“I have found these dead worm/snake-like critters on my patio and a few in my pool,” writes Hailey in her submission regarding the black and brown, worm-like creature pictured below. “There are around 20 of them and they are freaking me out. Any idea what it is? I’m in the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area. Thank you.” Right off the bat, we can tell Hailey that this worm is dried up: you can tell by its shriveled body. The worms could have died another way but dried up afterward, but given what we know these to be, we think it is likely they died from the heat itself. Typically, we would not be able to identify worms that were dried-up, as their physical characteristics can change quite drastically, making them much harder to identify, but in this case, we have seen so many of these worms in this state that we know what they are.

So, enough beating around the bush. The dead worms Hailey has been finding are earthworms. You can tell by their long, segmented bodies, and typically you can see their clitellums (the thick band of skin encircling an earthworm’s body near its head) too even when they are dried up, but that is not the case for this worm. It could just be that this worm is so dried up that the clitellum is not invisible as it has shrunk along with the rest of the body and become so discolored that it is indistinguishable from the rest of the worm’s body. As we are sure Hailey knows, the common earthworm is not the color of the worm in the photo. Rather, they are a pink, light brown color, not this ashen brown/black. And this is completely the result of it drying up.

Hailey does not need to worry about her health: the presence of earthworms, dead or alive, is not harmful to humans or pets. Now, why so many of them have showed up just to die on her patio and pool is probably because the earthworms were trying to get to a cool place, and they reckoned that either the pool or her home would provide such an environment. Of course, none of them quite made it to these cooler spots before they died. We also just want to clarify that there is no risk of these being snakes, as snakes do not dry up like this in the sun. In fact, they love the sun since they are cold-blooded creatures.

In conclusion, the dead worms Hailey has been finding on her patio are dried-up earthworms. Our advice is just to shovel them away and perhaps put a cover over her pool if possible. We hope Hailey finds this helpful, and we wish her the very best!

Summary

Article Name

Dried-up Worms on Patio and in Pool are Earthworms

Description

"I have found these dead worm/snake-like critters on my patio and a few in my pool," writes Hailey in her submission regarding the black and brown, worm-like creature pictured below. "There are around 20 of them and they are freaking me out. Any idea what it is? I'm in the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area. Thank you." Right off the bat, we can tell Hailey that this worm is dried up: you can tell by its shriveled body. The worms could have died another way but dried up afterward, but given what we know these to be, we think it is likely they died from the heat itself. Typically, we would not be able to identify worms that were dried-up, as their physical characteristics can change quite drastically, making them much harder to identify, but in this case, we have seen so many of these worms in this state that we know what they are.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton