“On the foundation wall, where there is a hole for an electrical conduit going outside, I found these dried up worms”, states this reader in his submission regarding the multitude of black worm-like creatures pictured below. “I live in Seattle. Our basement furnace room is dry and warm. This hole is below ground level. Any idea what they are? Thanks!” Upon zooming in on this fantastic photo, it looks like the worms have two distinct sides, an upper and lower side, both of which are different colors, the top side being black and bottom side being a beige-ish color.

“My patio furniture and patio has several of these dried up worms and what looks like excrement everywhere”, states this reader concerning the dark green organism with black spots pictured below. “We have a pretty dense canopy of trees but I have never seen this before. Could you help me identify the worm and tell me if this is indeed worm excrement? Thank you.” Firstly, we think that the worms our reader has been finding are caterpillars: the organism’s bulbous head, prolegs, and coloration all point to this fact. That said, the coloration is a bit off: the blackish part of its body almost looks like it has been burnt, and the greener part at its rear suggests it used to be a much more vibrant green. Maybe this is a result of the caterpillar drying out as our reader suggested.