I too am wondering what those red cocoon things are. I was weeding and not digging very deep in the soil and came across one. The thing startled me when it wiggled.

I guess I should invest in a garden pest book or something. My knowledge of garden pests is pretty limited. Cut worms scare me, yet earth warms are cute. Go figure, LOL.

Glen

Ewwwwwwwww....I am glad I am not digging in your gardens!

I pulled out the only bug book I have..Its "Bugs of British Columbia"......ewwww.......now I am all paranoid to go into my garden....LOL!

I couldn't find anything like you discribed. Sorry

Sierra

I kept googling and googling because I always thought these were ground beetle pupae, which are good. Turns out, if it looks like the link below, it is the dreaded . . . CUTWORM.

KILL WITH HASTE and VENGEANCE!!!

Shauna

Here is a link that might be useful: A dreaded cutworm pupa

That's it! Thanks for going "google crazy" Shauna and finding it.

Now I know it's okay to go crazy and kill them like I do the adult cut worms. (I really do go crazy, over doing it perhaps, as I toss the cutworms onto the sidewalk or a rock and then keep cutting them with the edge of the trowel).

Too bad it wasn't a beneficial bug, the red looks sort of interesting.

Glen

I agree, Glen. They are kind of neat looking, in their own ugly way. I guess I got them confused. I always went crazy killing other pupae but always left these ones alone, thinking they were good guys. No more! This means war! Fortunately, I don't have a big problem with cutworms - just the odd one. But, I have seen quite a few pupae. Maybe the birds eat them - gourmet treat or something.

Shauna

Shauna, cutworms are most active at night so perhaps that's why you don't see them as much. Not to say they don't plague us during the day too...

Thanks for the research. I never dreamed they were cutworm related. When I find cutworms I put them on the sidewalk and jump up & down on them. Used to squeeze them with a gloved hand but once got a big ole cutworm's insides sprayed on my lip - EWWWWWW howdja like that one Sierra? LOL Yup that's me & Glen, the ones with the slick green patches on our sidewalks.

Now any idea about wire worms? Or centipedes?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW EEEEWWWWWWW EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW

Was it tasty..LOL!!! Hmmm if you have a lot of them...maybe you can make cutworm stew.....I won't be comming for supper.....nope...notta LOL!

We do have cutworms but I didn't see any larvae in the sod areas that we took out. Actually we didn't see much of anything....just a few earthworms and some big black beatles.

Sierra

Big, black beetles are generally good guys. Now . . . the wireworm issue. (Almost forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me, Gillian).

The adult of the wireworm is commonly called the click beetle because they "click" when turned on their back. The wireworms will feed on potato, beets, corn, lettuce, sunflower, canola and seed onions. Here's an interesting fact. Mortality in eggs and young wireworms is estimated to be 92 - 98%. If you are seeing quite a few, imagine how many have died before them.

All of the information I am finding is that the click beetle is a good guy. The wireworm, however, can be quite destructive.

Hope this helps

Shauna

Here is a link that might be useful: Click beetles and wireworms

EEEEEWWWWWW nope don't have any of those! Thank gawd!

And yes the insides of cutworms taste just like fresh garden veggies... just kidding. Actually this is gross, I didn't get any guts in my mouth but it did smell strongly like dandelions. I am not a girly girl but I did almost puke.

I wonder what the little squirmy orange dudes are now? Mom always said they're bad and you should kill them, but I have observed them and have never seen them eating anything that didn't already appear to be rotting. Off to go Google crazy...

Cutworm stew??!!!! Eeeewwww.....you guys should be the writers for Fear Factor! LOL
Laurie

northspruce...do your orange things have a black head? If they do ....I think have seen some of them too. Not this year though.

Laurie...hahaha

Oh no...its pouring here again. :-(

Sierra

Ummm no I don't think they have a black head. They are solid orange and really skinny and fast and lots of legs. They are always underground and when I dig them up they get back underground so fast I can barely catch them. I have been looking at pictures of centipedes and they are similar but no exact matches. (ewwwww centipedes are gross)

I'm pretty sure what you are describing is a centipede. They are orangey-brown and very fast. Quite often you will find them under a larger rock when you lift it up. The one I'm looking for is not on this site, I don't think, but the ones on this page are all in Canada. See if this puts us onto the right track, anyway.

Shauna

Here is a link that might be useful: centipedes

Sorry, one little goof up with the above post. They are all bugs that are native to North America, not neccessarily Canada. However, when I went back to it, there were different pictures on it than when I originally copied and pasted it. Keep refreshing the page and you may see all of the different types. This time, the one I'm thinking it is was there.

Shauna

Centipedes, Millipedes, don't be scared, they're all good for your soil!

Here is a link that might be useful: Microbes in the Compost Pile