[ulsterfairy]

Hello all, another potato question!
As well as having eelworm I have found some wot I believe are symphalids feeding from a few dead potato plants. I'm assuming they are there as the plant already dead?! I only saw them because I  was having anose at the roots. I also found a hole in the stem about 2 mm diameter and I  also found these thread worm things on the roots (which freaked me out a bit) any ideas wot they might be? Is it something else I have to try to manage?   

Please and thanks for any advise or help

[Salmo]

Symphalids usually feed on dead material and help to break it down. Occasionally in times of drought they will feed on roots of seedlings and if they are in large numbers may kill plants.

No idea what the hole is. Could be wireworm or slug.

Thread worms could be small earthworms. There are some harmless nematodes that are visible to the naked eye. Look at them with a hand lens. Do they have legs or a definate head?

[ulsterfairy]

Hi ya salmo

They were greyish in colour I saw a slightly larger but still thready 1 it seemed to have a def head and possibly legs but I couldnt tell for sure. I couldn't see any on the healthy (ish) plants. The smaller 1s I couldn't see anything.

I found out that a neighbour let's his dog loose on the plots so paniced about thread worms but my dad thought they would die outside of the host. We will be fencing our plot of esp as we have little 1 to keep in :-)