hello. please see pics. i found what seems to be some sort of eggs right under the top layer of my ficus soil. any idea?? i exploded one and it had liquid inside... are these eggs of some animal? or seeds? or part of the soil?

Probably large pieces of Perlite, which is a soil additive to aid in drainage but they could possibly be some type of insect eggs and I guess the only way to know for sure is to crush them. Wearing a glove, gently squish one with your fingers or gently smoosh it with a garden trowel and see what happens. Perlite will just crush into tiny styrofoam like pieces but if it's insect eggs, it will probably have a bit of a different interior.

They remind me somewhat of the eggs of the little Anole Lizards that we have here in Florida which I have at times mistaken for perlite. I sometimes find their eggs in my potted plants out on the porch and if I'm emptying or repotting a plant I always move any found eggs to another pot to give them a chance to hatch. The winter of 2008, I put one of the eggs in a terrarium and when it hatched, I named it "Lucy". My husband kept the porch light on at night and caught little moths to feed it. Once the weather warmed up, I released the little lizard outside. They are great to have around because they eat bugs like ants, roaches (even huge roaches that southerners call palmetto bugs!)

Not perlite. I crushed one, and some liquid came out...

LME79 said:Not perlite. I crushed one, and some liquid came out...

Might very well be insect eggs of some sort if they contained liquid ... or perhaps those moisture control beads that are now added to some potting soils?

Probably timed-release fertilizer pellets.

I also vote - fertilizer pellets

I have exactly the same thing, but I'm in north Florida. Because these things are in soil they could be transported to very different regions in potted plants.
I have about 20 of them in a ventilated jar - in soil, of course - and am hoping that whatever they are they'll hatch, answering the question.
They aren't like any fertilizer balls I've ever seen. They're irregular in shape - lumpy, and grayish with a matte finish that sometimes looks slightly pearlescent. When pinched they burst with a distinct crunchy feeling, and a pale brown goo comes out. Ick.
It sure looks like some stage of a living creature. What throws me off is the irregular shape. Nature usually makes things that appear more planned than these lumps.
I'll update you on what happens to my captive sample. I'd squash one and photo it but don't want to kill something gratuitously.

Hi, has anyone found an answer? I have these too. I know they are not perlite or fertilizer as they are showing up in plants that do not have these additives, like plants I have growing in moss. They have liquid inside, range from grey to white in color, do not dissolve in water, have irregular shapes and no smell, sometimes are buried in the soil and sometimes left right on top.
I wonder if this is an insect egg meant to imitate perlite in looks and function which is pretty smart. I have no other pests around my plants except thos every small flies occasionally, only tiny black ones that buzz about and none on any leaves that I can find. Would love to know if they hatched or if anyone knows more about these weird pellets!

How could an insect evolve to produce eggs that look like perlite or to imitate its function???? Insects can evolve over time to build up immunities to pesticides by rapid generational turnover building up a tolerance but to evolve that type of function is way beyond their abilities.

The irregular shape points to slow release fertilizer pellets. Who knows exactly how they got in there but they did. Slug eggs, insects eggs would be much more uniform in shape then these guys are! Plus, an insect is not going to crawl randomly around a whole area of soil laying an egg here and an egg there. They would logically be in some type of organized cluster.
If they are not a perlite type additive from the potting soil producer they might be additives from this much more recently developed moisture retention potting soil.
When we buy plants, use containers year after year, bring in more plants, these materials are often left behind. They could be easily overlooked. When you eliminate slug or snail eggs and insect eggs, you are left with either fertilizer pellets or moisture retention pellets or perlite type stuff.

Could be a spider egg.

I have found the same thing a few purchase plan over the years. It's not perlite and it's not fertilizer pellets. The ones I found look like a tiny little brain, or an engorged tick body. Some are dried and have been opened to let something out, or hatch. I think mine were some type of spider egg. The outside is kind of slimy and a little translucent. And little tiny specks come out with fluid if you squeeze it. I would love to verify if it is spider eggs. I have also found lizard eggs in the past in a plant outside here and there. Good luck ID in yours.

Lmckeever547 said: I have found the same thing a few purchase plan over the years. It's not perlite and it's not fertilizer pellets. The ones I found look like a tiny little brain, or an engorged tick body. Some are dried and have been opened to let something out, or hatch. I think mine were some type of spider egg. The outside is kind of slimy and a little translucent. And little tiny specks come out with fluid if you squeeze it. I would love to verify if it is spider eggs. I have also found lizard eggs in the past in a plant outside here and there. Good luck ID in yours.

FYI
This thread originated in 2018, another person revived it with their photos in 2020.