Is there any benefit to destroying all the spore and gestation pods?

While playing the mission Attican Traverse: The Rachni, there are a lot of gestation pods in the tunnels that are relatively easy to burn with the flamethrower the krogan soldiers drop. Is there any benefit to doing this as opposed to just walking by them?

Solution 1:

Spore pods explode when you get near them, and do considerable damage.

Gestation pods release a little swarmer if you get near them, which isn't really dangerous in and of itself, but they can keep your shields from recharging.

Since you really don't get anything per-kill in this game (except for achievements), you might be tempted ignore both types unless you're going to be getting close to them for some reason. (Either pickups behind them, or they block the way forward)

However, I'd suggest ending all of them - but you may wish to conserve flamethrower ammo and use your powers instead. I find shockwave does a decent job against the pods and the webbing that blocks your path in areas.

Also note that even if you manage to snake your way through a whole group of them, your AI squadmates will still bumble into them on their own, which means damage and tiny bugs regardless.

Solution 2:

I forget at the moment if the gestation pods and the spore pods were similar in this regard, but a few spore pods exploded shield-reducing juice on me as I passed by. For that reason alone, they should all be burnt to a toasty crisp.

But more seriously, other than getting them out of your way, there's nothing in particular to gain from destroying each and every one of them beyond potentially getting the jump on the thermal-clip wasting bugs that come from the gestation pods.

There are, however, some interesting things hidden behind the pod groups and webbing along the way, so you might want to give each large group a good burst from the flame thrower, for good measure if you're interested in that stuff.