“What type of worm does this look like?” asks this woman in Texas, whose daughter found a three-inch long, red-brown worm crawling up her bedroom wall. Our reader claims she could not find anything on our website or “elsewhere on the internet that really looks like this.”

From what we have seen in the photos, this looks like an earthworm. Earthworms, as our reader likely knows, are completely harmless. They are neither venomous or parasitic, so finding one in one’s home is nothing to worry about.

What finding an earthworm in one’s home might imply is that there is a lot of organic debris lying around that might be rotting. This might include food crumbs, soil from a houseplant, leaves or other decomposing organic materials.

This does not mean that the organic debris is definitely inside her daughter’s room, as the earthworm could just have slithered in there in search of more food.

Instead, the debris could be in the kitchen, basement, or any other viable room. The basement may be a good place to look, as earthworms prefer damp and cool environments.

Another explanation for why the earthworms may have entered our reader’s home is that our reader has a leak in one of her pipes. As earthworms dwell underground for most of the time, they can occasionally find their way into the pipe system and come up through people’s drains.

Additionally, earthworms are more likely to go up come up through unclean drains because they are in search of more decomposing organic materials. If our reader notices more earthworms coming from the drains in her bathroom, it might be a sign that she needs to be consistently cleaning her bathroom more often.

That said, finding an earthworm inside one’s home is usually a one-off occasion. Infestations do not really occur. It could just be that this earthworm came in through an open door or window.

Either way, simply moving the worm outside will suffice in dealing with the situation.

In conclusion, the worm our reader’s daughter found in her room is an earthworm. It is neither harmful, nor is it a pest. There is little to no risk of infestation, so our reader need only take this one worm out and she will be good. We understand that it is still not a pleasant experience for one’s daughter to find a worm crawling up their wall, so we urge our reader to check the quality of her window screens and make sure she has a consistent cleaning regime for her home so as to prevent the intrusion of more worms and other creatures.

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