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What the fuck are these white, little worm-like creatures under my smartpots?

Holdin'

Moon-grass farmer
Veteran
So I was taking a look one of the plants that I semi-recently transplanted into a 3gal smart pots to check and see the amount of roots that were showing through the bottom, and when I lift it up I see a bunch of these white, kind of transparent, "worms." They are maybe twice the thickness of a hair, but kind of long for their thickness....the length varies from like 1/8" to maybe 1/2" (?) if it were stretched out. They kind of curl up and move around... their movement being easily visible to the naked eye. When I lifted up the pot, amongst some roots that have popped through, I saw them kind of "slither" INTO the pot like they were trying to get away from air/light. Some of them stuck around, and I took the best pics I could. I have no clue what these are... although I've seen little pests almost like this in my humidity trays/domes when cutting clones in rockwool, expect they were much smaller than this and I assumed THOSE to be fungas gnat larvae. These I'm not sure. In the same room I have 30 other plants that are much further along, in 5gal smartpots. I checked those, but with so many roots coming through it was hard to tell if there were any there. I have 5 plants of individual strains in 3gal smartpots, and saw these little bastards in 3 of them.

Here's the pics, sorry if it's hard to see. But I hope somebody can tell me what they are, what I need to do, or if I need not worry. I'm going to be flipping this room into flower fairly soon.





Some of what you are seeing are roots, but mostly the "worms." Thanks in advance for any input!
 

MIway

Registered User
Veteran
Nematodes of some sort... Larvae won't stretch out... Let alone to 1/2". Nematodes iv seen dried up to be dead within minutes of air exposure, but that doesn't solve for the ones inside the pot. Hadn't ever done it... Can't really rec a treatment...
 

Mr.Bill

Member
here's a fungus gnat larvae to compare too, I honestly don't know
picture.php


picture.php
 

Holdin'

Moon-grass farmer
Veteran
Oh and forgot to mention, I haven't seen one flying insect in weeks. A few weeks ago I did see a few fungus gnats flying around so I put up some sticky traps. Caught a few... but I have seen any since.

I didn't think they were fungus gnat larvae because of their length.... but I'm not certain.

I've been doing preventative foliar sprays of AzaMax particularly to prevent spidermites... and have been 100% pest free besides those few fungus gnats weeks ago... but now these creepy little fuckers.

Whats my plan of action? Soil drench? I have some AzaMax.... but if theres anything recommended that could be most effective, I could pick it up tomorrow. Dont need any problems!
 

krunchbubble

Dear Haters, I Have So Much More For You To Be Mad
Veteran
Oh and forgot to mention, I haven't seen one flying insect in weeks. A few weeks ago I did see a few fungus gnats flying around so I put up some sticky traps. Caught a few... but I have seen any since.

I didn't think they were fungus gnat larvae because of their length.... but I'm not certain.

I've been doing preventative foliar sprays of AzaMax particularly to prevent spidermites... and have been 100% pest free besides those few fungus gnats weeks ago... but now these creepy little fuckers.

Whats my plan of action? Soil drench? I have some AzaMax.... but if theres anything recommended that could be most effective, I could pick it up tomorrow. Dont need any problems!

Drench that soil! What you waiting for?
 

Holdin'

Moon-grass farmer
Veteran
here's a fungus gnat larvae to compare too, I honestly don't know
View Image

View Image
Definitely not what these are.


And yeah they really seem to not like the air. It's fairly moist between the bottom of the pot and the tray but not THAT moist.

I'm thinking maybe a video would help somebody ID? Then it could be more visible how they move, etc. Pretty bizarre... never seen these. Had I been anymore stoned it may have appeared that these were very fine roots twirling around and then sucking back up into the smartpot. Haha.

Thanks for the help.

Edit: One more thing... RH has been up to around 60%, due to our cooler days setting in now, the a/c hasn't been running as much to control it. Been meaning to pick up a dehuey, one I currently own is at a friends spot. Anyways, I think the higher RH is also keeping this area a little more moist than usual.
 
Holdin - Fungus Gnat Larvae for sure. Been up close and personal. Black spot becomes the gnat. Normal treatments of your choice will do the trick.
 
ignore last post

ignore last post

Holdin - Fungus Gnat Larvae for sure. Been up close and personal. Black spot becomes the gnat. Normal treatments of your choice will do the trick.
I am quite sorry. I posted way too quick and read way too little. please ignore my last post. --Drench it
 

joe guy

Member
Had something similar feww weeks back i just let the pots get feather light dry and havnt seen them since guess i dried the commie bastards dry out.. To hell with them and their children... Argggg war on insects
 

Bueno Time

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I saw some of those recently I took a bunch of clones some of the cups I could see those little fuckers in the bottom or side of them. They were clearish white colored tiny worms. No black head. The cups I noticed with the little worm things the clones ended up wilting bad after about a week or a little more. I would pull the cuttings out and they had hollowed the stem out completely. I squeezed one of the stems and a couple of them came out of the stem.

I dont know what they are but they are definitely not good if they are what I had in some of my clone cups. I threw away the cups and medium mix of the affected clones.
 
T

TribalSeeds

I saw some of those recently I took a bunch of clones some of the cups I could see those little fuckers in the bottom or side of them. They were clearish white colored tiny worms. No black head. The cups I noticed with the little worm things the clones ended up wilting bad after about a week or a little more. I would pull the cuttings out and they had hollowed the stem out completely. I squeezed one of the stems and a couple of them came out of the stem.

I dont know what they are but they are definitely not good if they are what I had in some of my clone cups. I threw away the cups and medium mix of the affected clones.

Another trait of the fungus gnat. Most of the larvae Ive noticed I couldnt see the blackhead
 

Canniwhatsis

High country cat herder
Veteran
Nematode. Google em! ;)


Most of them are not harmful in any way to plants,.... tho, there are a few of the millions of species of them that are.


I've had them personally in my smart pots, FFOF soil, they'd flare up when I was overwatering a bit. Def try to cut back a small amount on the watering if they're concerning you.
 

Holdin'

Moon-grass farmer
Veteran
Thanks for all the input guys. I'm 99.999% sure these are not fungus gnat larvae... A nematode of some sort makes the most sense after googling. I did see a few amongst the other bulk of the plants. But, now entering the 7th week of veg and about to flip, the plants are looking amazing. No ill effects what so ever... and in fact within the last 3-4 days they've exploded with growth.

And any pest in numbers in the garden concerns me! Haha. But I think I'm going to let them dry out a little longer... lower the RH... and I'm sure I'll see a reduction. I did a quick experiment, grabbed one off of the bottom of the pot with a pair of plastic tweezers and dropped it in the tray... watched it squirm around a bit and within seconds it appeared to be dead. I will likely still do a soil drench before flipping to flower. I really think the area between the bottom of the smartpot and the tray is more moist than it would normally be because of the elevated RH. I really don't believe myself to be overwatering. Otherwise I don't see how this area could be moist enough to harbor these little fuckers.
 

Canniwhatsis

High country cat herder
Veteran
Most of the common soil nematodes are actually beneficial creatures in a balanced ecology, not pests.


Commonly I'd see predatory mites, Spring tails, and Nematodes in my soil..... I was only concerned when plants looked bad, and typically it was my own mistake that caused it! :eek:: Even all the way thru flower.
 

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