Small white larvae in water.. HELP!

LilGreenNewbie 3/25/2014, 12:51 pm

OK so i started some seeds last Thurs. 3/20/14. I used one of those plastic containers with the little squares and i noticed these very small white worm kind of things running around in some of them. I had put a small amount of water underneath to keep my seedlings moist so i decided to check under there where the water was and i found hundreds of them!!! I tried to get as i could to take a pic - HELP please! Are these bad... good.. horrible!?

Small white larvae in water.. HELP! White_11

**camprn** 3/25/2014, 1:09 pm

I cannot answer your question.... however my advice is to just dump and rinse the bottom tray. Keep an eye on it.

Gardening is not a sterile adventure. There's worms and bugs and flies and maggots and all sorts of things (bacteria) you cannot see.

LilGreenNewbie 3/25/2014, 1:15 pm

Thank you camprn. It is scary seeing all those little things! I will dump it and rinse it out and hope for the best Smile

H_TX_2 3/25/2014, 4:47 pm

This was my first year starting from seed. After doing some reading I decided to water using 10 parts water and one part hydrogen peroxide. I didn't have much fungal growth. I don't know if this would help with the little white worms things you have but it might be worth a shot. I know it will not harm the plants and if it doesn't harm the worms then you only wasted a little time pouring a small amount of peroxide.

LilGreenNewbie 3/25/2014, 4:50 pm

Wow that is interesting. I never would have thought that peroxide was ok for plants. I will definitely do that. thanks!

**camprn** 3/25/2014, 4:56 pm

If the dumping and rinsing of the tray takes care of the problem that is great. If it happens again, contact your Extension Service agent for identification of the pest.

PLEASE... be cautious with ANYTHING extra going into the garden or used to treat plants. The advice of adding H2O2 may not have any impact on the problem at hand.

Interventions often lead to more interventions and so on.

H_TX_2 3/25/2014, 4:59 pm

Supposedly the diluted peroxide keeps fungus and bacteria from killing the small seedlings. I didn't lose any plants that I started inside in early February to dampening off.

What kind of growing medium did you use to start your seeds?

LilGreenNewbie 3/25/2014, 5:00 pm

Dually noted. You guys are great, thanks.

LilGreenNewbie 3/25/2014, 6:18 pm

This is my first attempt starting from seeds by myself. I had help with the veggies that i had ask advice about a few weeks ago. I used miracle grow.

68carguy 3/25/2014, 6:53 pm

Seems miracle grow has been know to include free insects in their soil, check out this link.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/miracle_gro.html

LilGreenNewbie 3/27/2014, 11:40 am

Yep. They are fungus gnats. Just disgusting little things. And i did some research on hydrogen peroxide(HP) and a lot of sites/forums recommended it for killing the fungus gnat. They said to let the soil dry out almost completely and then water with 1 part HP to 4 parts water. I just hope my little sprouts dont end up a casualty of this war

I also saw that you could use a thin layer of sand and then water with the HP/water mix. This stops the flyers from laying eggs in the soil and stops the larvae from climbing to the top. The larvae end up dying when they come in contact with the HP. And if you put up some sticky yellow tapes the flyers will be all stuck within a day or 2. BUT i am scared to try the sand because my sprouts are soo fragile and small i feel like i would kill them with my giant fingers poking around. Anyone have any thoughts on this sand remedy?

thinking

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Small white larvae in water.. HELP!

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Thank you

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Fungus gnat!!!!

Re: Small white larvae in water.. HELP!


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