Little green worms

[Rue]

They look an awful lot like this:
https://www.ent.iastate.edu/soybeaninsects/node/352
So they may be very closely related, which is the larvae of some vegetation-eating insect. They are not parasites coming out of your tortoise.

Those are fly maggots. They live in the soil. They don't really walk around like caterpillars do.

 

[Schatzi011]

Yes, that was my point.
I didn't think the photo looked like caterpillars because they were so tiny. Instead, the look like some kind of fly larvae from a soil or vegetation dwelling insect.

 

[Sara G.]

The green caterpillars I'm finding in my yard are absurdly tiny.

 

[Schatzi011]

I didn't think caterpillars could be so small, but it appears that they can be as little as 1mm!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar

 

[Sara G.]

Yep! We call them inchworms because they're so tiny.

 

[Rue]

I didn't think caterpillars could be so small, but it appears that they can be as little as 1mm!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar

Caterpillars are just the 'babies' of moths and butterflies. There are many different species of many different sizes. Regardless...they hatch from an egg and go through a series of moults - where they pop out of their old exoskeleton (which doesn't grow) and emerge in a new bigger one. Each of those stages is called an instar. Each instar is significantly bigger than the one before. So you can't just go by size either.

 

[Rue]

Yep! We call them inchworms because they're so tiny.

Inchworms are a 'nickname' for the caterpillars of Geometrid moths. They look like they are taking a 'measured step' when they move.

 

[Speedy-1]

Here is an inch worm !

 

[Rue]

Cute one!

 

[BrianWI]

Can't tell from pic. Do they have legs?