This morning after the big rain, I saw what I thought was a plant tendril around a baby sunflower. Then I realized it was moving around on its own---a thin, maybe millimetres, spaghetti-like thing that looked like a close up of a microscopic bacterium, whirling and stretching and reaching. In all my 69 years I have never seen this in a garden. It looked like a science fiction alien invader. What is it?
OK, I think I have found the answer on Google...something called Horsehair worm, which is a parasite of crickets & grasshoppers. Part of its life cycle is in water. I never want to see one again. Horsehair Worms | Entomology
Not sure to which forum to move this - it doesn't sound like you're celebrating biodiversity, so I chose Outdoor Gardening in the Pac NW. They don't really seem so bad. They don't destroy your plants, like the 4900 aphids and white flies on my small balcony.
