A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Unidentified green things!

I have another water lily question. I was just looking at mine a few minutes ago, and noticed that some of the leaves are really chewed up. This is the lily in a container. The leaves don't look like the ones in my pond where the snails snip off pieces while they're still rolled up. These were all leaves that are already on the surface. Anyway, I was pulling out some dead leaves and stuff, and there were these THINGS in the water. Green flat things, with weird shapes. Some of them were floating free (big ones, about 1/2" across). So I started looking further, and found some attached to some of the stems, and some attached to the underneath of some of the leaves. Sorry I don't have a picture. I'm not digital right now. Does anyone have any idea what these are? Are they bugs, or part of the plant? They looked like pieces of leaf material, but it was really weird. Are they what is eating holes in my plant?

I read somewhere about water caterpillars. They could be planarians (spelling). To see if they're planarians, split the head end in half about half an inch. If it becomes two heads, you've got planarians, just let them be. They won't bother you. If no, well, they're probably aquatic caterpillars.

Forgot to mention, spliting the heads of a planarian will no hurt them. They reproduce by pulling themselves into two, sorta like worms. you cut one in half, you get two worms!

I went out and looked today in better light. The green things were actually pieces of my leaves, stuck together. When I squeezed one, a little white worm poked his head out! I guess something has laid eggs in my pond, and those must be some kind of larvae. Gross! I actually don't mind, except I don't want them devouring my lily!!!

Well, I found the culprit. Some nasty larvae. I guess the green things I was seeing was their little leaf-sandwiches they float around in. I picked them off, and dumped all the water out of my container and put fresh in it. I'll be keeping an eye out for these things in the future, that's for sure.

http://www.victoria-adventure.org/waterlilies_images/caterpillars/page1.html

Thanks, kennyso, for your suggestions. I would never have thought to google pond and caterpillars in the same search if you hadn't suggested that!!!