# Hitchhiker bug bad for plants?



## Squash713 (Feb 18, 2007)

So I've pulled two of these guys out now. (I think they were in some ferns I got from the woods.) They're 5/8" (1.5cm). One seemed to be eating some mushroom I'd left in for the springtails. 

I assume I should be pulling these? (Hoping I don't have to rip everything up to get rid of any stragglers.)


----------



## OneTwentySix (Nov 11, 2004)

I can't tell for sure, but that looks like a beetle larva to me. Does it have six legs on it? 

As for potentially harmful, it's hard to tell. Beetle larvae eat everything from live animals to fungus to dead things.


----------



## Squash713 (Feb 18, 2007)

I don't recall the number of legs, but I think it was more like 10 or 12... is that possible? It turns out that my azureus thought they were tasty. I introduced some on a petri dish, and they were snatched up quickly.


----------



## OneTwentySix (Nov 11, 2004)

If it had that many, it was probably some sort of caterpiller. Six of the legs were real, while the remainder were "prolegs."


----------

