A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Worms

My boyfriend bought me a beautiful Calathea about 6 mos. ago. Since then, the new leaves have dried and died probably because of over fertilizing.

Now, it has a whitefly problem and today when I sprayed it for the bugs I noticed many small earthworm looking creatures in the soil. They're about 1" or so long and very skinny. It only has five leaves left and I'm worried that the worms might be eating the roots causing more problems for my suffering plant.

I have only had it outside for waterings so I don't know if the worms arrived in eggs with the plant or somewhere in the potting soil I used to transplant it after the over fertilizing situation.

Any ideas?

most worms are butterflies of some kind and lay eggs on plants. Doesn't take long for a butterfly to land.

Sounds like more than just a worm problem though. Are you watering enough? too much?