Well something is - it wasn't particularly wet this June like the last two (which would cause rot), but many of my plants are stunted, and coming up late. Some did not come up at all, so I dug them up. Many were just empty husks, but others were filled with wet gelatinous goo, and these creepy little worms. Are the worms the cause? Or the cleanup crew after the tubers got some biological pest? What are they? The only thing I could come up with similar is cabbage maggots, but they are not supposed to be active in blazing hot weather like now.
What are these worms - are they destroying my dahlia tubers?
I strongly suspect that these maggots (there appear to be at least two different kinds) are secondary invaders of decomposing tissues rather than being primary pests in their own right. I am unaware of any fly species whose larvae attack healthy dahlia tubers.
I suspect you are right, though I read cabbage maggots eggs will get laid at the stem base and head down for food. But some plants had not gotten above ground and still they were attacked. Most have almost no roots, so I suspect wireworms are roving around and eating roots and puncturing tubers. Either that, or worse, I have something like verticulum wilt in the soil.
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