They are interesting for sure! Just saw another couple of them now that are more like 2" in length (I don't know if I WANT to see a 6"er:) If they are a sort of threadworm, it's not pretty what they do to the host bug they burrow into, but if they keep potato beetles in check, they are welcome. Sadly, it sounds like they also like crickets and I love the sound of crickets chirping in the evening... so hopefully they only find earwigs, slugs and those darn beetles!

I really have no idea. This is just what I was told. If there's no such thing as a "male" pear tree, perhaps they meant it was another variety of pear to aid in pollination. I have no other fruit-bearing pear trees anywhere on our property, nor do any of our neighbors. I'm almost afraid to ask this question, but.... could my fruit bearer have been grafted on a bradford pear? The branching structure doesn't fit, and the neighbor's bradford's don't have these clusters on them now. The tree is not flowering now. Hasn't for about two months. These clusters show up after the flowering. Looked up some info about black cherry, and the leaves are definately not that, and the clusters look different (mine all sprout off of one main stem and the blk cherry seem to sprout off of a line (hard to see in my pic). And the ones on my tree don't ripen into anything. They just dry up and fall off. Keep the ideas coming.

Were they in the potting soil or on the tree? Most likely, since the vast majority of these things are not harmful, these are simply there and are not a problem. Given the small size of the worm like thing in the picture I cannot identify it so maybe a visit to your state universities Cooperative Extention Service (if you live in the US) would be of more help.

In my experience those are bad news. They might be eating the inside of your plant from the bottom up. I agree with Minty and while you have your plant out of the pot check to be sure they haven't tunneled in to the plant. I've seen these things hollow out a plant.