A few days ago we received a question through the All About Worms Facebook page about some black worms (or blackish, brownish worms) that have infested the reader’s neighbor’s roof. The reader reports that there are “millions” of black worms around the neighbor’s roof and his house, so we aren’t using the word “infestation” lightly. (We are not being so careful with our use of the word “worm,” however, as the reader’s black worm infestation is probably a black larvae infestation, but we’ll address this in a moment.) The reader’s message is fairly long and quite detailed, but at bottom he wants to know what creature is causing the infestation, and he also wants to know how to get rid of the problem. What black “worms” are behind the infestation, and what can be done to eliminate the infestation?

Recently, we received a question from a reader inquiring about the small black worms (or “tiny black worms,” as the reader put it) he found in the entrance of his house. The worms are about one centimeter long, and instead of lying straight, they tend to curve into semicircles. What are these small black worms, and if they are found, should you do anything about it?

A reader from Tennessee recently wrote to us about an oak-tree infestation involving caterpillars or worms. The worms (or caterpillars) have been eating the leaves of the oak tree, and there are evidently so many that the reader claims to hear the creatures eating the tree. Moreover, many of the caterpillars or worms fall from the oak tree during the night, leaving a driveway covered with cylindrically-shaped, dead bodies in the morning for our poor reader to confront. There can be no question that our reader is dealing with a relatively serious worm or caterpillar infestation that is compromising the vitality of an oak tree.