One of our readers emailed us after she had an incident with some worm-like creatures in her food. She told us that she had baked a potato and began to dress it with butter and the usual toppings. As she began to eat the potato, she noticed that there was an area of about 1 to 2 inches of small stuff that looked like dental floss. She said that it looked to be a pocket of worms. She is curious what these creatures are. She did not include a picture, but there is a strong possibility that it could be one of two types of worm-like creatures such a wireworms or potato tuber worms. Continue reading [...]…

A reader sent us an email telling us that she has found some worms in her garden attacking her potatoes. She said that the worms are about 1.5 cm in length and have horn-like projections on their bodies. She is curious as to what they are and if they are harmful to any other plants in her garden. She did not send us a photo, but it is a strong possibility that these worms could be hornworms. Often called Tomato hornworms, these caterpillars belong to the Manduca quinquemaculata family. Their horn-like features give them their name. Hornworms live mostly in North America and have been seen in states like Florida, Virginia, Georgia, and Minnesota. These caterpillars live in gardens and can take out entire gardens. They eat tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant. As the hornworms age, they Continue reading [...]…

A reader sent us a simple question a little while ago - "is this wireworms?" - in connection with a video that depicts small white worms crawling out of potatoes soaking in water. These small white worms could be wireworms (or "wire worms," as some have it), but they could also be potato tuberworms, which are also called "tobacco splitworms" (or more precisely Phthorimaea operculella). To call the worms "small" doesn't quite capture their size; they are more like tiny white worms, only a few millimeters long and very skinny. This can't really be seen, but the profanity-infused narration of the video indicates that the tiny white worms are actually coming out of the potatoes, evidently only after they were placed in water. From what we can tell, the worms coming out of the potatoes look more like potato tuberworms than wireworms, but we touch on both possibilities below. Continue reading [...]…