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Posted in Indian Meal Moth Larvae Pest Worms Worms Found in the House

White Worm with Brown Head Found Crawling on Kitchen Walls is a Pantry Moth Larva

“Please help!” exclaims this reader in her submission about the “worm” she found “crawling all over [her] kitchen walls and ceilings. “What is this worm?” she asks about the off-white larva-like creature with a brown head in the photo below.

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Posted in Indian Meal Moth Larvae Pest Worms Worms Found in the House

Yellow, Worm-like Organism Hanging by Thread in Cupboard is a Pantry Moth Larva

“What kind of worm is this?” asks this reader about the yellow larva-like organism pictured below. The creature was found in her “pantry cupboard hanging by a thread.”

red and tan worm in kitchen
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Posted in Pest Worms

Small Worm with Red Bodies and Tan Heads in the Kitchen

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?

larva in drawer
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Posted in Meal Worms Pest Worms

Worms or Larvae in Kitchen Drawers and on Counters

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.

carpet beetle larva
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Posted in Meal Worms Pest Worms

Tiny Brown Worms in Laundry, Bathroom, and Kitchen

A reader wrote to us about some tiny brown worms she has been finding in various places around her house, including her laundry basket, her bathroom, and her kitchen counter. When the reader says “tiny,” she means it, as she only estimates the worms to be about a quarter of an inch (or six millimeters) in length. The reader says that the worms look like the “ones found in old baking flour,” although she herself hasn’t found them in baking flour. She is wondering what the tiny brown worms are, and she is also wondering how she can get rid of them.

Posted in Gross Worms

Little, White Worms in the Kitchen

A reader recently found little, white worms in his kitchen. The reader left “dirty washing” (perhaps something like dirty plates or dirty rags) on the kitchen floor over night, and in the morning there were lots of little, white worms on the kitchen floor, directly underneath the “washing.” We receive a lot of questions about little, white worms, and ironically these questions are rarely about little, white worms at all. Rather, they tend to be about maggots, which are indeed little and white, but they are not worms (for reasons we’ll explain in a moment). We think the white “worms” our reader found are maggots, but we’ll also throw out a few more possibilities for our reader to investigate.