FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I found a really tiny worm-like bug in the soil of my sundew. I picked it up and tried to feed it to the plant.

Here are two pictures. You can see the worm's black head between the leaf and the metal tweezers.

What is this? Is this a pest?

it's a fungus gnat larvae. they'll eventually get everywhere in the soil. probably a decent source of food for your sundews. they'll emerge into gnats, fly up and get caught. they'll either be eradicated or just keep feeding the sundews. some will survive and fly elsewhere and if they come into contact with other soil, you'll have a new infestation.

all my non CP houseplants have a top layer of diotomaceous earth and i water them with a tray from the bottom. this prevents a new infestation which i had to deal with when i first started growing plants inddoors.

Thanks! Checking against photos online, looks exactly like fungus gnat larvae! I'll start with a layer of decorative soil/sand.

One point I'm not clear on, though. How does the tray method prevent fungus gnats? I'm already using the tray method, so I'm not sure it's related.

tray method does NOT prevent fungus gnats. and majority growers on the forum do not prefer the tray method. i suggest you do more reading before you put stuff on top of or into the soil. just in case. i put a bunch of crap into my CP soil and...the plants weren't too thrilled and they let me know by staring at the floor.

i, however, do use the tray method. i forgot why i decided 2 years ago to use a tray, but it's how i started and it's worked fine for me...so i'm just..still doing it.

for NON carnivorous plants, there are claims on the internet that it will minimize fungus gnats by keeping the top layer of soil less moist as the water gets soaked upwards. however, that has not been the case for me. so i put a layer of diatomaceous earth on top of the soil of my NON CP plants because fungus gnats don't like dry stuff...also D.earth will cut them and they'll eventually die.

the soil of CP plants wouldn't ever get dry enough to deter fungus gnats.

check out this thread as well
pest-identification-and-control-t6170.html

we all have the same pests

i think it's kind of funny.. i started growing CPs to get rid of the 1 or 2 fungus gnats that bother me once or twice a week. now i created an ecosystem for them to thrive.

I would like to add on that utricularia does very well at cleaning up fungus gnats. My bog bowl used to be infested with fungus gnats, but when I introduced U. sandersonii, they disappeared after some weeks.

Good to know! I've been wanting to get utricularia as a companion plant. Right now most of my regional shops sold out of everything before winter. I'm waiting for them to restock