“Is this an elephant hawk moth caterpillar?” asks Julia in her submission regarding the gray-green creature pictured below; it has a pattern of dots and circles on its back, as well as two big eye spots on its head. “I live in southwest Florida, right on the water. My daughter and I found this guy outside on the hot pavement, in quite a hurry. So we picked him up and placed him in the shade under a tree. I have looked and looked and can’t find any sightings of them anywhere near South FL. But he sure did have an elephant snout and the same markings. Is this guy really lost, or am I misidentifying? PS. Thanks for all you do! I’ve submitted questions several times. Even when you couldn’t directly help, your suggestions did.”

“Is this a case-bearing clothes moth?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the silver moth pictured below. “I’m in Georgia. Thank you for your time.” Now, while we are in the business of identifying the worm-like offspring of insects, we are not the best people to ask about adult insects, so we will have to warn our reader that the information and advice we provide may not be the most credible she could find. With that said, we will do our best to identify this organism and help her. With that said, our opinion is that she has already done the bulk of the work for us, because this does indeed look like a case-bearing clothes moth.

“What is this guy?” is all Brooke asks in her submission regarding the black, worm-like creature pictured below. It has an arched back and bulbous head, which tells us that this is an inchworm. Usually it is much harder to identify organisms without more context, or without a clearer photo, but the shape of this creature is so specific to inchworms that we knew it had to be one. Inchworms have legs at the front and back of their body, which forces them to curve their back in this way as they ‘inch’ their way forward.

“What are these things?” asks Mary in her submission regarding the swarm of tiny, worm-like creatures pictured below. “They look a little different from the others I’ve seen on your site. First I found a bunch on a spot on my ceiling yesterday. Now today I found a bunch on a windowsill in the room beside where I found the ones on the ceiling in the hallway. Thank you.” Mary sent a bunch of photos, as well as a video, but we have included the photo which we think shows the organisms most clearly, though they are still quite hard to see, as the photo is taken quite far away and the resolution is not the best. Luckily, the video does show the critters up close.

“Can you please identify this moth type?” asks Shanan in her submission regarding the white moth with delicate, feathery wings pictured below. “I’m in South Georgia. I found this moth in my bedroom dresser. Thank you for your time.” Typically, we do not identify full-grown insects, but rather their offspring: larvae. That is simply because the nature of our website is to identify worms and worm-like organisms, which larvae are included in. With that said, we will still give this a crack, though Shanan should keep in mind that this identification may not be 100% accurate given that this is not our area of expertise.

“I found these small, white worms in my horse’s water bucket in the barn”, writes Jennifer about the organisms pictured below. “I have seen them hanging from a thin thread they weave in his stall before. I am trying to identify them to make sure they aren’t toxic to him if he did ingest them. Thank you in advance.” First things first, we have to make clear that, given Jennifer’s concern for her horse’s health, any suggestions we make as to the identity of these worms should only be considered in light of these organisms being deemed non-threatening to the horse by a veterinarian. Since we are not medical professionals, we are neither qualified nor legally able to identify parasites or other organisms that directly impact the health of humans or pets, as doing so is tantamount to diagnosing their medical issue. So, we recommend that Jennifer asks a vet to check her horse and inspect the worms to see if they are a threat.

“What are these?” asks Erin in her submission regarding the black, worm-like critter pictured below. “I found about five in my house.” She does not include any more context, and the photo is unfortunately of a low resolution, meaning the details get blurry when you try to zoom in on the little guy. For that reason, we will only be able to provide an educated guess as to what this is, rather than an accurate and confident identification. In any case, we think this is a larva of some kind, possibly a beetle larva.

“What is this?” is all Kelly Jo writes about the segmented, white worm-like critters pictured below. It looks to us like the creatures are on a bed post, but that is mere speculation based on the little we can make out from the photo. Without more context, it will not be possible for us to give an exact identification, because the physical characteristics of this creature are so commonplace among worm-like creatures that it could be any number of things. With that said, we do think it is some type of insect larva (given the brown head and segmented body), and we will list some of the most likely creatures it could be, provided Kelly Jo found the creature in her home.

“These teeny tiny worm-type things have suddenly appeared in our baby’s cot!” writes Kristin in her submission regarding the segmented creature with the bulbous head pictured below. “They look like bits of dirt initially, but when we looked closer they are moving! Could they be inchworms? And is this common in a babies cot? Thank you.” Based on the great photo Kristin sent in, as well as her keen eye for caterpillars, we can confirm that this is indeed an inchworm. Firstly, and most importantly, inchworms are not harmful to babies, or to grown adults for that matter. They are caterpillars of moth species which are endemic to North America, and they are characterized by the placement of their legs (at the front and back) which makes them arch their back as they walk.

“Can you please help identify this worm?” asks this reader in their submission regarding the white and yellow-striped worm-like critter pictured below. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.” Well first off, we want to say thank you to our reader for sending in this great photo! To us, this looks like a caterpillar of some kind, though we are not entirely sure what species of caterpillar it is. It could also be a sawfly larva, which are often mistaken for caterpillars. What we will say is that we recommend that our reader avoid direct physical contact with the creatures, since we do not know what they are. Allergic reactions can occur with unknown species. We do not think it is highly likely with this caterpillar, as typically poisonous caterpillars possess bristles, but that is not always a given.

