“What are the cream-colored worms I found in an old chunk of ‘natural soap’?” asks this reader about the organisms pictured below. “I live in the Niagara Region of southern Ontario, Canada. I probably bought this soap two years ago, and recently found one last piece in a bag in a closet. After using it a few times I looked a little closer and saw what I thought were threads in the soap.” From the looks of it, these really do look like worms, which is really quite confusing, seeing as they were found inside a bar of soap. Of course, we cannot confirm if these are worms or not: their nondescript, cream-colored bodies are quite a generic appearance for worms and larvae alike.

That said, we will continue on the assumption that these are worms, or some type of worm-like creature. Now, unfortunately, we have no idea what these could be. It might help to know what ingredients were in the bar of soap. We thought that, if there are any organic, edible ingredients in it (which we think is likely, considering that our reader refers to it as ‘natural soap’), then perhaps these are Indianmeal moth larvae (also known as pantry moth larvae). However, while Indianmeal moth larvae do possess cream-colored, long bodies like these creatures, they also have brown heads, which these do not. In any case, our theory for how these worms ended up here is the same.

We think that the eggs from which these organisms hatched were lain in or on whatever ingredients were mixed into this soap, and throughout the two years, the worm-like creatures hatched, but got stuck in the soap. They tried their best to survive, and likely ate parts of the soap, but quickly died. Perhaps this theory is far fetched, but we also never thought we would receive a story about someone finding worms inside a bar of soap. This is the only way we think this could have happened, but we are also open to suggestions, so if any of our other readers have their own theories, they are more than welcome to share them in the comments section below.

To conclude, we are not quite sure what these things are, but if they really are organisms, then they do seem to be some type of worm or larva. We think our reader should discontinue the use of this bar of soap and throw it out. We wish we could help further, but this situation is very alien to us. Nonetheless, we hope something in this article proves insightful, and we wish our reader the very best with her future soap purchases and hope that they are free from worms!

• 
•