“Can you help identify this worm/creature?” writes this reader about the brown, worm-looking critter pictured below. “They are out by the seeming hundreds right now and seem to have a tapered body. It’s raining, 55 degrees. Northwest Arkansas. Pictures attached.” Immediately, we have to say that the photos that our reader sent in were quite blurry, even without zooming in on the photo. This means that when we did zoom in for a better look at the worm, we could not see any of the finer details of the worm’s physical characteristics. For that reason, we will unfortunately not be able to identify the creature with 100% certainty or accuracy.

That said, we can still give this our best shot. Now, it would also have been helpful to have more context in this case. From the photo, it looks to us like this worm is underwater: the background being the gravel and sand at the bottom of a body of water. Assuming that might be the case, then we would say this could be an earthworm. This identification does coincide with the little we can see of the worms body: it is long, thin, and brown in color. On top of that, this identification does match the context that our reader did provide. Earthworms are commonly found after heavy rain, as when the rain fills their burrows underground, they need to come up for air.

Although earthworms, generally speaking, are not aquatic worms, it would still make sense if these worms were found underwater. It is not uncommon for earthworms to get flushed into a body of water during these heavy rains. In fact, that is how fish actually get their taste for worms, and why they make a good fishing bait. Of course, if the worms are not underwater, then there is still just as good a chance that these are earthworms. Our reader does not specify if he is experiencing an infestation inside his home, or if he simply encountered the worms by the hundreds outside, but in any case, it is a good idea to keep one’s doors shut during such heavy rains to avoid an invasion of worms and other critters.

To conclude, we think our reader may have found earthworms, though it is hard to say given the blurriness of the photo. We hope nonetheless that this helps, and we wish him the very best!