One of our readers reached out to us due to some worm-like organisms he discovered in his plant. He explained that he bought a palm plant about a month ago from a Canadian greenhouse. He noticed some worm-like organisms near the surface of the plant, but when he watered  the plant (soaked until water comes out of the drainage holes) the worms crawl out of the drainage holes where they die in the plant tray. He doesn’t know if these specimens are harming his plant or just coexisting. Here is a picture of the plant:

After looking at the photograph, we aren’t convinced that these worms are palm flower moth larvae. The creatures aren’t pink, rather they have brown segmented bodies. Also, palm flower moth larvae are only found in a few states, and we think our reader might be in Canada (since he bought the plant in Canada.)

We think these might be millipedes, or a type of caterpillar. However, we can’t see enough detail of the organisms in the photograph to make a definite identification. We think they might be millipedes since they have brown segmented bodies, and some of them are shaped in a curled C-shape (millipedes curl into a C-shape when they are under distress.) If the organisms don’t have a plethora of legs, then they are definitely not millipedes.  Unfortunately, since we don’t know what these creatures are, we can’t determine if they are harming our reader’s plant or not.

In summary, one of our readers discovered some worm-like organisms in his palm plant. We think these creatures might be millipedes or caterpillars.