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hero81

Red worm things?!

18 years ago

Hello hello Gardenweb,

It's been a while since I last logged on. If you guys remember me, that's great, if not then hello.

I'm growing 6 pots of Venus Fly Traps which have lasted about a year and still doing great. But today, just moments ago I discovered something new in on of my pots' water bowls: Red Worm Things!

These little critters are tiny and are pretty much see through when the light is pointed at them. I have pretty much no idea where they spawned from. Apparently they can thrive underwater because they're all still moving. They whip their tiny bodies around to 'swim'. The biggest one is in the center of the water bowl. I'd say it's half an inch long....

Anyway, the plant that happens to be sitting in that waterbowl happened to be a plant that went through a horrible year, having trouble forming traps. I'm assuming these critters may have been a cause. Maybe not, this is the first time I've seen them....

But I just want to ask the questions: What are they? What do they do? And how did they get there?

Comments (9)

  • 18 years ago

    Don't know the whys but I would suggest repotting and getting rid of that soil.

  • 18 years ago

    If they are Blood Worms, should I still repot the plant?

  • 18 years ago

    Sounds like bloodworms. They are the larval stage of a midge. Changing the water every so often should get rid of them. They make excellent fish food so long as you don't spray your plants with pesticides. Be careful when handling them as repeated exposure can cause allergic reactions.

  • 18 years ago

    Hi Hero...
    I, too, came across one of these wormy guys in the pot of my VFT (I have a post in here somewhere about it). As far as I can tell, it was a bloodworm (basing this on the fact it looked like the picture of one on Wikipedia under 'Bloodworm'). I don't agree that they are the larval stage of a midge, however; again, based on the entry in Wikipedia and what my worm looked like, I think it was a polychaete. They are noted for being 'found on the bottom of shallow marine waters'-To me, this sounds like the area that a VFT could be found. Then again, I'm not a zoologist, but look at the picture on Wiki and see if what you have looks like that. Either way, get rid of it if you can! It's been posited that it will change the composition of the soil, making it TOO rich in nutrients for the VFT to thrive.

  • 18 years ago

    If you've got polychaetes in your trays, I suspect your water may be a tad too high in salt for CP's.

  • 18 years ago

    I've been using distilled water for my plant since I got it (it was purchased online from California Carnivores) so I had assumed that it somehow got scooped up in the soil they shipped with the plant. It was quite a shock to me to see the little snout poking up out of the dirt one day, -months-
    after I purchased the plant. I am in -no- way a CP expert; I'm just a guy who used to love buying the little VFT from Woolworth's when i was a kid. I hope I -don't- have a midge problem, that would be depressing! But what you said does make sense; if these worms live in salty water, how did I get one and how would it have survived? A puzzler, indeed...But luckily, I only saw the one worm, and hopefully that was it.

  • 18 years ago

    I was being a little facetious. Polychaetes are generally marine organisms, ie they live in sea water. They wouldn't survive in a tray of fresh water.

  • 18 years ago

    LOL!....See, Corymbosa? This is what happens when newbies try and throw what little knowledge they have around....poeple have -warned- me to stay away from Wikipedia!

  • 18 years ago

    Just thought I'd point out that there are carnivorous plants that specialize in eating little critters in the water.

    For myself, I put little pieces of mosquito cakes in all my pots that contain standing water. It contains a kind of Bt bacteria, according to the label. I don't know if it would also work on other larvae.

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