This reader found “weird, clear-looking worms” in her home, and attached the photo below in her submission. They are “about a centimeter to two inches long. They look like a clear piece of string, all over my clothes and house. They wiggle around and almost have a dot for a face or head.” To start with, we have to say that we cannot see the worm in the photo. All we see is our reader’s thumb and knee. This is likely because the worms are so thin, and are translucent, but nonetheless, without being able to see the worm in the photo, we cannot provide a confident or accurate identification. Of course, we will still do our best to help our reader identify this creature.

Given its very thin body, the only worm that comes to mind is the horsehair worm. They are parasites, but do not harm humans or pets (unless you have an insect as a pet). They take insects as hosts, and burst forth from their bodies, killing them in the process, when they are fully matured. We will note that there have been a handful of cases of people having horsehair worms inside them, but these have not been infections, but the result of people swallowing insects that are infested with horsehair worms. Now, we highly doubt that the worms our reader found are horsehair worms. This is due to the fact that horsehair worms are not translucent, and they are much longer than the worms our reader found.

Now, while we are not saying that the creatures our reader found are not worms (it is very possible that the “dot” at one end of its body is the head of a worm or larva), we want to offer the possibility that these actually are pieces of string, that are left behind by organisms: maybe caterpillars. Many species of caterpillars are able to produce their own silk, which they use to get down from high places, and eventually to spin their cocoons. Alternatively, maybe these are caterpillars, or some other type of insect larva. There are many species of larvae that are translucent and typically found in the home, like flea larvae or clothing moth larvae. Given that these are found all over our reader’s clothing, perhaps they are clothes moth larvae. That said, none of these species are as thin as string, so we think it’s more likely that this is silk left behind by clothes moth larvae. In any case, we recommend that our reader vacuum her home and launder her clothing, as that should eliminate the infestation. If she is still finding these organisms after doing this, repeat those steps until they are gone.

To conclude, we don’t know what the clear worms are that our reader found. Based on the physical description alone, they sound like some odd mix of horsehair worms and insect larvae that does not exist, though they could also be the silk left behind by clothes moth larvae. Although we were not able to provide a certain identification, we hope that this helps, and we wish our reader the very best.

Summary

Article Name

String-looking Worms All Over Clothes and House

Description

This reader found "weird, clear-looking worms" in her home, and attached the photo below in her submission. They are "about a centimeter to two inches long. They look like a clear piece of string, all over my clothes and house. They wiggle around and almost have a dot for a face or head." To start with, we have to say that we cannot see the worm in the photo. All we see is our reader's thumb and knee. This is likely because the worms are so thin, and are translucent, but nonetheless, without being able to see the worm in the photo, we cannot provide a confident or accurate identification. Of course, we will still do our best to help our reader identify this creature.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton