“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 tell me if Green Tomato worms can be found around Oklahoma?” asks this reader in her submission. She does not attach any photos, though she notes that she lives in Washington County. “I would like to know if they do, so when I start my garden I can be prepared for them.” First off, we assume that by ‘green tomato worm’, our reader is referring to the tomato hornworm. If that is the case, it might be ample to provide some context. The tomato hornworm is a moth caterpillar which is indeed green in color, and which does feed on tomatoes, among other plants.

We get many questions from worried readers who have seen caterpillars on trees or plants. For the most part, these creatures aren’t causing any real harm and can be left alone. However, some species can be quite destructive and should be removed for the health of the plant.

We received a rather brief inquiry from a reader, with no accompanying picture. The question is: “How do you get…

A woman sent us the photograph below of a handsome green critter she found in her garden, with the simple request that we identify it. Luckily, it’s a great photograph, and gives us some great clues about its identity. We can see several distinct characteristics to help us identify the species. The way the critter is segmented is helpful, as are the black spots on its body. But the most telling traits are the horn seen at the top of the picture and the stripes on the side of its body.

We received a disturbing story from a reader who was eating a fried potato in Peru when she discovered a weird bulge that turned out to be a worm. She described it as white or gray with lines on it (perhaps she meant that it was segmented). She also mentioned that it appeared too big to be a wireworm or tuberworm. She is curious what this creature was and mentioned she thought she might have eaten one.

A while ago a reader contacted us about her tomato plants. We are sorry for the delay, but hope our response will be helpful to her and other vegetable gardeners out there.

Silk worms are often confused for worms, but they are not a member of the worm family at all. Instead, they are caterpillars that create a cocoon to complete the transformation process from caterpillar to butterfly.

Tomato worms are one of nature’s two most popular types of hornworms. The other is the tobacco worm. The scientific…