Friend or foe

[Madam5plates]

While digging up some purple french bean seedlings to move out of reach of the slugs that have infested my new veg plot, I found a wierd little white worm in amongst the roots. It was white, very thin, about 1 inch long and wriggled so much it almost bounced off my hand. The seedling I found it on had had its stem eaten from the inside (as well as having its leaves chewed off by slugs yuk).

Any ideas what it is? The soil in the new plots came from a large rabbit run and is heavy clay (oh the joy).

Any advice welcome - I'm a bit of a newbie with the growing veg thing.

Ta
Liz

[Chez]

Hello Madam5plates - interesting user name. Anything to do with multi-tasking? Re the white worm. I don't know that I will be much help really. From your description it sounds like a baby millipede to me, but I am no expert. We have lots of millipedes in our soil and they do behave as you have described, but I have never seen them attached to plants. Millipedes are known to feed on decayed vegetation or areas on plants which have been previously attacked by slugs (as in your case), but I didn't think the very young ones would have responsible for anything much. Not sure on this one though. Are there many of them?

[Madam5plates]

Yes, millipedes sound likely. I only found two of them on seperate plants, and they were beans that had already been attacked by slugs.

Have you tried nematodes to attack slugs before? They seem quite expensive so would be good to know if they actually work before I buy them!

Love your interpretation of my user name, very appropriate indeed and far more flattering than the real reason involving an especially tasty vegetarian lasagne...