worms...

[kris32]

My tomato plant has these white worms in it.. sorry if this sounds dumb but i am sorta new to planting here and they aren't brownish red like earth worms are however the plant seems to be doing just fabulous (compared to the other 5 i bought this year).

But they sorta look like maggots which is what i am real afraid of! They are white and maybe a inch long... anyone know if there is any other kind of worm like this that id actually good for the soil?

[Poirot]

Does it curl into a C when you touch it.If it does then it's a grubworm and eats roots.

[GoJays]

kill them!!

[Tbites]

Do they look like this ?

[muggos0101]

What you're looking at are most likely not worms at all but rather the larvae of fungus gnats or sciarid flies, these feed on organic matter in the soil and don't cause a large amount of damage to established plants but can attack the small roots of young seedlings and cuttings. Good ways to avoid fungus gnat infestation are to go for loam based composts and cover the soil surface with grit to deter adult flies from laying. Some people recommend an imidacloprid soak to combat fungus gnats, although i'm not sure i'd want to use this on edibles. Another alternative is a nematode treatment, if you can get hold of it.

I don't think fungus gnats have larvae that are an inch long.

[muggos0101]

My tomato plant has these white worms in it.. sorry if this sounds dumb but i am sorta new to planting here and they aren't brownish red like earth worms are however the plant seems to be doing just fabulous (compared to the other 5 i bought this year).

But they sorta look like maggots which is what i am real afraid of! They are white and maybe a inch long... anyone know if there is any other kind of worm like this that id actually good for the soil?

By 'in it', you mean on the leaves? I would have to agree with the previous post 'kill them'. There was one time I killed a couple good bugs, but I think good bugs are few and far between. I saw a couple freaky looking guys on my jalapeno plant last year, I picked off the leaves they were on and threw them off the balcony, but luckily a friend told me they were lady bug larvae before I killed them all. I already had an aphid problem, so I guess some ladybug mom decided to lay her eggs on my plant. The rest of the summer was weird, I still had ladybugs and aphids, but for some reason wasps thought my jalapeno plant was party central. I counted at least 15 at a time on that one potted plant, and they didn't hang out on the others at all. Anyway I'm getting a bit off topic, but if you ever see these guys they are your friend, only there to eat other pests.