A reader in Cairo, Egypt asks for our help after discovering a worm-like creature crawling on his bed cover. The creature appears to be black and white, with a segmented, elongated body.

“My sister found this in our front bathroom today and we were trying to figure out what it is,” writest this reader about the segmented, black, worm-like creature pictured below. “We live in Western North Carolina U.S. I fished it out of the toilet to get a better look and see if I could figure out what it was. We weren’t sure if it maybe came from her and, if not, where it came from at all. Based on what I have noticed just by watching it, it looks like it may possibly have legs but I’m not positive. Based on the direction it seems to move it appears to breathe through its butt. It is very small and thin, zoomed in it looks like it has stripes along its body but two very distinctive stripes towards the end. Because I had taken it from the toilet I put a dime under the dip cup I had placed it in for size comparison and labeled the mentioned characteristics in the picture.”

“I have found this segmented creepy crawly with “tail” on several occasions in our laundry hamper and linen closet”, writes this reader concerning the black-striped creature pictured below. “Should I be concerned? They’re about one cm in length. What are they? Thank you for your help.” To start with, we just want to thank our reader for the excellent photo she provided. It gives us a detailed view of the creature’s body, which always makes it easier to identify any given organism we are asked about. In this case, we think our reader has found a black carpet beetle larva.

“Can you help me identify these insects?” asks Jen in East Yorkshire, UK about the little, black and white-striped bug pictured below. “We have been finding these larvae in our bed for several weeks. Are they carpet beetles? Is it possible these might be falling from the ceiling / wood beams, as the way they have turned up makes us think this is a possibility? Thanks.” To start with, we think Jen is right in identifying these as carpet beetles, though we want to point out that, in this case, they are the larvae of the carpet beetle. We can tell based on the shape of the body, as well as the black and white stripes.

“I have found these black, shiny worms […] weaving in and out of my couch under the cushions in the creases” says this reader about an unphotographed critter that has been causing her trouble. She asks if we can help identify them for her.

“I found a worm-like insect […] on my clothes” begins this reader in her query to us about the “black or dark brown”, “tall” bug she discovered on her newly-washed clothing. She asks that we identify the bug, as well as tell her how to get rid of it.

A glossy, black worm-like creature was found by this reader in his friend’s room. He says there are a lot of them and asks that we tell him what it is.

Worms were found by this reader in her infant’s bassinet, and she wonders what they could be. The worms appear to have segmented bodies, with long bristles extending from the entirety of their bodies. One of them is black in color, and the other brown.

“What is this worm?” asks this reader about an organism she found. The organism in question appears to be black in color, with multiple hair-thin appendages spiking out from the sides of its body.

A small, black worm was found by this reader, who wonders if we can help identify its species. The worm in questions appears to be black in color, bristly, and possessing two especially long bristles, which could either be tails, antennae, or simply bristles!

We believe the orange creature our reader found in his bed is a carpet beetle larvae. He should start the daily cleaning regime we laid out above ASAP to ensure he doesn’t end up dealing with an infestation.

These are carpet beetle larvae. Carpet beetle larvae are the most common household pests that we write about. They are especially annoying because they can eat basically anything, live for long periods of time without food, and sneakily travel to different rooms searching for additional things to eat

A few days ago a reader sent us three pictures of what appears to be a carpet beetle larva (or probably carpet beetle larvae – the three images don’t appear to show the same exact creature). The reader only asked us for an identification, so we have basically already answered that question, but below we’ll discuss our thinking, as well as share the photos of the carpet beetle larvae our reader submitted. They are quite clear, and show the creature from a few different angles.