten at by insects and that they had laid eggs on the roots etc. He has now thrown them away. His Peas had grown on well in the green house and are far more advanced than mine, so this was terrible news. But when he told me I was pretty sure that the 'eggs' on the roots were infact the nitrogen sacks that Peas fix into the ground from the air. I told him my thoughts as to what they were and I think I may have ruined his day. I have never seen what these nodules look like but have read up about them in the past, so I may be wrong. Does anyone else know for sure of any insects in the UK laying eggs on Pea roots? Or am I right in asserting that they are these nitrogen nodules?