Denis, I can't get into your photos. There are dozens of possibilities for the ID of the worms. The only way you could have avoided their presence would have been to sterilize the soil. A microwave does the job nicely. Of course the moment the soil was exposed to air and water, it could have been contaminated again.

If your lotus looks healthy, I wouldn't worry about them. They may be doing good things for your lotus.

My Lotuses are yes, very healthy, but they don't want to show their leaves. I don't know why.. But maybe from here you can see the pictures: http://tammelill.blogspot.com/2011/04/oudsed-ussid-scary-worms.html When you can see them with your own eyes, then you'll think that how scary they'll be :D

Denis

Bingo! What you have are commonly called Horsehair Worms. The story is they got that name because they were often found around horse troughs. Superstitious people thought a hair could morph magically into a worm. Wiki has a good explanation of the rather interesting life cycle. They are parasites on insects and are not harmful to mammals or your plants.

I agree they are gross looking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Horsehair worms

Thanks!

I have sent an email to our zoo, too (Tallinn Zoo - in Estonia), and there is coming another email. I hope that my worms are one of them.

Denis

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Here are my scary worms then. I am going to delete the pictures in my blog because I don't want to scare people away from my blog.

Denis