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OK, I have seen these types of worms on soil before- normally when it is too wet. they are small (1/4 inch or smaller), segmented, they have many legs and roll into a spiral when touched. they seem to appear on the soil surface and I cannot tell if they are any real harm or not. Could someone identify them for me, and tell me if this is something I need to treat or not please?? they were present on a peace Lilli I have, not one of my bonsai, and to tell you the truth this plant was knocked back by the cold this winter and I thought it was dead... so I'm not real worried about its health as much as the health of the plants I have close to it in the green house. I have already moved it out of the green house, just want to know if I should do more dramatic treatment: thus far I have removed all the worms I saw on the surface (20+...) and I am going to change the watering schedule of my irrigation system.


I am starting to feel guilty here- on the old forum I spent more time helping people than asking for help and in my infrequent visits here I seem to be greedily begging for help more... I will attempt to interject more about things I DO know (and yes I actually know some stuff...been doing Bonsai for about 6 or 7 years now I guess...) as repayment for the good advice I receive here...

Ml_work

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Being in bonsai 6 years, I am sure you would recognize these and I have no idea of correct spelling, but here goes.
Are you talking about what we call "rollie pollies"? They will eat the roots, and can be controlled with "sevan dust"
Hope this helps, if not just a good laugh!
ML

T.S.Wheeler

How wide are the bugs? Rollie pollies, or pill bugs, are fat little armored things, but to me it sounds like you might have millipedes? Do they roll into a ball or a spiral? If into a ball, then it is probably a pill bug; if into a spiral I would guess millipedes. Either one of these is bad, though. I found this on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede.

Another possiblity is centipedes. My mom had a huge ficus tree in our living room, and some centipede must have laid a ton of eggs in the pot before we bought the tree because the soil surface was crawling with hundreds of baby centipedes. They do not harm plants, I don't think, because they are carnivorous. You probably don't want a million of them though. The centipedes in Texas grow to 8 or so inches long and deliver a vicious bite, but I don't know if that is the same kind you might have. Anyway, here is another link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede. Thats all I can think of; and unfortunately I am entirely unfarmiliar with pesticides, so I can't help there.

Travis

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I meant to come back and post a pic...

Yes I am well aware of what a rolly polly is, but these guys are not rolly pollies... Some kind of small segmented little buggers with legs...

Attached Images

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Glider

They are millipedes.