Worm like critters/infestation

TB420 · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:13 am Post subject: Worm like critters/infestation

I have just discovered an infestation of worm like critters. They are about 1cm long and 1mm round. They are segmented with lots of legs like a millipede. They are brown to light tan, have antenna, are in the dirt of a ficus. Potting soil, not bonsai soil. They have not harmed the tree yet, just seem to be interested in the soil. I picked over a hundred off the soil surface, and if I dig around then I can find more. I am sure there will be plenty more when I get back to the greenhouse. Anybody know what I am dealing with?

Tom

TB420

I would add that I looked up some bugs. The closest thing that I could find was called a greenhouse centipede. But I realize now that was a question on another forum But this is what they look like. I have been keeping that ficus overly wet, I realize. But that is how I found them. I watered it yesterday, probably unnecissarily, and when I moved it today to apply some fresh compost tea, the top soil was covered, especially around the edges. Then after I applied the tea, I left it sitting in the catch pan, and they were coming op at the edges and trying to get out.
They were falling into the run-off and drowning. I think that I will submerge the pot in water tomorrow for a few hours, and see of I can eradicate them. I have a citrus tree, in potting soil too. I better check it out. There must hundreds if not thousands, and they must not do to much harm. I have picked off probably 150 or more. Here is the best pic I can provide without my camera. It is a good pic. but it I did not take it so I am not sure if it is the same.
I bet it is because he said he found it under a flower pot.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/41603/bgpage

Tom

Dick

Put some dishwashing liquid soap (about 5-6 drops in a pan and stir it up before soaking the plant) into the water you're going to soak the plant in. It should kill off an enormous anount of them.

jimothy

if they really are centipedes, then the last thing you want to do is destroy them.

Centipedes (unlike their close rlatives millipedes) are carnivores, and will help to keep down the numbers of plant-eating pests.

TB420

Jim, they are not centipedes. That was a question from another forum. Greenhouse centipedes?

Yea, I do want to kill them. There were a couple of hundred that I killed last night, and that is just from 1 3 gal. nursery pot in a greenhouse. there is not enough food there to sustain a population of centipedes.

Tom

Stymie

They sound like what we call wireworms Tom. I would call the colour 'orange'.

TB420

That would have been my first guess. They are not worm's though
they have legs. If that is what they are what do they eat? Do they cause any damage?

Tom

Stymie

I think that they are inclined to do damage. At least, my father always used to see them off. I'm sure that Jimothy will tell us the proper name soon.

jimothy

I don't think we're going to get very far until we see a photograph. Ideally, pest on white surface, camera on tripod, macro-mode set, ruler in shot for scale, but we'll settle for the best you can do Wink

Surrey John · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:34 pm Post subject: Worm like critters/infestation

If I recall my school biology correctly, centipedes are carnivores and have one pair of legs per segment, millipedes are herbivores (so they presumably eat bonsai) and have two. Tom's bug-guide photo is clearly a millipede. SJ.