Nematodes?

arizonablue

arizonablue

Fresh Imago
After I misted my tanks tonight, I found a large number of small white worm-looking things crawling along the edge of the substrate and in the condensation in my flower beetle tank. Are these fungus gnat larvae, nematodes, or something else? I have fungus gnats in my millipede tank as well but I've never seen anything like this and I'm worried. There are an awful lot of them!

Sorry for the terrible photo. Any help is much appreciated! Are these things a danger to my beetles? Should I toss the substrate and put in fresh?

nematode.jpg

 
They look like nematodes to me, I'm not sure what their effects on beetles are though. I have some in with some Julid millipedes I'm rearing and they don't seem to bother them too much, though Julids are actually considered pests themselves.

Hopefully someone here knows if they are harmless or not. TBH I'd sterilize the substrate just to be safe.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hisserdude said:
They look like nematodes to me, I'm not sure what their effects on beetles are though. I have some in with some Julie millipedes I'm rearing and they don't seem to bother them too much, though Julids are actually considered pests themselves.

Hopefully someone here knows if they are harmless or not. TBH I'd sterilize the substrate just to be safe.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Found a few sources online that seem to indicate they're harmless, but I'd rather not have a bunch of unidentified worms in my house, regardless, haha.

I pulled two of the beetles from the tank tonight and have put them in little cups for now. Still have two others buried in the substrate somewhere but I'll take them out as soon as they come up to eat. I'll keep the beetles separated and check for more nematodes for a few days before transplanting them into a new enclosure. I've got new substrate so I'm just gonna toss the old stuff and put them in a new tank - the one they're in isn't a good size for them anyway.

I inspected all of my other tanks and as far as I can tell, the worm-things are only in the flower beetle enclosure. Maybe they came in on some leaves or the cork bark or something. I've got springtails and fungus gnats in others, but nothing that looks wormlike. Hoping the fungus gnats can't accidentally spread the worms from one tank to another. Ick.
default_sad.png


 
I noticed I have them as well in the containers that I'm keeping my beetle larvae in not sure what to do. I'm hoping they are harmless to my larva and they don't seem to bother them at all. As soon as they hit L2/L3 they're getting a substrate change.

 
OrchidAlchemist said:
I noticed I have them as well in the containers that I'm keeping my beetle larvae in not sure what to do. I'm hoping they are harmless to my larva and they don't seem to bother them at all. As soon as they hit L2/L3 they're getting a substrate change.
Click to expand...
Glad I'm not the only one, haha! I've found one or two nematodes in the substrate of some of my other tanks (now that I'm on the lookout, I guess they're more noticeable to me), but they don't seem to be doing any harm, and they haven't multiplied like crazy like they did in that one tank. I think I had the substrate too compacted in that one, which might have contributed to the mass amount of them I saw. I added some more springtails to all my tanks, so hopefully that will help control anything else living in the substrate.

I've done some research online and asked around since I found the worms, and it sounds like they're some sort of harmless soil nematodes that are probably just breaking down decaying material in the substrate. Never found them bothering my bugs, so I've decided not to worry about them unless I find tons of them. If you just have a few in your grub containers they're probably not a big deal.

 
arizonablue said:
Glad I'm not the only one, haha! I've found one or two nematodes in the substrate of some of my other tanks (now that I'm on the lookout, I guess they're more noticeable to me), but they don't seem to be doing any harm, and they haven't multiplied like crazy like they did in that one tank. I think I had the substrate too compacted in that one, which might have contributed to the mass amount of them I saw. I added some more springtails to all my tanks, so hopefully that will help control anything else living in the substrate.

I've done some research online and asked around since I found the worms, and it sounds like they're some sort of harmless soil nematodes that are probably just breaking down decaying material in the substrate. Never found them bothering my bugs, so I've decided not to worry about them unless I find tons of them. If you just have a few in your grub containers they're probably not a big deal.
Click to expand...
yeah I had more of them in my Dhh container (I counted 9) I was worried they would harm the 2 larvae inside so I microwaved the substrate and mixed it with some that I just got. So far they are happy with the new substrate mix and the two are sharing the same container since they are L1s.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top