Hi, I am new here and this is my first post. I have only been growing violets about a year now. Keeping that in mind...
I have seen a tiny worms (or larvae) exactly like you describe on the flowers of my "office violet". If I shook the flowers, pollen and these worms that were living in the pollen sacs would fall out onto the petals. Except for the worm part, it sounds like thrips (thousands of species) to me. I cut all the flowers off and discarded them away from my violets. It has flowered three times since with no further trouble.

Someone more experienced may have better advice, but I'd say if you shake the flowers and find these critters are in your pollen sacs, do what I did and wait for the next round of flowers.

Most probably it is a thrips larva. It is not a worm, it has 6 legs and you disturb it - and it scoots away real fast. It is quite small and it is semi-transparent whitish yellowish critter.

You definitely do not need them - so look up different recommendations of how to get rid of them. Disbudding for 2 months plus spraying works. As is they are mostly newsance - but they spread the impatien necrotic spot virus which is devastating.

irina

Thanks so much for the advice, I think they may be thrips. I got some safers and have sprayed and disbudded this plant, should I do the ones in close contact with it, even though I see no signs of thrips?

I am finding what sounds to be the same kind of "worm" on a couple of my violets. I tried to find a way to enclose a picture of one of them, but couldn't figure it out. It's about 1/2" long with legs at each end of the insect. It seems to like the flower buds and new growth and has eaten the edges of this new growth. It moves like a caterpillar in a kind of slinky motion and is pretty quick when it is disturbed. I have used a systemic insecticide to treat what I thought was thrips and want to know if I should continue with that treatment. If anyone has a suggestion, I would welcome the help as I have about 70 african violets and don't want to lose them.

Earwig? Brown to black and half inch long, not half millimeter as a thrips, correct?

It won't kill your violets, it is just a cosmetic damage.
Try to catch it. I think it will be attracted to pieces of raw potato or apple and it will try to find the place to hide. Grab it and send it outside. They actually omnivorous and eat pests too. For whatever reason they get into my roses and eat the petals.

I.