i attempted to edit my entry so that i could upload a pic to the site which i tried very hard to get it small enough that i could, but it's not showing. i hope i haven't violated a rule by posting a link to photobucket. if so i'm sorry. i did try everything to get it to accept the photo, shrunk it down so small you could barely even see it, but in the end, it took the photo but then told me i had a submission error of some sort. when i attempted to "edit" or redo the post, i no longer had the browse and upload photo option. so sorry.

These are not worms. They are the larva of some insect.
Are they in the soil?
Are they on plant leaves?
Are they really destructive?
What are they doing?

try the link for the image

Here is a link that might be useful:

as said.

The 3rd image is too small to ID anything.

Please answer kimmsr's questions.
Also tell us the size of these critters.

Here is a link that might be useful:

The topic implies that there is only one worm to name. However, after viewing your pictures, it turns out that you have two worms there. That's okay though. I'm willing to name the both. The one of the left is now Terrance and the one on the right is now Skeebo.
Let me know if I can be of any further assistance in this matter.

By the way, I'm not sure if anyone here knows how to tend carnies. I've been around these forums for a while and haven't seen a CP (carnival people) thread. I don't know what type of habitat they require but I think their diet is primarily methamphetamines and despair.

I'm not sure what to look at in the image. Are they short little things or longish, clear things?

Here is a link that might be useful: C'mon, I'll take you to the CP Forum

Jean - Thanks for the links added to the thread w/ the pix. I have no idea what had happened last nite & why i couldn't get uploads in my thread. So for ppl reading this looking for pix, plz check Jean's posts...they are of my mystery critters.

Kimmsr - They are in the soil only, usually around the roots of a plant and the wood chips from the potting mix. as i had said in the main entry, there are a lot of them, but finding them isn't always easy because they are so small. looking for them is like looking at the night sky...you can't focus or you'll never see them. you have to let your vision go soft then you can detect movement. once detected, getting them isolated is another story because they can shrink themselves up so tiny that they hide easily so i can have 1/8 of a teaspoon of soil i know one of the worms is in and still be unable to find it even w/in 30 mins of diligent searching.

water does NOT make them surface. they have survived cold pressed neem oil, dish soap mixed in w/ the neem oil soil drench, and gognat soil drench.

Jean and Kimmsr - they are about 5 mm long unless they are in motion then they stretch to unbelievable proportions. my jaw dropped when i saw the stretching up to 1/2 an inch. the camera is using a macro lens where the tiniest grandule of soil looks large, so the magnification on this is quite high. the best comparison would be they are about the diameter of a tiny eyelash or angelhair. (not the pasta, the decorative angel hair medium)

it would take probably 50 un-stretched worms to make up the size of a small green garden pea.

rhizo - i took the photo of them in a champagne size mercury glass, so there is a mirrored reflection of them. it was the first thing i could grab to put them in. the worms themselves are all white. anything clear is not a worm. even when these die, they retain a whitish color. (they died in the glass from the light and dehydration.)

i realized that the lights and the lack of soil shelter was killing them, so that gives me the idea that they are not air breathers and that they need some kind of moisture to survive. the one large one on the right stretched itself out to about 1/2" at one point in time freaking me out, and then curled up and died from what i'm concluding is exposure.

as for plant damage, i cannot be certain of any damage they are doing but i have all my seedlings die from something in the soil and from my treating the soil as well as some established plants die inexplicably. Yet, the plant these are in is still alive but not necessarily thriving, hence my checking the soil and finding these worms.

from what i can tell, they aren't doing anything. i cannot see them on stems or leaves. they seem soil bound. no sign of them in the water tray. they do strive to bury themselves in soil when removed. they will cross the glass for a granule of soil. i don't have a video camera w/ a macro lens to record them or believe me, i certainly would. they curl up, ball up, spin, stretch, etc. i don't see any signs of legs. i also don't see the dark head area as seen on fungus gnat larvae photos.

if they are larvae of fungus gnats, i would like to control (get rid) that. if they are the larvae of ANY insect, i definitely need to control that. i recently had to have my house bombed for weevils. i have parrots in my home and bugs, pests, etc make me very nervous.

They don't look to me like Fungus Gnat larva but you did notice they had a hard time existing out of the moist soil, so since the best means of control for Fungus Gnats is to let the soil a plant is growing in dry out try that.
Water tyhe plant only when the soil is dry to about an inch and a half (the first joint of an index finger) deep.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fungus Gnat larva

Try watering with insecticidal soap. Just a little soap in the water. Use it after the plant has been watered. That's what I do for fungus gnats and it always works