“We live in the east San Francisco Bay Area and while on a walk, my daughter and I caught sight of these little guys crawling in a gutter area with about 1-2”of runoff water in front of our neighborhood houses”, writes Chrissy in her submission regarding the segmented, brown, worm-like critter pictured below. “There are trees above a few spots, and upstream, no trees. They are about an inch in length and seemed to resemble caterpillars, but we’re a bit flatter. They’d walk around underwater and when resting, typically had one end up floating at the surface of the water. I’m attaching two photos as we are curious about what they are! We’re hoping they’re not leeches. Thanks so much!” Of the two photos, we included the clearest one, but unfortunately, it is still difficult to discern the smaller details of the critter’s physical characteristics from this photo. Not only is the resolution not the best, but it blends in so well with the environment that it is difficult to tell which parts belong to the worm and which parts do not.

“Can you help me identify what type of caterpillar this is?” asks Suzanne in her submission regarding the caterpillar pictured below. “I live in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And it was resting in a cottonwood tree. It measured about five inches long. Thank you!” Firstly, we have to compliment Suzanne on the gorgeous photo. The lighting, colors and detail are just incredible, and are very helpful to us in identifying this creature. Suzanne is absolutely right in identifying this as a caterpillar. Specifically, it is an ilia underwing moth caterpillar. Underwing moths are a genus of moth that is characterized by their colorful under wings which contrast the otherwise neutral or bland colors on their top wings.

“I found this guy in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, Canada. What can I feed him?” writes this reader about the stick-like worm pictured below. At first, we did not see what our reader was referring to. We thought it was just one long branch. But then we noticed that the twig-like object on the right did not exactly match the rest of the branch, and does look like a separate entity. We think this is a stick caterpillar, which is a larva of the peppered moth. They are not the same things as stick insects, which are not worms or larvae of any kind, but a completely different species.

“Found these little guys on the floor of my home office”, writes Elle in her submission regarding the minuscule, black, worm-like organisms pictured below. “Seemed to be all clustered together in one spot. Not able to find/see any anywhere else within the home. I suspect moth larvae after spending hours on google, but really not sure. Any ideas please? Many thanks.” To start with, we want to commend Elle on the excellent photos she sent in. The first one below captures (in incredible detail) one of the tiny critters. It is hard to photograph creatures this small in this much detail! The second photo shows just how many of the things she found in her office. Elle is completely right in suspecting these as moth larvae, cause that is exactly what they are. To be precise, she found inchworms.

“I live in southern Ontario and I noticed these little guys roaming around my apartment (see picture)”, writes Rachel in her submission regarding the tiny, black, worm-like creature pictured below. “Just wondering if I should be concerned. They seem to just crawl on my floor, the side of my mattress, and on my clothes. I’ve washed everything and swept and mopped the floors, but it’s tough to get them all. I’m just hoping they don’t turn into moths in a couple of weeks if I missed one. I’m pretty clean to begin with (as I live in a small studio) so I’m really puzzled where they came from. Thanks!”

“Found this worm on my trouser, where it looked like it matched the grey color and then it took over my pencil”, writes Abhinav in his submission regarding the curved, green, little critter pictured below. “As soon as it sensed danger, it left a green color liquid and died.” Firstly, we want to thank Abhinav for the great photo; he managed to capture an incredibly tiny creature in such great detail. Secondly, we want to point to our previous description of this worm as “curved”, which is actually a very important characteristic. It is because of the arch of this creature’s body that we immediately identified it as an inchworm.

“I found these (see attached video) underneath a paving slab, which was in the middle of a small 2m x 2m bed”, writes Sarah in her submission regarding the bright green worms pictured below. “I don’t think they are caterpillars. There was a big mass of them. Are they harmful? If so, could you suggest some options for dealing with them? I live in Cardiff, UK. Many thanks.” To start with, we have to point out that the video Sarah sent us (from which the screenshot below is taken) is really blurry, which makes it near impossible to make out any identifying information about the organisms other than their general shape and coloration. For that reason, we have to warn her that any suggestions we make as to their identity is not going to be 100% certain or accurate.

At AllAboutWorms.com, we get a lot of submissions about worms and worm-like creatures. This article will briefly outline some of the creatures that belong to the latter group. When we think of worms, we often think of an earthworm. But typically, when we find any elongated creature in the wild that remotely resembles a worm, we also assume it is one. Now, one might argue that one should not get hung up on details, but it also isn’t just a case of semantics. Knowing the difference between various species will determine how you react to a given animal, and will equip you with the knowledge of how to deal with them: are they likely to infest your home? Is your health and safety at risk? Of course, even within the category of animals that are strictly worms, you can ask these same questions, as there are thousands of worm species. But the point of this article is to identify the most common critters which are mistaken as worms, so as to educate people, but also just for fun.

“What kind of worm is this?” asks Harriet in her submission regarding the black creature pictured below. “I found them on my patio after watering and I have a picture.” We think the worm Harriet found is not a worm at all, but a cutworm, albeit a very young one at that (given the size). Cutworms are caterpillars of the cutworm moth. They are notorious agricultural pests, as they come in large droves and kill plants. The way they do this is by munching through the stems of the plants, thereby cutting them down (hence the name). If their populations are big enough, they can even eliminate entire fields of crops.