Maybe it was a worm that the the fungus gnats turn into. Nasty critters.

WOW!!!
Not sure about the worm thing..EWWWW!
BUT have had some Brug seed go to mush..yep to wet...

Gross. Are you sure it wasn't just the inside of the seed popping out. But I di think fungus gnat larvae eat the seeds or something. I hope that doesn't happen to mine because I found a million of them under the dome with my seeds and I hope they didn't lay too many eggs :( I don't know Lucy....I hope you get some to sprout for you.
Shawn

If I am going to re-use them, I pour boiling water over them. I don't know about the worm. When my seeds rotted like that, it was a whole tray so I thought it must have been because the seed cross had infertile seeds (for whatever reason) or the whole tray had been too hot/cold or dry/wet. The other trays had almost 100% germination last year. The little discs are called peat pellets. I am going to buy them in bulk this year.

Linda

My luck I had to have a 20 / 20 vision at the time I did this lol.

Shawn they came from INSIDE the seed and YES yes the were wiggling around lol

Of course I did check the seedlings and in that earth there was nothing. So I just asume that it has to do with the rotting process.

LInda thanks for that tip with the boiling.

I must add that I had trays of 12 each but like from the 5 seeds of one kind, 3 sprouted and the others rotted.

Lucy

Well if it was definately alive I agree with Kristy that it is probably a fungus gnat larvae, though I've never seen one. That is the only thing I can think of. Do you have the little gnats flying around the dirt on your post? I am going crazy with those things, I mixed up some mosquito dunk water to try and kill the larvae and I am going to spray more often to take care of the adults. If you have a problem with them put a peice of mosquito dunk in your water jug to help kill the larvae when you water, and also putting a layer of sand on the soil keeps them from getting in and laying more eggs. Spray raid or something for the adults. I wish I would have bought a bag of sand to have now.....LOL. Oh well I really like my brugs so I will put up with the bugs.
Shawn

I've had worms infect my seeds but they usually respond to the rot and I'm not sure if they are the cause. I'm also not so sure that they are Fungus Gnat larvae. If I'm going to reuse soil I bake it at a low temp for a long time or sometimes microwave it but I rarely do that. It stinks and is easier just to use new soiless mix. Make sure that you wash all pots, trays anything that you will use with a bleach/water solution.

Oh trust me, no more reusing soil for seeds. Old soil I just throw on the compost pile.

It was just a money saving idea. But a bad one and yet I discovered something that was important to see. You never know if they would go OVER to the healthy seedlings?!

Lucy

Lucy, I hope you didn't lose very special brug seeds.

Another thing I am doing for gnats besides using water with mosquito dunk is I have a couple of small bowls near my brug cuttings with a bit of dish detergent, water and cider vinegar (or plain vinegar) in them. The adult gnats are attracted to this and drown. I haven't found the yellow sticky paper yet. I tried the sand last year, but the gnats still got in the soil. Yet, those gnats seem to still survive, sigh!

I just have water sitting with a piece of mosquito dunk & I find the dead gnats floating. So just water works too.

Theresa

Lucy,

Did you worm look like the attached photo? Those are Fungus Gnat Larvae.

~Tj~

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:454955}}

TJ gosh I don't know. I guess those are really enlarged? And if the brown stuff on them is poop lol, then they could be fungus nats. But then why are they not everywhere? Mine were so tiny, I could barely see them. Only when I saw the white dot move, I looked at it closer. But they were only white. Anyways they are all gone since I took the rotten seeds and earth out to the compost.
Thanks TJ for trying to find out what they were.

Lucy

I have seen the fungus gnats plenty but never seen the larvae. They must be pretty tiny.