Today we will respond to a reader from Phoenix, Arizona. He found a 1-inch worm wriggling around on his laundry room floor. He has dogs and cats in his home but doesn’t think the specimen is related to them. The photo shows an off-white worm with one flat end and one tapered end:

This is a very odd-looking specimen, and we don’t immediately recognize it. We can say that we agree with our reader that this specimen is probably not related to his pets. We don’t think it resembles any parasites associated with dogs or cats, but since we aren’t medical professionals, we encourage our reader to take his pets to the vet if he is truly worried about their health!

That note aside, we aren’t sure what our reader is dealing with. This specimen doesn’t look like any of the worm-like organisms that readers find in their homes regularly or any of the rare ones we write about from time to time. While it is helpful that our reader included his geographical location and mentioned which room in his home he found the creature in, we still aren’t sure what it is. We think it looks a tiny bit like the tail end of a rat-tailed maggot, which is the larva of some species of hoverflies. Despite this slight resemblance, we aren’t convinced this is what our reader is dealing with since these larvae typically live submerged in water.

Unfortunately, we aren’t able to identify the specimen our reader found in his laundry room. We don’t think it is related to his pets or a parasitic organism. If any of our readers recognize this creature we invite them to comment below!

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