What is this white worm??? Help please!

Please see the picture!
I was taking out a mum out of a clay pot it has been in for a couple years to plant finally in the ground.
Of course, found some slugs/snails eggs...............
BUT..................
Also found these white worms with a brown head as you can see from the picture.
They were down a few inches in the soil, not near the top at all.

Can someone tell me what they are???
What to do to get rid of them???

If nobody here in the NW knows what it is, I will try another Forum here to try to get them identified.

Thanks,
Carol

Eeewwww, I have no idea what it is but let us know when you find out.

Gwen

Yes, Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww is right. I sure hope I get a true answer too.
Carol

This is simple, just

WHITE GRUBS

White Grubs, the larvae of certain Beetles, are the most notorious of all turf-damaging soil insects. In the spring, Grubs live in the top few inches of soil, feeding on the roots of lawn grasses and destroying the turf above. In early summer, Grubs become Beetles that emerge from the larvae to become leaf-feeding adults that dmaage roses, trees and other plants above ground.

I usually see them in soil that was recently converted from lawn. Today found one and fed to my chicken. They were very happy. I read somewhere that if there are not a lot of them, you should not do anything but raccons like to search for them.

Ok great.
How interesting. I just took out the front lawn and the pots are in the front.
Hum. Guess they needed a home somewhere and found the pots.
I saw them in both of my mum pots that I emptied today so............I am assuming I have more. Guess I need to empty out a few more pots to see.
So if I do have a lot of them, what am I to do? Use Bayer Complete Insect Control around the yard?

Nope, the obvious answer is get some chickens. Apparently they love them.

LOL my cats would love that!

daisyruffles
the cats will not touch the chickens but the chickens might touch the cats, one they decide who is boss all is well:) funny to watch at times

grubs are a pain, but can take care of them

D

Hi Denise, good to hear from you, neighbor!
Well, LOL on the chickens. Yes, you are probably right. My cats would run like crazy if they even think of coming toward them, LOL
But I don't have the time, land, or energy to fiddle with chickens so.................but thanks for the information.

Daisyruffles, one thing you can rule-out is the cranefly.

I will put this thread on watch, I hope someone who knows stumbles onto this thread and recognizes it!

Thanks, Sue.

I have found "cut worm" grubs here in our garden as large as my thumb. I'm not exaggerating. They are usually half that size but every now and then I dig up a real big one. The chicken go bonkers for them. Our 9 guinea fowl cruise around the place so we don't see too many on top of the lawn. The guineas eat most bugs. We see grasshoppers less and less since I added guineas to the flock.

They look like the dreaded root weevil or black vine weevil larvae to me. Check this out:
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=HPID,HPID:2005-21,HPID:en&q=root%20weevil%20larvae&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I hate these things. The larvae destroy plant roots, the adults chew the leaves of the plant at night when no one is looking. I've spent years trying to eradicate them from the property. Lots of beetle larvae look about the same, but I would make sure that these are not introduced into your garden.

Yep, these darn things do lots of damage so that is why I am so concerned about them all.
Sure wished there was a chemical I could just spray all over and just they would die.................LOL Would be so much simpler than trying to treat them separately.
Pixy, you have lots of trees and land, so I can imagine it would be a real chore to get rid of them at your place.

Guess I need to get some birds.....................

Birds won't do you much good with root weevils, since the weevils feed at night. Do you have leaves that look notched at the edges? You can tell when weevils are at work because they start with the outside of the leaf and just take it off a bit at a time. If you do have weevils, you can try to control them by picking them off at night if you don't have a large infestation or they are limited to just one or two plants. If you need to spray, the only thing that will kill them is acephate. Ortho makes a product with that chemical in it. If you have weevils, start spraying the plant at the first sign of their emergence. Mine are already active, as I discovered yesterday much to my dismay. One of my azaleas is already almost decimated in the front. I think I'm going to pull out all the azaleas they love and try different cultivars.
Anyway, spray about every 4 to 5 weeks because spraying the plant will not kill the grubs. You can buy nemotodes that will kill the grubs and work very well, but you have to do it right.

Oh, I know I have root weevils. My poor rhodies have lots of notched leaves in them. For some reason, my azaleas aren't effected. Just the rhodies along with some of my coral bells too.
I haven't ever gone out at nite to try to pick off the beetles but guess I should start doing that.
I will try that chemical you are talking about. I want to try anything! Thanks for the heads up on the chemical.

