“What in the world are these little wormlike creatures?” asks Erin in her submission regarding the translucent organism with black entrails pictured below. “Here’s the story of how we found them: My partner and I enjoy herpetology and going “field herping” to search for and photograph reptiles in the wild. We recently visited Whitewater, California and stumbled upon a small California kingsnake (lampropeltis getula californiae) crossing the road. Upon picking it up to take a closer look, we saw these tiny black/transparent worms coming out of the snake’s mouth. It was honestly horrifying, so I can only hope that this animal is able to survive in the wild. Anyway, the worms appeared more like leeches or slugs – I don’t see any segmentation. We have a cheap little USB endoscope that magnifies at 1000x, so I have included close-up photos, as well as a zoomed-out photo next to a penny for scale reference. It appears to me that the black substance is food, waste, or organs inside of a transparent creature. We hope you can identify this species, and help us understand the super interesting interaction between fauna that we witnessed! Thanks so much.”

“I found these tiny white (clear) and black worms in my mattress in Hot Springs, Arkansas”, writes this reader in his submission regarding the critter pictured below. “What are they and are they harmful? Will they spread? Also, how do I get rid of them? Thanks.” To begin with, we want to thank our reader for the plethora of fantastic photos, the best of which we included. On top of that, he asks good questions, and the context has already helped us to come to a conclusion about the worm’s identity. The worms our reader has been finding are not actually worms but flea larvae.

“Do you have any idea what this could possibly be?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the minuscule, translucent, brown creature pictured below. “Watching it, it moves like a caterpillar or worm and will either stand up or put one side up and wiggle into the air. Thanks so much!” First of all, we have to point out the size of the creature. As we can see from the photo, it is very tiny. That tells us that this organism is probably at an early stage of maturation, which means a lot of its defining physical characteristics will not have developed yet. For that reason, whatever identification we end up making is not 100% certain. Secondly, the lack of context also makes it harder for us to say it is any one species for certain.

“I found these worms in our towel closet in the restroom”, writes this reader about the near-transparent, worm-like creature pictured below. “I then washed all of the linens and towels that were in the closet and sprayed down the whole closet. Looking for the source of the worms. So far I have not found that source but I have identified a couple of things that I believe to be eggs. I also then found the same worms coming from the seam of my dresser, and I have not looked anywhere else yet, but I would like some help please thank you.”

“How does someone get rid of this clear worm? If they have gone to the hospital and got Baker Acted?” asks this reader in her query. Though she provides no photographs or more context than this, we will do our best to guide our reader toward the help the person in need requires.

“What are these translucent [organisms]?” asks this reader, who is concerned for herself and her kids. The organisms in question are “sometimes reddish brown with a green iridescent shine” and are coming out of our reader’s scalp.

Troves of little worms were found on this woman’s bed, and from perusing our website, she guesses that they may be moth larvae. The worms in question were specifically found on a white cardigan on her bed that had been left out to dry on our reader’s washing line, and appear to be tiny in size and black in color, though it difficult to tell as the picture and video are taken from afar.

A puzzling case of separate clusters of worms of different species was discovered by this woman and her caretakers in the UK. The first cluster of worms was found behind “the bin/cat food/litter,” and were deemed to be maggots, while the second cluster of unidentified worms, which were also found in the same place, were dark brown in color, and segmented.