no1oldsfan

Super odd question I know. I was going to plant some bulbs today. I dug all these up. Does anyone know what these are?


There were literally hundreds. They scrambled like crazy. Are these fly larve? They are roughly half an inch long. Maybe a sixteenth of an inch around.

Vintage Chief

They look like Click Beetle larvae - often called wireworms (although they are not worms). Do they click at all?

Fun71

Looks like some good fish bait to me.

Ozzie

What part of the world were they in?

no1oldsfan

I live in Denver Colorado. I am thinking maybe moth larve. They sure buried themselves quickly. Hundreds of them. This ground is very fertile. It has been under leaves as mulch all winter.

Vintage Chief

You probably can't go wrong with "moth larvae". The true question would be which moth species out of a total of ~11,000 moths species in the USA.

no1oldsfan

Ha ha right? Couldn't believe how quickly they All vanished. I tried to dig them back up ten minutes later. Couldn't find one.

Vintage Chief

Here is just one (among millions of) reason(s) you should never trust what is posted on the Internet. This diagram is 100% completely wrong. A grade school child would hopefully find the error in this diagram.
SOURCE: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-...ector-28466233

Fun71

Hopefully that isn't being used in a school curriculum.

Oldsmaniac

My 2 cents.... not worms, not caterpillars, not maggots they are some kind of larva, my guess beetle larva. Seems strange there are so many in one spot. They look similar to the meal worms you get at the pet stores to feed lizards and frogs. You could get some of that soil and keep it moist and put it and the larva in a jar and see what thy turn into..

Bfg

Looks like something I have ordered at my Chinese restaurant. Fried Lice.

boese1978

Look kind of like Meal Worms, a Beetle in larvae stage. Good feeding for people that have lizards, amphibians etc....... Free Protein!!

no1oldsfan

My first thought were meal worms as well. Guess I
should see what meal worms could have possibly been eating that would create such a mass.
I am still amazed how quickly they vanished. I dug down where they were another eight inches. Couldn't find one of them.

I brightened them up here.

08-141 K43727

Probably a wood boring beetle.... some are invasive and most are bad. Might check with extension agent.

ELY442

It looks like meal worms. This is what I feed my turtles. If you know anybody who has a reptile as a pet, sell it to him/her, give it to them or sell it to a pet store.