“Can you please help me identify this worm?” writes Lorra from Oklahoma about the black and gray creature pictured below. “It was very sticky, and fanned out along the bottom until I tried to pick it up, at which point it rolled and stuck together. Thank you.” We must say that we do not recognize this organism off the bat: it has a strange, wavy shape, and the markings on the body are not familiar to us. In fact, when we look at some of the photos, we see that parts of the organism look paper thin, particularly the “fanned out” parts that Lorra mentions. She continues to say that when she picked it up, those parts “rolled and stuck together”, which makes us think this might not be an organism at all.

To us, this looks like a shed skin, either that of a snake, or some worm-like organism. The first thing we thought of was the brahminy blind snake: a tiny species of snake which lives underground and eats small insects. The brahminy blind snake is often mistaken for a worm, given its small size and tiny facial features. In fact, its eyes kind of look like they were drawn on with a Sharpie. With that in mind, as far as our sleuthing could tell us, brahminy blind snake skins are typically a transparent white, nor a transparent black like the skin in Lorra’s photo, but given the range of colors that brahminy blind snakes come in, we are not ruling out this possibility.

Alterntivately, it could be a caterpillar skin. All caterpillars shed their skin as they molt through different stages, much like snakes do. What caterpillar would have shed this skin we cannot say. What we will say is that Lorra should not touch the skin with her bare skin. Caterpillar skins can contain toxins which can irritate the skin, causing itching and/or rashes. Likewise, snake skins can often contain salmonella and other harmful bacteria. We recommend that Lorra brush the skin onto a dustpan and toss it out, or that she grab it with a twig or something else long.

In conclusion, we do not think this is a worm or worm-like creature, but rather the remnants of one, specifically the skin of one. It is possible that it is the skin of a brahminy blind snake or caterpillar. We hope this helps, and we wish Lorra the very best!

• 
•