Frillylily said:https://www.google.com/search?q=millet&biw=1680&bih=935&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=k5xmVaj6D8nusAWmuYPgAg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=1#imgrc=_

Does anyone in the area feed birds? Someone suggested millet. That is real tiny like that, but I don't know about the hard part. It sure does look like the pics though ?

Well, I've planted grown and even munched on millet in the field, I was dead ready to shoot that one down without a second thought, it's not millet, but I did see the pic that must have got your attention, boy it really does look close, but no go...

sooby said:Have any plants died or got sick near where they are found? I'm not sure if they'd have a hole in one side but I'm wondering about fungal sclerotia. Check out southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii) for an example in Google images.

Alternatively could they be spent fertilizer prills?

I had thought of fungus, my searches didn't yield much, your suggested fungi does produce little balls that do look similar, I can't find any info on the texture of that specific sclerotia.
I was just playing with a few different sclerotia that grow on a log in my yard.
Most all the sclerotia I've seen range from dry, dusty, and crusty or soft, moist and flexible.
Seems the outside layer is for protection, with the insides contain the body or food of the fungus.

I really can't say that these aren't some type of sclerotia, but I highly doubt it!
Nothing about these things really make me think fungus, but I'm not ruling it out...
The bed these specific "things" came from is actually one of my best beds, every thing I put there seems to do well, but I grow a lot of very large annuals, lots of organic matter gets left to decay there.

I knew time release fertilizer would eventually be suggested... All the bing/google searches that I try, lead to lots of results from people finding old ozmocote beads in their soil, that haven't broken down yet, these are defiantly not that!
I've been popping them for a few decades now...I love how they work!

My impression is that these are slow release fertiliser beads, maybe not Ozmocote but there are others. In the past I have come across tough beads in the compost of bought plants.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Ok I'm just need all your addresses, I'll just let you all check em out!

I really do wish we could pass them around...
Again, I must admit, that pic looks close, looks like I took it too with the dime and coffee filter lol, but if they are something fertilizer related, it's nothing I've ever seen, or used, I been here 5 years now, these don't seem that old if that makes sense.
I'll check that pic and the page it came from on a bigger screen this evening, thanks!
I'm in a rush I'll jabber more later...

This is only driving me that much more crazy now that I have so many detectives on the case

Here's more pics from beside and a few u see the edge of a big rock, and some other that were just on top of the soil a few feet away, it's a good 40 meters from where I gathered the others, I'm fairly certain there's never been a flower bed near this area, but I've planted near it and hauled som dirt into the area...

If it's not droppings from the aliens

You don't have any big snails around?

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

These remind me of the hardy hibiscus seeds I had that were eaten by weevils. I collected the seeds and when I went to clean them found weevils crawling out of most of them, and each seed was tiny, round, and with a hole it it where the weevil had been.

But the fact that you are finding so very many of them sort of everywhere is quite mysterious!

kylaluaz said:These remind me of the hardy hibiscus seeds I had that were eaten by weevils. I collected the seeds and when I went to clean them found weevils crawling out of most of them, and each seed was tiny, round, and with a hole it it where the weevil had been.

But the fact that you are finding so very many of them sort of everywhere is quite mysterious!

still I assured that they are aliens

bamira said:If it's not droppings from the aliens

I think this might be the answer!

JRsbugs said:You don't have any big snails around?

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Snail eggs are too fragile. They pop with the slightest touch...

I just weeded another different bed, it's kind of half way between the spots these other pics were taken, I found gobs of them, thousands!
Some are perfectly clean looking, the inside of the hole looks pristine, no signs of dirt ever being in them... These must be bug related...






I wasn't able to get a pic to turn out of it, but I found some that were wedged at the base of some stools of grass, they were several inches about ground level...
I dug down and found nothing related to them, except the very top layer or soil.
I did find one thing that I hadn't seen, this was 2 of the little balls stuck together, with the holes facing each other, they fit together rather well, but the moment I disturbed them them fell apart, no idea if that was a fluke or maybe they all start out fused together...

Thanks again detectives!

def not snail eggs-those are soft.

So far I am putting my money on the aliens

If there are thousands of these around, then you would have to have lots of that kind of insect if it is eggs? So that doesn't make sense. I am more inclined to think a fungus of some sort.

Wow, with that many, it's got to be fungi of some sort!! How about birds nest fungi? Maybe they've all fallen out of the nest.

http://www.bing.com/images/sea...

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcolle...

I mentioned BIG snails because there are BIG ones, the Giant East African Snail grows to 8 inches! The eggs are 4.5 to 5.5mm so they could be tough. They are in Florida, not sure about elsewhere. They can lay up to 500 eggs. I doubt these are snail eggs, look closely and they have a curved bottom.

http://www.infonet-biovision.o...

http://www.kentucky.com/2015/0...

I cropped off part of one of the last pics and enlarged it, there appears to be a grub shape to the left of middle near the top. A couple of the 'things' appear to be embedded in the ground. There are some hard fungi which grow on wood, do I detect some charcoal on the ground? Is the hole due to these being dislodged from where they have been attached? There's one and a half seed pods in the crop but I doubt they belong to those, or do they? Could there be tiny grubs eating the middles out of seeds?

Crop from this image:


Am I seeing those grubs/bugs/larva in at least two of these?