“What kind of worm is this?”, asks Elvira about the black worm-like creature pictured below. “Or is it a caterpillar? Found it moving across the rug in my living room! It had a matte black-like shell with what appeared to be ‘holes’ along its back, was about 2-3 inches long, and its head had two oval-shaped eyes on top of it. I live in Houston, TX. Thanks.” The creature Elvira found is not a worm, but indeed a caterpillar, so her second guess was correct! In particular, this is a velvet armyworm moth caterpillar. We have covered armyworms many times before, in particular the fall armyworm, the most infamous of them all.

“These tiny worm/caterpillar critters have been out on the patio the past few weeks”, writes Debbie about the fantastical-looking, worm-like creature pictured below. “The one in the attached photos is a larger one, which is still small (I have my pinky in one of the photos for reference). It crawls around like a caterpillar and can raise — what I’m guessing is — it’s head to investigate where there’s something in its path. I’ve lived in this particular home for six years and this is the first time I’ve seen them. I’d like to find out what they are in case they’re a problem or poisonous. I live in Ventura County California, approx 2 miles away from the coast. Thanks for your help!”

“My son found a few of these on his front porch,” states this reader in Severna Park, Maryland. She is referring to the organisms pictured below, which she thinks are black beetle larvae.”

We received an interesting and faintly poetic question the other day about a black “worm” that has a red dot on each body segment. Here is her entire question: “Middle of May, Northern California, Black worm about two inches long, seems hairless has what appears to be thin covering of bristles, red dots on each segment, racing across my deck floor. Please identify.” Unfortunately, no picture was submitted along with the question, so this description is all we have to work with. Obviously, this limits our ability to offer a confident suggestion, but we’ll do what we can.

A reader wrote to us via the All About Worms Facebook page recently about some black caterpillars in her backyard. “Some” black caterpillars probably doesn’t quite capture the situation, as the reader reports that they are “all over” her backyard. The black caterpillars are “yellow underneath,” although you can’t really see this in the picture the reader submitted. The reader is wondering what these black caterpillars in her backyard are, if they are even caterpillars.

A very helpful reader wrote to us in reference to an article we published last year. It was an article about what a curious reader thought was a worm, but was in fact probably a caterpillar based on the physical description we were sent. The caterpillar was long, thick, and spiky. It was also primarily black, although the caterpillar had white dashes on its body and an orange stripe down its back. The reader who more recently wrote to us sent us a picture of what seems like the same caterpillar. We didn’t have a picture of the spiky caterpillar in the old article, so the reader sent us one. Thanks!

We recently received a very straightforward question from a reader: “I found a worm, it is furry, black, gold and white. What is it?” While direct and simple language has its virtues (think of Hemingway), it can make worm identification difficult. Regardless, we’re always interested in investigating a worm-related question, so we’ll try our best to identify this multicolored furry creature.

A reader wrote to us recently about a worm, or what is believed to be a worm, with the follow characteristics: (1) The worm is big, about 20 cm long and as thick as a “man’s thumb”; (2) the worm has lots of spikes, or what look like spikes, on its back; (3) the back of this worm also has white dashes on it; (4) the worm has an orange line that runs down it side; (5) the worm was found in the reader’s grass in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.