Yes, you have them. If you are lucky, your rhodies have only one or two main trunks coming out of the ground and the rest of the plant is above the soil line. If this is the case and you don't haave too many of them, it is a simple matter of getting a product called Tanglefoot. This is basically a trap. You wrap the trunk of the shrub with heavy paper (you can buy a roll of it that is the tanglefoot brand, but any kind will do) and smear the stuff onto it. The weevils get stuck in the trap and die. It is very effective and totally organic. I would opt for this if you don't have too many rhodies.

In adition ladies, these large grubs of the Ground Beetle and the June Beetle are the favorite food of moles. If you have moles, it is because of the large grub population in your turf. Frank

I knew someone would know what was going on. Thanks for sharing your info everyone. I'll be on the lookout for these grubs for sure.

We have moles, every year. But primarily in the veggie garden and other garden beds. Not the lawn so much. I have in the past been hiring a guy to set traps for me but then, he leaves the carnage in a bag for me on my porch and that finally turned me off. So, I'm not sure how I am going to handle them this year, but I do know I'm going to treat the lawns with Dursban (if I can get it) this March for Cranefly control. I have heard rumblings that Dursban has been banned, but I'm not sure. I need to purchase more as I'm almost out, so I guess I'll know soon enough.

And an observation - I've noticed that moles are most active in yards where there is not an active lawn maintenance program. I do try to fertilize twice a year, but honestly, I probably got to it twice in the past two years. I know...bad bad bad. I'm just more interested in the garden and tend to ignore the grass. The grass does take a beating with all of the walking (grass paths), and doggie deposits. Last year I tried a low watering program and my lawns looked terrible, and they suffered. This year I'm going back to my previous watering program (more than recommended) and we will have to do without ice cream or other goodies on the grocery budget to pay for it! :-D

Well, I guess I kind of went off topic, but bottom line is I need to eliminate the grubs from our veggie garden, etc.

I'm going to try a chicken tractor in my yard this year for pest control and free chicken feed... :-)

I want a chicken tractor with a bobcat inside to get all the moles in my poorly maintained lawn/garden/woods that are overridden with moles! I can't afford to buy that new worm shaped poison bait Talprid. How else can one kill the grubs without harming too much else underground?

I bet down by one compost pile, between it and a hemlock there are 40 mole hills, lots more in different areas. Arghhhhh.

What in the heck is a chicken tractor? What have I missed here???

Annie, oh dear. That is a lot of mole holes heading for your dahlia beds..........................not good................

It's a portable bottomless chicken pen that is moved regularly. It's called a chicken tractor because its residents do the job of a tractor by controlling bugs, fertilizing, eating weeds and weed seeds, lawn thatching, etc. I hope they scratch deep enough to find slugs and slug eggs, and I understand they love greens such as dandelions, which my yard has in abundance.

Oh yeah, and they lay eggs, too.

Here's a link:

http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~nfantasi/Chicken%20Tractors.htm

Oh cool. I love that. It is like a movable watering system that you just keep moving around in the yard.
My cats would love that! They would be entertained all day long, LOL
Do they really work??? I am almost tempting to get one to get rid of all these darn bugs/insects here in my gardens.
Carol

Chicken work (s-s-h, don't say that they are doing a work ;} ) but there is a problem with them, you can put tractor only on empty beds or on lawn but if you have a lot of bushes and so on and you want them to "clean" around them, then you need to let your workers to go free, well, you need to have fenced yard and restrict them from the area where you don't want them to dig (like i am doing for strawberry bed). They are fun but they can be messy destroyers as well and in winter I have to "serve" them warm water and food when I even don't want to go outside for a minute.

That is a really deluxe chicken tractor at the link! Travelling coop and all. I thought it was just a temporary cage on wheels that you'd put them in for an 8 hour day or so. Guess there are various models in use, but that one is gorgeous.

