Worm ?? ID - PLEASE HELP IDENTIFY!!

I have found tons of these in my raised garden beds - cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, peppers ...all growing in the beds. I don't know if these 'worms' are good or bad so I don't know whether to leave them alone or pull them out of the garden when I find them. The two pictured here are the same length but can stretch to almost double their size. They seem to crawl like a worm but I can't tell if there are legs of any kind. Please help identify these creatures. Thanks!

This message was edited Jun 2, 2015 9:44 AM

I am pretty sure these are just small earthworms. A friend gave me a house plant she divided. She used whatever soil from the outside. To water, I would set the pot in a bowl of water to absorb from the bottom. When I took it out, there were several of these things. They seemed to eat the dirt in the bowl which I could see in their translucent bodies. They could very well be something else, but that's what I thought they were.

Look more like very young earthworms to me as well...

Does anyone know how to confirm they are earthworms? I have had so many pests and diseases in my garden in past years I want to be sure they are beneficial creatures!

I have done quite a bit of searching and most have these identified as Red Wigglers. a common earthworm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida

As to their benefit, it all depends. For garden and composting situations, many people want them, but outside of Europe it is an introduced species that is causing harm to some areas where earthworms did not exist before.

Compost they are good; in pots, not so good as they do eat dirt and decaying matter- but will eat the plant roots in the absence of compost. The worm everyone dreads is a flat headed worm, just sayin. The moisture this year does have the earthworms on top and muultiplying. Red wigglers are great fishing worms. By the way, they are GREAT for dirt after they leave their castings..

Thanks for the responses .... I have been digging in the garden and have never found one of these worms any larger than the size I posted...in other words, if these are baby worms why have I never found a larger adult? I pulled upwards of 10-15 out of the dirt surrounding the roots of my newly droopy cucumber plants this morning. I have doubts that these are baby worms since in 2 years I have never seen one larger than the posted. If there are any other opinions out there I'd love the input!

http://vermicoast.com/2010/03/learning-all-about-cocoons-hatchlings-juveniles-and-adult-red-worms/