“I found this worm on the hardwood floor”, writes Kelly in her submission regarding the long, thin worm-like creature pictured below. “We have a small Maltese so we were freaking out as it might be a simple earthworm or a parasite that came out of my dog! I checked my dog’s stool but didn’t see any signs of worms. The length was about 4+ inches. Thank you so much for your help!” Firstly, we want to thank Kelly ourselves for the photo and ample context. These factors always help us identify the worms we are asked about. And with that said, we think Kelly found a centipede.

“Is this a centipede?” asks Stacy about the long, yellowish, translucent worm-like creature pictured below. “If not, do you know what it is? I found this on my bathroom rug this morning in Amarillo, Texas. I have heard that these are venomous and have been responsible for fatalities and/or rhabdomyolysis and heart attacks. I hope I am misinformed as I have a small child (along with 3 teenagers) and a dog in the house! Thanks so much!” Firstly, this does look a bit like a centipede, but it is hard to tell given the poor resolution of the photo. For example, from one end of its body we think we can see a pair of antennae, which centipedes do typically possess, but this could very well just be bits of debris in the rug. On top of that, we cannot see the multiple legs sprouting from the sides of its body that centipedes are known for, but when it comes to smaller species of centipedes, these are sometimes hard to see because they are wispy thin.

“I found this thing in the bathroom!” writes Sade about the little black bug in the picture below. “Horrifying! It seemed to have fallen off somewhere – either from the toilet or the toilet paper hanging beside the toilet as I didn’t see it when I first opened the toilet, then noticed something plopped into the water a second after. I hope it didn’t come from me!” Upon zooming in on the photo, the organism looks to have legs, and a translucent body. That said, the photo is taken in quite poor lighting, and the resolution is not the best, so we will say that any identifications we make are educated guesses, and are not 100% certain.

Today, we will discuss a question from a reader who would like to know how to eradicate centipedes in her home. The good news is that centipedes do not tend to swarm or invade in large groups. This means it is not usually difficult to control local centipede populations.

A reader wrote to us recently about a “scary looking really fast moving worm on my bathroom floor.” Emphasizing its speed once more, the reader reports that the worm, which is actually most likely a centipede (more on this in a second), “moved really fast even on a wet floor,” and also mentioned that it crawled up into the wall after it was spotted. The reader was quite startled by the worm (or centipede), and asked for our help. Obviously, we aren’t in position to help in any sort of direct way, but we can help with the matter of identification, and again we think our reader found a centipede, not a worm, for reasons we will now outline.

We received a question from a reader recently via the All About Worms Facebook page about what we think is a millipede or centipede in her shower. The question has a bit of a backstory, so we’ll quote the relevant part of the reader’s message and then move on to address her concerns: “I had an episode of Vertigo yesterday and I thew up in the trash can. I cleaned the trash can out in the shower. So I am kinda freaking out thinking that it might have been inside me! Or hopefully it is just a coincidence that is was in there.” The reader is first of all wondering what she found, and she is also wondering if the creature has its origin in her body.

Yesterday we received one of the simplest questions we have ever been sent. The reader submitted a photo of a creature and asked only if it is a centipede or millipede. There were no complicating factors, so he was basically looking for a one-word answer. We think our reader found a millipede, and in what follows we explain why. In doing so, we will outline the difference between centipedes and millipedes, providing a concise guide that will help you determine whether you have found a millipede or centipede.

A reader wrote to us recently about a worm-like creature “squirming in my coffee carafe while rinsing with water.” The reader was alarmed by this because she is “truly phobic about worms,” and she also reports that she thinks what she found is a millipede. For reasons we will come to shortly, she might have actually found a centipede, but in truth she wasn’t particularly concerned about what she found. She was more fixated on where the centipede (or millipede) came from, and she also wanted to know if there could be more and how she should eliminate them. We’ll try out best to identify and address all her concerns below.

A reader sent us a question about three-inch brown worms that he is finding on his kitchen floor, as well as occasionally in his living room and bathroom. The worms (if they even are worms – they might be centipedes) move “very fast like a snake.” In fact, even when they aren’t moving quickly, the way they move still resembles a snake. So we are dealing with brown worms (or “brownish” worms, as the reader has it) that are three inches long and move like snakes, often quite quickly. To this description the reader adds two notes: first, he only finds the worms or centipedes or whatever they are one at a time. Second, and rather gruesomely, the creatures only die when they are burned in a fire. (Unfortunately, one is all but forced to imagine the other methods that failed.) In light of all this information, what is our reader finding?

Recently, a reader wrote to us about finding “two very strange creatures in soil in my garden near San Diego.” The creatures are “very strange” because they are fairly long – about four to six inches (or 10 to 15 centimeters, roughly) in length – and, perhaps more notably, both were a vivid silver, like mercury (the element, not the planet; hence the lowercase “m”). They also have a thin black strip that runs down the lengths of their bodies. When our reader unearthed them from the garden soil, they “thrash[ed] around.” In contrast to many emails we receive, the reader didn’t speculate that he found some sort of worm; rather, he thought at first that he had found two snakes, but quickly decided this wasn’t the case because the creatures didn’t appear to have heads. (Presumably, the creatures did have heads, but they weren’t readily discernible from the rest of the body.) And so the question of course is: what are these long silver creatures that our reader found?

The other morning, a reader found a “worm” in his daughter’s bedroom. It was a thin creature, with a dark grey body and lighter colored strips. Its body was hard and about four inches long, although its normal position was a curve (in the shape of a “c”). It also completely curled into itself when disturbed. Finally – and here’s the real identifying factor – it had “hundred of tiny legs.” What was this thing?

If you have seen any type of creature crawling in and around your drains, pipes, or ceiling, there is a good chance it was the larvae of the moth fly.

The different types of pests that invade homes include the larvae of the moth fly, the larvae of the millipede, or the larvae of the case-bearing clothes moth.

The larvae of a case-bearing clothes moth look like worms and they are white in color. They carry around a case that can reach up to 10 mm in length — a case that’s usually made from a combination of self-made silk and the very materials they feed on.

It is possible that the worms made their way into your frozen goods from other sources such as grains, cereal, or fine fibers.

Centipedes have flattened bodies and a pair of long, slender antennae. They also have a pair of claws just behind the head. Millipedes and centipedes have segmented bodies, but millipedes have short antennae.

The larvae of moth flies like to hang in and around drains, underneath drain plugs and screens, and inside of pipes. They feed on the gelatinous film found in these areas of bathroom sinks, tubs, toilets and kitchen sinks.

House worms love basements because they love cold, dark, and damp places. A few of the most common types of worms that can be found in homes and basements include the case bearing clothes moth (larvae), moth flies (larvae), and the immature millipede.

It’s brown, it’s long, it’s shiny – so it must be a worm, right? Not necessarily. While many worms are brown in color, some can be shiny, and most are long, there are several sure signs that the animal you just found slithering around on your floor is probably a centipede – not a worm.