“I was wondering if you could help to determine what this stuff in the photo is that I found while cleaning a small tray I had on my bureau”, writes Sandra in her submission regarding the gray matter pictured below. “I just turned it over and this stuff came out. The tray is basket weaved and I had no idea the stuff was even there! I don’t know if it is eggs (although I have not seen any bugs) or what it could be but I tried looking for it online without success. I was hoping you could help me out with this and maybe what I should do? Thank you.”

“What is this?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the brown, segmented, worm-like creature pictured below. “We found some small doughnut shaped eggs in our sandbox and we watched one of them hatch into an inch-long caterpillar! Here is a photo of the egg and one of the hatched larva!” Based on the excellent photo of the critter itself, we would say these are tomato pinworms, a type of moth caterpillar that, as their name suggests, eat tomatoes. They also eat potatoes and eggplants, as well as different types of weeds. With that said, tomato pinworm eggs do not look like the ones our reader found. The doughnut shape reminds us more of gall wasp eggs. However, gall wasp larvae do not look like the creature our reader found: they are white in color.

“Can you help me to identify if there is an issue with my wood floors?” asks Sandra in her submission. “I noticed some time ago that my hardwood floors were starting to get blackened areas but I figured it was due to age as the home is over 200 years old. However they recently seem to be getting dark spots faster than I would expect and now there is more spacing between boards than before. I am also noticing lots of stuff In the spaces although I vacuum more than just regularly! The pictures included are of the floors and the stuff in them which I am really hoping is not some sort of insect egg. Any advice would be appreciated.”