I recently had a new 270 gallon formed pond installed in my Pond garden, along with a pallet of bags of cocoa bean crushed mulch from a candy factory in Chicago. After the new pond installation & laying of the cocoa much ( a few days later) we drained the pond to clean the dirt from the install. During the draining, as I was emptying the shop vac, I discovered thousands of itty bitty white worms that jumped after dumping onto the ground. We scrubbed the pond then refilled it with water. The next day I noticed a layer of white stuff on the shelfs of the pond. I took a net & scooped dead teeny tiny white worm like things out. Now the entire shelf is lined with these dead, icky things. I've not noticed any on the mulch, just in the pond & in a huge ground bird bath I have. It's not in any of my other pedestal birdbaths. My question is....Will these things die off during the Winter months in northern Illinois? They are so disgusting. Thank you

Hello Deborah, I do not know what these worms you describe are. If they were very tiny, it could be mosquito larvae. It might have been some other type of larva that was living inside of the mulch. In general, white worm-like organisms are likely to be immature (larval) stages of an insect or other invertebrate. In most cases, they will continue their life cycle and pupate into the adult form. Beetles, flies, and mosquitoes all have larvae that look like white worms as do many moths. Some are naturally aquatic, like mosquitoes and others live in the soil. Again, I cannot say what the ones you saw were, but hopefully this background information will help clarify the situation. You could try to collect a few samples and bring it to your local Extension office to see if they can help you get it identified.