Officially Freaked Out: Long-tailed slugs

Ack! I was doing some stop-gap gardening when I discovered a mass of what looked like long-tailed slugs at the bottom of a potted tomato. They were translucent (so you could see all their guts working) and had this long (4-5cm) tail at one end. The roots at the bottom of the plant were just covered in them!

I had brought this plant from my sister's place in San Jose and I was terrified that I'd transported some horrible invasive to Los Angeles. Worse, this is some kind of South American tomato tree and I have no idea if the person who gave plants to my sister planted them from seeds or smuggled them into the US...so I was triply freaked out. That they were slimy and crawling all over my hand did not help one bit. So I scraped them off and salted them on the driveway.

Then I googled for "long-tailed slug"... and I apparently have nothing to worry about. Turns out to be the larvae of the harmless (and somewhat beneficial) hover-fly. Those yellow-and-black flys that seem to spend all day hovering in the shade. Huh.

And, like their very aptly and descriptively named adult form, the larval form has an equally descriptive (if totally gross) name:

Rat-tailed maggot

I am now somewhat enlightened and even have a nice new name to call despicable people.

Though...I am still totally freaked out. They -look- evil and disgusting. And I'm a fairly enlightened gardener... ugh.



I got into this because I'd discovered that a sycamore tree had sprouted in my bonsai macadamia nut tree...at least a year ago (the sycamore was that big). I just noticed it and was horrified that I'd neglected my plants so badly.

And yet... after the experience with the hoverfly larvae, I think that's enough gardening for today...

Officially Freaked Out: Long-tailed slugs

Ack! I was doing some stop-gap gardening when I discovered a mass of what looked like long-tailed slugs at the bottom of a potted tomato. They were translucent (so you could see all their guts working) and had this long (4-5cm) tail at one end. The roots at the bottom of the plant were just covered in them!

I had brought this plant from my sister's place in San Jose and I was terrified that I'd transported some horrible invasive to Los Angeles. Worse, this is some kind of South American tomato tree and I have no idea if the person who gave plants to my sister planted them from seeds or smuggled them into the US...so I was triply freaked out. That they were slimy and crawling all over my hand did not help one bit. So I scraped them off and salted them on the driveway.

Then I googled for "long-tailed slug"... and I apparently have nothing to worry about. Turns out to be the larvae of the harmless (and somewhat beneficial) hover-fly. Those yellow-and-black flys that seem to spend all day hovering in the shade. Huh.

And, like their very aptly and descriptively named adult form, the larval form has an equally descriptive (if totally gross) name:

Rat-tailed maggot

I am now somewhat enlightened and even have a nice new name to call despicable people.

Though...I am still totally freaked out. They -look- evil and disgusting. And I'm a fairly enlightened gardener... ugh.



I got into this because I'd discovered that a sycamore tree had sprouted in my bonsai macadamia nut tree...at least a year ago (the sycamore was that big). I just noticed it and was horrified that I'd neglected my plants so badly.

And yet... after the experience with the hoverfly larvae, I think that's enough gardening for today...

Officially Freaked Out: Long-tailed slugs

Ack! I was doing some stop-gap gardening when I discovered a mass of what looked like long-tailed slugs at the bottom of a potted tomato. They were translucent (so you could see all their guts working) and had this long (4-5cm) tail at one end. The roots at the bottom of the plant were just covered in them!

I had brought this plant from my sister's place in San Jose and I was terrified that I'd transported some horrible invasive to Los Angeles. Worse, this is some kind of South American tomato tree and I have no idea if the person who gave plants to my sister planted them from seeds or smuggled them into the US...so I was triply freaked out. That they were slimy and crawling all over my hand did not help one bit. So I scraped them off and salted them on the driveway.

Then I googled for "long-tailed slug"... and I apparently have nothing to worry about. Turns out to be the larvae of the harmless (and somewhat beneficial) hover-fly. Those yellow-and-black flys that seem to spend all day hovering in the shade. Huh.

And, like their very aptly and descriptively named adult form, the larval form has an equally descriptive (if totally gross) name:

Rat-tailed maggot

I am now somewhat enlightened and even have a nice new name to call despicable people.

Though...I am still totally freaked out. They -look- evil and disgusting. And I'm a fairly enlightened gardener... ugh.



I got into this because I'd discovered that a sycamore tree had sprouted in my bonsai macadamia nut tree...at least a year ago (the sycamore was that big). I just noticed it and was horrified that I'd neglected my plants so badly.

And yet... after the experience with the hoverfly larvae, I think that's enough gardening for today...