A reader wrote to us wondering what the “thin wiggly worms” found in his bathroom might be. Unfortunately, “thin” and “wiggly” are the only adjectives used to describe the bathroom worm, and we’re not sure what part of the world the reader wrote in from. Given these facts, we can only speculate, but in speculating, we can at least point out a couple of worms – or rather larvae – commonly found in bathrooms.
What are those small worms that appear in the thousands after it rains? The worms are about an inch long, they smell, and they prevent me from walking where I need to go, so I how do I get rid of them? This is, paraphrased, the question of a frustrated reader, wondering why rain causes an army of small worms to appear on her driveway after it rains.
A reader from Philadelphia recently wrote to us in regard to the small, red worms he is finding in his tree. The worms are only about an inch or two long, and they are thin. According to the reader, they look like earthworms, except that they are smaller and dark red. What are these worms, and if you find them in your tree, should you do anything about it?
A reader recently wrote to us inquiring about the evolution of worms. He asked several specific questions about the evolutionary history of worms, not all of which we can answer, but we can sketch a picture, even if incompletely, of the evolution of worms.
Recently, a reader wrote to us about the crickets he is raising, which as of late have been dying at a fast rate. The reader speculated that his crickets are falling victim to horsehair worms, which are parasites that belong to the phylum Nematomorpha. A horsehair worm can develop in the bodies of several insects, including grasshoppers, cockroaches, and, yes, crickets. The reader’s question was twofold: are his crickets dying from horsehair worms, and is there anything he can do to eliminate the problem to save his crickets?
A reader recently wrote to us asking how to control the inchworm infestation of their oak tree. Inchworms (commonly written as “inch worms”) are known to infest vegetation such as trees and shrubs, making them a pest for landscapers, farmers, and gardeners. First, we’ll discuss what inchworms are – answering the question “what is an inchworm?” – and then we’ll move onto the question of controlling an inchworm infestation.
A reader recently wrote to us inquiring about the possible health threat that tent caterpillars (sometimes called “tent worms” because, well, caterpillars look like worms) may present to children. The reader is worried that a child’s habit of playing with tent caterpillars (or perhaps just a single tent caterpillar) is dangerous. In this article, we’ll cover the potential dangerous of tent caterpillars, first addressing the topic with regard to humans, and then with regard to animals and plants.
Screwworm flies (a.k.a. “screw-worm flies” and “New World screwworm flies”) belong to the genus Cochliomyia. Within this genus, there are four different species, but only one of the species is a screwworm fly, which is known as Cochliomyia hominivorax. A reader recently wrote to us regarding the screwworm fly, asking how a human can rid him or herself of this parasitic worm. First, we will give a brief overview of the screwworm, explaining what it is, and then we will address the reader’s question specifically.
In a series of short, descriptive sentences, a reader recently wrote us asking if any worms eat leather. The reader was in a secondhand store and came across a leather dog leash that looked as though it had been eaten by small worms. There were tunnels in the leash, possibly caused by some worm or worm-like creature, which made it look a “bit like furniture that was attacked by woodworm.” Overall, the leash lacked the structure of leather, however this is to be conceived, which made the leash look like a “uniform grey mass.”
A reader from Tennessee recently wrote to us about an oak-tree infestation involving caterpillars or worms. The worms (or caterpillars) have been eating the leaves of the oak tree, and there are evidently so many that the reader claims to hear the creatures eating the tree. Moreover, many of the caterpillars or worms fall from the oak tree during the night, leaving a driveway covered with cylindrically-shaped, dead bodies in the morning for our poor reader to confront. There can be no question that our reader is dealing with a relatively serious worm or caterpillar infestation that is compromising the vitality of an oak tree.
The phrase “can of worms” (sometimes written as “can-o-worms,” depending on the context) can refer to a number of things. There is an idiom involving a “can of worms”, where the “can of worms,” or rather the worms within the can, are being understood as a piece of information or conversation topic that will cause problems. Hence, one often hears statements like “don’t open that can of worms,” meaning one should not bring up a certain subject – the contents of the “can of worms” – because of the problems it may bring about.