“Are these worms?” asks Rene in their submission regarding the pink object pictured below. “This is a high resolution photo of ‘debris’ in my shower drain and in my bathroom that are not visible to the naked eye. Thank you.” Rene sent in multiple photos, the first of which we included below (and the only one showing a worm-like organism), and we are not sure which photo Rene is referring to as being “high resolution”, or if they accidentally forgot to send in that picture, because none of the photos included in the submission were high resolution. Like the photo below, they were all very blurry.
In any case, given that the “‘debris'” is essentially microscopic, according to Rene, we would not be able to identify what this is. Microscopic organisms are simply not our specialty, and they are difficult to identify from merely a photo. Even if they were visible to the naked eye, the extreme blurriness of the photo makes it impossible for us to make out any physical details of the organism besides its vague shape and pink color. So, for a multitude of reasons, we will not be able to confirm or deny if these are worms. What we recommend Rene do is take this debris to their local county extension office and see if someone will physically examine this debris under a microscope. They might have a better chance at identifying whatever it is Rene found in their shower drain.
On top of that, we recommend that Rene make sure they follow a cleaning regime for their shower and bathroom. The best way to prevent any kind of organism from coming up one’s drains is by keeping them clean, both by chemically washing out the drains, but also by scrubbing the lip of the drain to get rid of the organic film that tends to form there after some time, on which creatures such as the drain fly likes to lay its eggs. Likewise, organic debris is more likely to build up in pipes that do not get water run through them often and in stagnant pools of water: so an unused bathroom. If that is the case for Rene, that this shower is not used often, that could be why they are finding this organic debris.
To conclude, we cannot confirm or deny if these are worms, because the photo is simply too blurry to make out what it is we are looking at. Hopefully someone at their local county extension office will be able to help them. We wish we could help more, but we hope nonetheless that Rene has found something useful in this article, and we wish them the very best!
