A reader just asked to identify a creature that she found on her toilet seat. She is a little up in arms about it because she has two young children and hopes it isn’t harmful. The photo shows a very tiny brown worm-like organism. It has the same proportions as a tic tac, but is a bit smaller, and it looks like it might have antenna, but we cannot tell for certain. What could this be?

We just got sent a video of a 3 inch long, red creature wiggling around in the water of a toilet bowl. The sender wants to know if this is an earthworm or a parasitic worm. She knows it doesn’t resemble a pinworm or tapeworm (which are parasitic) and notes that it was discovered in a clean toilet, not after a bowel movement.

A reader from Texas wrote to us recently about some “hairlike worms” he is finding on the sidewalk after it rains. The hairlike worms (or hair-like worms – both are correct) are six inches to nine inches in length, which is long given their incredibly thin bodies. The reader wants to know what the hairlike worms are, and we are virtually certain we know the answer: horsehair worms. We suppose we could stop here, having unraveled the hairlike worm mystery, but below we’ll provide some information about and pictures of horsehair worms to round out the article.

We received a very short question a while back about worms that smell bad and shed their skin. More precisely, we were asked “what kind of earthworm sheds its tail and sprays a strong smell in defense?” So, the reader is wondering about earthworms specifically (or technically the tail of earthworms) that produce some sort of odor in self-defense. Regardless of our reader’s interests, though, we suspect he is misusing the word “earthworm.” For reasons we will spell out below, he seems to be describing a millipede, or potentially some type of caterpillar, both of which molt (shed) and can smell bad.

If you’re interested in downloading songs by Arrogant Worms, you’re in luck. Amazon.com offers several dozen Arrogant Worm songs for around $.99 each. You can also buy Arrogant Worm CD’s at Amazon.com or you can purchase them from Maplemusic.com.

Centipedes have flattened bodies and a pair of long, slender antennae. They also have a pair of claws just behind the head. Millipedes and centipedes have segmented bodies, but millipedes have short antennae.

A reader recently sent a picture to us of two worm-like creatures that she found in her carpet in her home. Because of the two pairs of legs per body segment, it is very possible that these creatures are millipedes.

We recently received a couple of great photos of a brown caterpillar (or rather a brownish, tan caterpillar) from a reader. The reader correctly assumed he had found a caterpillar (as opposed to a worm, which is what many people who find caterpillars assume them to be), and he was wondering what kind of caterpillar he might have found. It has dark stripes on its body and what appear to be large eyes. We can’t be sure how big it is because there is no scale in the picture other than a leaf (which we also don’t know the size of), but we would guess it’s around an inch or so in length (most caterpillars are around this size). So, what is this brown, striped caterpillar?

According to the Cornell Waste Management Institute of the famed Cornell University, worms do not bite. In fact, in nature wax worms do not feed on anything but pollen, honey, cocoons, and beeswax. Wax worm breeders have no problems feeding their inventory of wax worms without the help of pollen and cocoons. These squirmy little creatures can also survive off of an artificial diet of a mixture of dog food, water, and honey or a mixture of Gerber’s mixed cereal, glycerin, honey, and water.

Worms prefer complete darkness because the light affects them in the worst way. Light does not kill worms, but if worms spend too much time in the light (typically one hour), they become paralyzed.

A concerned son recently wrote to us about some worms his mother found on her kitchen ceiling. His mother vacuumed them off, but they reappeared. He said that when he tried to knock them off, the worms appeared to be hanging by a piece of web. He described the worms as being light colored and less than half an inch in length. He is hopeful that we can identify these pests and advise him on how to get rid of them in order to give his mother peace of mind.

One of our readers sent us a picture of a worm-like creature that she found in her kitchen. She said that she found it on the lid of the trash can. She said the trash can was closed, so she assumed that it came from the kitchen counter or sink which are located relatively close to the trash can. She did mention that she has pets, so she wanted to make sure that they were safe from it. She first thought it to be a waxworm, but she said it was much longer, had stripes, and a red head. After looking at the picture, there is a possibility that it could be a couple of things.It could be a caterpillar and it could be a type of inchworm.

We just received a message on our Facebook page from a concerned reader about some worms she spotted in her house. She wrote that there are a ton of very small black worms that she didn’t notice at first because her house is covered in mold. She said there are “millions” of these worms spread throughout her bedroom and that she no longer wants to sleep in that room because one of the walls is soaking wet with mold. The walls that aren’t covered in mold are infested with these worms. She is in distress and needs help with this infestation

We received an interesting and highly specific question from a reader about ephydrid fly (shore fly) larvae, which are a type of maggot that live in natural hot springs. She wants to know if it is safe to sit in a hot springs that is “filled with ephyrdid fly maggots.” Psychologically, she doesn’t mind the presence of the larvae, and she is keen to enjoy the natural hot springs she comes across in nature, but she doesn’t want the larvae to “crawl up places they don’t belong.” She spells out this concern in more graphic detail, citing specific orifices, including a wound on her foot, and we’ll leave it to you to imagine some of the other openings she is concerned with. Are the maggots that live in hot springs dangerous, and will they crawl into places they don’t belong?

A reader wrote to us recently about a worm that got into her home. She said that she had been finding these worms on her and her daughter’s skin and in her kitchen. She said that they liked to crawl on their skin and did not seem afraid to be indoors. She was worried because she thought they were coming from her and was interested to know exactly what they are and where they came from. She did mention that her daughter had brought some flowers inside of their home from outside.

One of the single most destructive worms in the world of cotton farming is the bollworm or the pink bollworm. Also called “pink cotton bollworm,” the bollworm is actually the larvae of a moth. Not only does the bollworm attack cotton with a vengeance, it will also attack alfalfa, beans, corn, flax, peas, soybeans, tomatoes, and the fruiting bodies of just about any other commercial crop.

We just heard from a reader who discovered hundreds of small red worms wiggling in the bottom of his chickens’ large water bowl. He wonders what kind of worm they are.

A very helpful reader wrote to us in reference to an article we published last year. It was an article about what a curious reader thought was a worm, but was in fact probably a caterpillar based on the physical description we were sent. The caterpillar was long, thick, and spiky. It was also primarily black, although the caterpillar had white dashes on its body and an orange stripe down its back. The reader who more recently wrote to us sent us a picture of what seems like the same caterpillar. We didn’t have a picture of the spiky caterpillar in the old article, so the reader sent us one. Thanks!

One reader of ours recently emailed us about some worm-like creatures that she found in her home. She is very creeped out by these creatures. She was moving furniture in her living room and she said she found a cluster of small worm-like bugs clustered together in an area near the floor boards. Most of them were black and some were a lot bigger than others. She also said that there were some smaller ones that were white and translucent in color. At first, she thought they were millipedes, but she said they moved very quickly and were difficult to kill. She did say that once she cleaned the area where they were, she has not seen one there since. She did not include a picture, but from the sound of it, these worm-like creatures could be centipedes.

The shipworm is an interesting creature. It has a strong appetite for wood and the unusual ability to tunnel through it, creating the most unusual patterns and holes.