How can I get rid of worms or snails in my plant terrarium?

17 years ago

I've had this 30 gallon terrarium which is converted from a fish aquarium for about a year and a half now, and am constantly replacing plants which are being eaten by snails or these skinny white worms which I see on the glass. I keep wiping them off and throwing them outside, but I'm at the point now that if I don't kill them, I'll never grow plants that can themselves live. Anybody out there who has come up with a solution? Thanks

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Comments (5)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
Am curious as to how they were introduced into the environment in the first place. Did you use outdoor garden soil?

If this were my project, I would have replanted the whole thing ages ago, using a new package of good soil-less potting mix. Sounds like you have a snail farm going on....no THANK you! Wonder what the worms are. Perhaps horsehair worms, which are fairly common in some areas. What size are they?
rosebuddy
Original Author
17 years ago
I used houseplant planting soil from my local nursery who recommended the soil I bought as the best for terrariums. I've only put in houseplants, but perhaps the environment that I created attracted the snails or worms to it. The worms are threadlike, between 1/8 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch. They appear white while on the glass, darker when I whipe them off with a paper towel.
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larry_b
17 years ago
Hi,

I doubt that your terrarium " attracted" snails and worms unless it was sitting outside on the ground. Most likely they were introduced into your terrarium through either your soil or one the plants you put into it.

I agree with rhizo. I would cut your losses and fold as it were. I would really start over fresh. Unless you treat the terrarium with some heavy duty insecticides, which I really strongly discourage you from doing, you'll have this problem as long as any of the original plants or objects stay in there. I know this sounds drastic and I know it's expensive. I'm at the beginning of starting my own terrarium and I'm amazed at how expensive it is to make one. But then replacing plants is not cheap either. And, the situation you have now is not very fun. Terrariums are supposed to be fun. In the long run I think starting over would be best, though.

Before you start a new terrarium you will need to do some prep work or you will have the same problems you had before. Those snails and worms will leave eggs that you will need to get rid of. You will need to sterilize your 30 gal. aquarium before you start again. Make a bleach solution of 10 parts water to one part bleach. Wash the aquarium inside and out with the solution. Then I would put something over the top of the aquarium to keep the bleach inside from drying out. Go ahead and leave that top for one to two hours. Then rinse everything thoroughly. If you want to save any of the decorations from the terrarium you will need to sterilize those also. Soak each item in that same bleach solution that you wash the aquarium with. Leave each item in the solution for at least 40 minutes. If you have any utensils that you have been using in the terrarium, soak those too. Of course rinsed those items thoroughly also. And I would definitely throw that original soil away that is left in the bag, if you think it may have brought in the pests. Now you're ready to start anew.

Good luck,

Larry
rosebuddy
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the replies. I guess I had better start over. What is meant by soiless mix? What I did was put a bottom layer of stones, about an inch or so of charcoal, and then potting soil on top. Is this the mix that is best? Also what about my remaining plants. Can I somehow still use them in the new terrarium, or must they be tossed.
larry_b
17 years ago
Hi,

Absolutely throw away every plant. Clean out all of the gravel and soil and throw that way too. They have all been contaminated with snails and worms. And make sure you sterilize everything with bleach that goes back into the terrarium including the aquarium. This is very important or you will just introduced the snails and worms back into your terrarium.

Using a base of stones sounds good. The jury is still out on the charcoal. Some people think it is needed. Other people say that once the charcoal has absorbed all it can it will start to put contaminants back into the echo system. Next, one needs to put a barrier in between the base and the substrate. This keeps the potting medium from falling into and in between the rocks. The rocks don't do much good if there are no air spaces in between them. Nylon screen from the hardware store works very well. Make sure you get the nylon screen not metal screen. Put your potting medium on top of the screen.

What rhizo means by " soilless mix" is a potting a medium that is devoid of loam and worm castings. In other words no dirt. One soilless mix could be milled spagnum, vermiculite and perlite. There are other soilless mixes that one can make or buy. I'm going to let Al and rhizo chime in on that one.

I don't know if you know it, but there is a terrarium forum on GW. You might ask some of your questions over there too. Also, start reading through all of the entries. There is a wealth of information out there.

Black jungle also has a page devoted to setting up a terrarium. I will put a link to it below. They talk about co-co bedding at black jungle. Again, the jury is out on that too. The people over on the terrarium forum swear by it. The people on the African violet forum swear at it. African violets seem to do poorly in co-co bedding. Since I will have a couple of violets in my terrarium I will not be using the mix.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Again, I'm just new to this too. Good luck.

Larry

Here is a link that might be useful: Terrarium Basics