I was checking on my beetle larvae and on the inside crawling along the sides (of only some) are a lot of small little white worm-like things. Does anyone have any idea what these might be? I will have to change out the substrate, but was wondering if anyone had a clue...or if they're experienced this. Thanks!
Small worm-like things in sub
- Thread starter charx53
- Start date
Nematodes maybe! I had them in my substrate in the past. I heat treated all of the substrate and they went away.
arizonablue
Fresh Imago
Harmless soil nematodes, most likely. I had a nasty infestation of them in a flower beetle enclosure (I'm talking hundreds of the things) and just pitched the substrate. I see a couple in almost every enclosure I have, larvae containers included, and unless there are tons of them, I ignore them. They don't bother the larvae and haven't caused any problems except for that one occasion when they got out of hand. In that case I think the soil was packed too tightly and the anaerobic conditions gave the nematodes plenty of bacteria to chow down on.
Nematodes! Cool. Well, not cool. I really actually might take some and look at them under a microscope at work or school...just because. Haha. Anyways, there are getting to be a lot it looks like so I shall figure that out. Likely just change the substrate or heat treat like Ratmosphere said.
Thanks!
Thanks!
This is very true! I did spot some flies here and there. I was waiting to see if I noticed anything from it so this might very well be just that.
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If you heat treat the substrate, the fly larvae will die but the flies still find their way back. Don't ask me how, but they do. I use to use sticky tape and it would really help out. These also work too! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005F5JOHA/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=SH4GREXEE685&coliid=I3410P67EYYFY
arizonablue
Fresh Imago
If you're seeing them, it's more likely nematodes instead of gnat larvae. Even when I had a pretty big gnat problem, I only ever saw one larvae. You can tell the difference if you look for a small black dot on one end. Black dot means it's gnat larvae, no dot means it's a nematode of some sort.
google them if you want to know what they look like.
Gnats larvae does have a black dot on the head, but since they are transparent, and they eat dark colored stuff, plus the environment has a dark color, it could be hard to see the head.
But I guess your goal is to kill them all, so doesn't matter what they look like
Gnats larvae does have a black dot on the head, but since they are transparent, and they eat dark colored stuff, plus the environment has a dark color, it could be hard to see the head.
But I guess your goal is to kill them all, so doesn't matter what they look like