Aloe barbadensis (vera) - tiny white worms

I have had an Aloe plant I purchased at a Lowes some time ago sitting in it's original container. I decided to transplant it today. The soil it was in has been quite wet, though I don't water it very frequently (someone else may have). When I removed the plant from it's small container I found rotten roots, and some kind of small and very thin worm-looking creature. Quite certain these are not fungus gnat or fly larva, they are too thin and have no visible head. They almost looked like root hairs themselves, but they squiggle and move around.

Not certain if they are some kind of root-feeding nematode or other pest. I did transplant anyways, although I didn't remove all of the existing soil (probably should have). The soil I put them in has predator mites and I am hoping they'd eat them anyways, but if anyone can point me in the direction of an identification I would appreciate it.

sorry i cant help you as i have no exp in this field at all, i love aloe plants though.

i would love some pics if possible please, how big is the plant you bought? it is a very useful plant and has great medicinal properties, i wonder how you clone it??????

I have 4 of them, i got them for free as the owners before over watered and they had root rot so i got them and brought them to good health as of now. i water them like a cactus i let it get almost bone dry then water it. they store alot of water in theri leaves so if the soil is dry it doesn't mean the plant needs water. i dont know the bug you have but you should have cleand off close to all the old soil and snipped off any rotten roots and then placed in new soil.

i can't id the larvae for you. i can say with almost 100% certainty that if you let the soil dry out for a few weeks or mb longer, the aloe plant will survive and the larvae most definetly will not.

dannyboy602 said:

i can't id the larvae for you. i can say with almost 100% certainty that if you let the soil dry out for a few weeks or mb longer, the aloe plant will survive and the larvae most definetly will not.

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Good advice.

You could also try watering with neem seed oil mixed with soapy water before letting it dry out.(soap, NOT detergent)

i would "assume" that maggots could be possible if it was super wet...

but once the soil turns into a desert the things will dry up. they're made almost entirely of water.

...the larvae that is, not the plant. but yeah aloe too is mostly water but it stores way more than the larvae is made up of...IDK now i'm getting a brain fart. i hope ya know what i mean.

Yeah, I kind of figured once it became dry enough those bastard little nematodes or worms or whatever the hell they are would succumb to dehydration. Still interested in whether my mites would go after them; although word is the mites don't tend to like it very dry either. I didn't water after transplanting and last I checked yesterday my good mites were still crawling around. They have survived through dry conditions before, and soil recycling, so this will be another test for them.