This is part of the lower lawn from last year, but I'm sure it will look like this again soon enough.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/poochella/Miscellaneous/molehills.jpg

Can I do anything to get rid of the grubs or should I just learn to live with them?

briergardener, I have 38 hens and 4 roos. The hens lay eggs and I sell them for $3.50 a dozen but ....... my eggs cost me about $3.50 a dozen to raise. The hens are terribly destructive to the flower gardens so they must be fenced out. I allow them to have 2 acres of weeds and they still demand all sorts of feed .... $3 a day). This winter I get 2 eggs a day but in the spring, summer fall, I'll get 18. They are pretty and fun but the fun is wearing off. We have several color varieties of several breeds of Orpingtons, Cochins, Wyandottes, NJ Giants, Welsumers, Marans & Ameraucanas (blue/green pastell eggs) and a few other miscellaneous breeds RIR, Barred Rock, Dorking. I used to have 75 of them. They are colorful to say the least. If anyone wants chickens ..... just tell me .... I'm cutting back to a dozen ASAP. Kelly

Kelly-

I'm interested. I want to have about a dozen, too. My priorities in descending order are 1- foraging (Dorkings, etc.), 2 - egg production, and 3 - meat.

Please Dmail me if you're really interested in cutting back.

Thanks,

Bobby

This message was edited Mar 1, 2007 4:00 AM

My dh would love to have a chicken tractor. But I draw the line. We have enough animals to care for at this point. I would love the chicken poop, and slug eaters, but since I wouldn't be able to let them run free in the yard, I 'just say no to chickens' at this point.

Moles, however, are my friends. I really do not mind them in the least and count on them to help keep grubs under control. I don't like to use too many chemicals in the garden and really prefer to use none at all. I bend on using acephate to control those nasty weevils. But that's after a few years of trying to get them under control using organic methods.
I know moles are not popular with the lawn crowd, but I'd love for them to get under my 'lawn'! That's the most compacted, clay filled soil I've ever seen! If a mole could plow through it maybe something would actually grow there besides moss! I've never yet lost aplant to a mole. They eat grubs, not plants. They might up root a few along the way, but it takes me seconds to replant. Since I don't have any kind of lawn to speak of, I don't see mole tunnels going across it anytime soon. I don't think even craneflies would survive that lawn.

Wow, Photographer, having 38 plus 4 it's too much if you are not raising them for meat. I have only two that i raised from chicks that i got from my son as mother day gift, they live in big chicken tractor (similar to one on posted links). My DH built it to be a tractor and first time we actually moved it but it appeared too hard, so i decided to let it to stay on one place but let my hens to go out sometimes when i am in a garden, then i can control where they go by using a lot of chicken wire. I think i have less problem with gooseberry fly that was attacking my black currant bushes after my "girls" dig around bushes and with slugs. Right, they are destructive, messy (by my DH definition) and require some kind of care but they are not expensive for me because i give them kitchen scraps in addition to their food. They give me some fresh eggs, last summer it was sufficient for my three persons family. Well, they are getting old and i did not have eggs this winter, but i still like them. Sure it would not be fun for me if i had 38, it would be like job on a farm not a fun in backyard.

brierGardener, I have come to the same conclusion about the quantity of chickens. I have 9 guineas as well and 5 Swedish Blue ducks. We have too many of everything but its mostly because of my work. If I were retired I'd add 3 Tolousse geese (Gray French farm goose) to the flock.

Your work? What you are doing for life?

brierGardener, I have owned an archive of census microfilms (179-1930) for about 15 years and am involved in a digital conversion for our clients to access via computer vs film readers. I own a 15k roll collection of the US Federal Census (12mil images ... reduced to 1 in sq from original tablet sized pages 11X17 in). I bought a hi-speed roll film digital scanner last month...don't ask. This year I'll be digitally converting each roll of microfilm and burn them to DVD's, then load them up to a subscription website ala Ancestry.com except our cost will be $5 a month to join the subscription site...... not $100 a yr or $20 a month. Anyhow the scanner will convert 50 rolls a day with one person manning it so I'll need less than a year to complete the work. I have a HS grad son who can help in the evening and weekends when I'm off so we can really do more like 75 rolls a day. It is easy but boring work but at least I do not have to sit down to do it.

Photographer, i was thinking that your job is connected with chicken and so on in some way because you told that you have so many of everything because of your job.

brierGardener, No .... I simply meant I was needing to reduce the qty of chickens because I have an enormous work project that requires my full attention for the next 6-9 months. I'll be putting in 16 hr days 6 days a week and my wife and son will be helping so we get at least 20 hrs of effort from the equipment. It'll all be worth it in th end. I expect I'll be retiring within the next couple years. With a wife from Japan ..... we'll live there half the year following my 14 yr old daughter's graduation from HS at age 17. We enjoy having a flock its just they demand a bit more attention than I have additional energy. I'll be push mowing our 2.5 acre lawn for 30 minutes a day before long. That keeps me occupied and out in the sun just enough.