We believe the small black worms our reader noticed hanging from her ceiling are inchworms! These larvae are harmless and can be eliminated by cleaning…there is no need for her to call an exterminator!

A reader wrote to us recently about some tiny brown worms that “came from behind the ceiling.” The brown worms, which are only about three millimeters long, fell onto her bed, which is why the reader speculates they came from the ceiling. It is unclear how many worms she has found, but “2 or 3 worms at a time” landed on her bed, so evidently this has happened multiple times. It is as if her ceiling has a worm leak, although this is perhaps an indelicate way to put the matter since the reader is quite concerned about the creatures. Indeed, she hasn’t slept in her bed in almost a week because of the ceiling worms. The reader asked us if we can help her with “this” (she didn’t specify any precise questions), so we’ll try our best to figure out what she found and identify ways to address the problem.