“I have an infestation of white moving little things coming out of the corners of every room”, writes Debbie in her submission, which unfortunately does not include any photos. “They’re different sizes and very small and they stick to whatever they can and you can’t break them away from it. They also are in my neighbors house and all over her house counter tops and on her clothes. They can break apart and still live. Their texture is like a human being booger out if their nose. Please help if you know anything about this. Please respond.” We will say that we will not be able to identify this worm with 100% accuracy or certainty, given the lack of photo and how vague the physical descriptions are. All we can do is make some educated guesses.

With that said, we cannot begin to guess at what creatures you can “break apart” without killing them. The first thing our mind jumps to is slugs and flatworms, which are able to regrow severed parts of their bodies, but they are not “little” – though there are some white species of both creatures. But slugs and flatworms do not infest people’s homes and go on their counter tops and clothes. That has us thinking about moth larvae: pantry moth caterpillars typically invade people’s kitchens, where they feed on dried food goods like grains and pet food, and clothes moth caterpillars infest people’s clothing to feed on the organic fibers in textile items. But neither of these species has ever been described to us as “sticky”, nor would they survive being crushed.

Our best advice to Debbie is to take these creatures to her local county extension office and/or the entomology department at her nearest university to have someone look at them: they will have a better chance at providing a sure identification since they can examine the critters up close. Equally, she also welcome to send us photos in a follow-up if she wants us to have another go at identifying them. In terms of getting rid of them, we suggest deep cleaning the kitchen and any other rooms they are found, including sanitizing surfaces and drains, tossing infested food items (you will notice signs of infestation like faecal pellets, webbing, eggs, and larvae), laundering infested clothing (and clothing near the infested items), and vacuuming her home.

In conclusion, we are not sure what Debbie founds given not only the lack of photos, but also given the organisms’ fantastic capabilities. We hope something in here helps nonetheless, and we wish Debbie the very best.