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Can anyone identify these worms?

After watching Tony Buckland on the Great British Garden Revival programme I was inspired to make a herb pot. I duly retrieved a large ceramic pot from a corner of my garden and found lots of slugs and snails hibernating in the sludgy base of the pot. There were also masses of tiny creamy white thread worms. I did not what to dispose the sludge on my garden as I didn't know what they were. Does anyone have any ideas as to what they might be? 

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  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    are they in water or soil daydaisy and have you a photo?



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • DaisydayDaisyday Posts: 373

    unfortunately I didn't take a photo of them and just disposed of them along with the snails and slugs on the field opposite my house, they were in the sludgy damp soil that had accumulated at the bottom of the pot and also around the drier sides. There were two huge wood lice there also and I wondered if they had anything to do with them?

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    I would need to see them. I'm no expert. I can tell worm from insect larva but that's about as far as it goes

    Not the woodlice, they don't have a stage like that.



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    Googling suggests that they might be fungus gnat larvae - google for images of them and see what you think. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    I was imagining them to be a bit bigger than that, (threadworm size)



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Dave MorganDave Morgan Posts: 3,123

    Daisy, they may be parasitic worms which occur naturally in the soil. google white thread worms in soil and have a look at images this may give you the answer.

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    What are they parasitic on Dave?



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • DaisydayDaisyday Posts: 373

    I have googled extensively and really cannot positively identify these tiny worms. The nearest possibility seems to be wire worms which are the larva of the click beetle, though why they should end up in my terracotta plant pot I don't know. Anyway I'm glad I didn't put them on the garden just in case! image

  • Beetles are gardeners' friends.

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