A reader wrote to us recently to ask about two worms she found in her kitchen. The worms have red bodies and tan heads, and they are perhaps a half an inch (one centimeter) long. The reader isn’t particularly concerned with what they are, and is instead focused on the question of where they came from. She has no indoor houseplants, and her windows and doors have been closed. She also says she has no food, but it is hard to take this literally, so perhaps she just doesn’t have food that is laying around the kitchen. As the reader points out, though, these two worms must of come from somewhere, and where might that be?

A reader wrote to us recently about some worms she is finding in her kitchen drawers and occasionally on her kitchen counters. For several reasons, we know that the “worms” in the drawers are actually larvae, so we’ll drop the word “worm” from here on out for the sake of accuracy. The larvae were identified as “carpet bugs” by a “carpet guy,” who told the reader she needed to steam clean her house (naturally) and use some sort of pesticide. This is where the reader’s email ends – she actually doesn’t ask any question – but we are assuming she at least wants to know what the larvae in kitchen drawers are, and once we arrive at an identification, we can briefly touch on the matter of getting rid of them.