Follow-up on damage to my lotus plant

[greatbarrierreef]

Yesterday I made a post about damage that my lotus' leaves were experiencing. Here is the link to that: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/what-is-going-on-with-my-dwarf-lotus-plant.27415/

I pruned two leaves that were close to dead and when I looked under one of the leaves I see some kind of insect larvae squirming around. Hopefully you can make them out in the pictures. I checked underneath all of the leaves and most of them appear to have them. Any ideas of what kind of larvae this is and how I can go about getting rid of them without harming the lotus plant?

 

[AlyssaFish]

I do not know what they are, but they look big enough that you could pluck them off. That's usually the solution for large plant parasites. Or even small ones. *shakes fists at aphids*

 

[mrsclem]

Be very careful about pruning lotus leaves! The stems are hollow and if water gets in , the root will rot.

 

[greatbarrierreef]

Be very careful about pruning lotus leaves! The stems are hollow and if water gets in , the root will rot.

The stem of one of the leaves I pruned (I pruned 3) wasn't long enough to comfortably stick out of the water. I tried to prop it up against a leaf but it always managed to fall back into the water. Since then the stem has rotted and detached, so I disposed of it. Should I be concerned for the entire lotus?

 

[mrsclem]

I would just keep an eye on it. It's possible that the tuber will rot now but you may get lucky and it survives.

 

[Lin]

Yucky insects. Nope, they are not aphids. I bet my Koi would think those wormy looking insect larvae quite delicious.