I pulled out a cutting, today, that had rooted but had not thrived, and faded away. That is nothing new. What is new is the small grubs I saw that nearly covered the rotting areas. (there were less by the time I got the camera to take this photo).

They actually look like small termites. I assume they are fungus gnat gnat larvae. I had never seen these before, when removing a failed cutting.

Drat!

Ew! now what?

Going to have to look for some answers.

This plant has been outside for 6-8 weeks, so not sure it was a result of greenhouse conditions, but have lost very few plants after moving them out of the greenhouse. This would be very much the exception.

Jon, I don't think they are fungus gnat larvae as they have legs. The larvae are just small worm like but then again they could be transitioning from larvae to adult. I've also noticed some other small whitish crawling bugs on some cuttings but they are too small to see even when magnified.

Here is a picture of larvae that I took off of a failing cutting. They were only half of what was on the cutting in an area about 1 inch long.


"gene"

one of my cutting had gnat larvae.. or some other worm type thing. never had it before. i have seen rotting cuttings before, but never saw infection by larvae/bug before. i think mine came from small dish of water that i keep in the study for my CP. since i keep a small dish with rocks to rest my sundew on it, i have been getting few gnats in the room and they are feeding my CP. more than likely some gnat flew into my house, found nice breeding space in the small dish of water where some of the peat and what not fell into and started making nice place for themselves. by doing so, it's feeding my CP.. at the same time, so of them are moving into my cutting humidity bin while i'm airing the cutting and started breading in one of the cup.

maybe yours was infection by chance like mine. and yours look more like termite like you said.

Jon the legs threw me off as well... looks a bit fishy for maybe his walking cousin?

Edit: Ah but good point Gene, could just be growing up.

I had a cutting that rotted after I potted it up with similar looking bugs. I had assumed they were some stage of rolly-pollies that had come in from the compost (which is crawling with adults). Just a guess though.

Yep, I've lost a ton of cuttings, indoors and outdoors, to these little bugs. I just assumed that they were part of the fungus gnat cycle. Regardless of ID, I've had cuttings that are potted up and showing early vegetative growth suddenly die. It appears that they eat the pith (no that is not a lisp) out of the cuttings from the bottom up. After the bugs cut off the flow of nutrients to the new roots, they die and the bark peels off. Rot ensues.

Jon,

I'm not sure what they are but I can try to find out, still friends with my old entomology professor.  I will send him the picture.  I will tell you it is definitely not a fungus gnat though.  They go straight from legless worm like Gene posted to a non moving pupae to adult, no intermediate crawling stage that I know of.  Though it was my first class of the day and frankly half the time I was not quite awake lol.   

Those little guys are called soil lice. They are actually good to have in the soil. They eat decaying matter so if your seeing them on or eating your cuttings its because they are decaying. They don't harm plants unless the plant is already at a stage of decay or dying.

Innnnteresting!

Then I guess they are there after the gnat larvae do their damage. Even BT applications did not eradicate all of my gnats this season.

Rotting is caused by fungal and bacterial decay... not by fungus gnats. Its a chicken and egg scenario.
Fungus gnats are visible in soil as little worms with black heads. They are actually good guys, eating the bad anaerobic stuff, but their parents are annoying. The problem or cause is usually too much moisture.

To clarify, what I meant was that the gnats damaged the cutting, weakening it, so that excess moisture and bacteria could penetrate, and eventually allowing rot to set in. Then, the lice show up as the table is set. Sound better?

Yeah, what John said. LOL...

John, do you think mosquito dunk will solve this problem?

Considering all of the insects I inhaled last winter, not totally. :)

Dennis, Bt is considered one of the safest pesticides to use because it only targets specific families of insects. The strain of Bt that is in the dunks and Gnatrol only affects mosquitos, fungus gnats and black flys. The larvae eat the bacteria and cannot develop into adults as a result. So it is unlikely that it would help with these bugs.

Thanx for the ID and info.