POT WORMS! Are these a problem??

I looked under a pot a couple days ago and found this:


an old head out here tells me it could be a potworm when I described it to him. It looks exactly like a tiny white earthworm, including that little band that they have but this one is about 3/4 inch stretched out. He moves just like a worm too. In the picture he is heading toward the side of the tray because he thinks it is shady over there. I've been growing in coco for 4 years or so and never seen one. They are multiplying quickly in one container. A day later there were hundreds of tiny ones in there. the babies are maybe 1 or 2mm in length.

The tiny specks that look like rice in the second pic are springtails. I'm told they are harmless too but they were easy to get rid of with one drop of neem oil. It killed them instantly but didn't faze the worm. He doesn't seem to mind swimming in spinosad either.

From what I am told they are harmless? Has anybody had any experience with these? BTW, the plants are very happy and not showing signs of any stress whatsoever. They are 3 weeks into flower.

Neither of those are anything to worry about if they are indeed springtails and potworms... but I would definitely want to get rid of them if I were you... just for the sheer grossness factor lol. However, are you sure those are springtails? I had them a few times and those look awfully white in comparison to what I had... but it may just be the color of the background they're on. Springtails are incredibly easy to get rid of though.

BygonEra said:

Neither of those are anything to worry about if they are indeed springtails and potworms... but I would definitely want to get rid of them if I were you... just for the sheer grossness factor lol. However, are you sure those are springtails? I had them a few times and those look awfully white in comparison to what I had... but it may just be the color of the background they're on. Springtails are incredibly easy to get rid of though.

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding BygonEra
yeh the springtails have come and gone many times and don't seem to hurt anything. One drop of neem annihilates them instantly..... but those worms...that is weird. I don't want to drench at this point so we may have to coexist. They must be fairly uncommon though, at least in coco

Yeah i just found these little guys myself (Pot Worm). I only noticed them when one of my clones died for what looked at first to be no reason, till i pulled it out for a closer look and found that they had hollowed out the stem.
From what info i can find on them they are relatively harmless to mature plants, but because the clone had not yet grown roots, it had no chance.
I am growing in recycled Canna coco that has had no outside contact and is stored in an air tight tub, so i hav no idea where they originated from.
Any futher light or info that anyone could shed on these little buggers and how to get rid of them would be appreciated.
I have heard of placing slices of potato on top of the pots will atract them and then throwing it out, but since my pots are nearly 2 foot deep i dont think
the slices will do much. If someone knows of a chemical to recomend that wont kill my plants too, then that would be better.

Sorry It looks like I'm 7 years late to this conversation... Yes. I am having this experience right now. So I recommend first, to never get any plants from Safeway. They ripped me off because I bought 4 succulents in 1 pot, and later found out the following day that they were infected with mealybugs. Then 2 days later I found that it also had these tiny white things, too. I believe that these are potworms. They are 1/5 of an inch and there aren't that many yet. How do I get rid of them? I sprayed with neem oil and it didn't work. The plants are indoors and I water them once per week. Also, .Da1&Only, What do you mean by "clone"? Also I recommend that placing it in a closed container is a horrible idea. All plants need good air circulation, and good air circulation prevents pests like mealy bugs and potworms. Plants also need fresh Carbon Dioxide to be healthy. Does anybody know how to get rid of potworms? Also I really am more concerned on the mealybugs at this point, since they are far more harmful than pot worms, if these are even pot worms. Does anybody have tips for getting rid of these mealybugs? After I used the neem oil my succulents got small brown dots on their leaves and half of one of their stems was white. (The other half was green). Did I just kill my succulents? What is happening? How do I stop this?

Never seen these worms before but you can use the insecticide Spinosad as a drench to water into the soil and that should kill any bugs/worms in the soil.

You can also use Spinosad as a spray and it will get rid of your mealy bug infection. You might need to alternate with a different insecticide to completely get rid of the mealybugs

Neem is harsh and I wouldn't recommend that for succulents at all.

Finally, succulents are hard to kill if you just leave them alone and barely water them. Wait for the soil to dry out completely. Try that and hopefully they bounce back. You can also clone most succulents pretty easily so maybe you can clone these guys and start over with better soil.

Good luck!

I am a year late to this convo but I just encoutered potworms as well. my girls are half way through week 4 flower, but I see no signs of any kind of stress at all. Upon further research I have found that these worms are harmless. They are actually benefical to the soil because they aerate it, and help with breaking down the organic matter as well. I am gonna keep them in my pots just because they do not deserve to die if they are doing no harm. BUT if you want to get rid of them. Take a piece of bread soak it in milk and then place on the soil, the potworms will flock right to it. Then just throw it away. They do reproduce very quick though. but as long as they do not harm the plant then idc. they are not in the buds so the gross factor is void for me.