“Is this a parasite?” asks this reader in her submission. “It came out when my boyfriend’s aunt cleaned her coffee pot! It swam around the carafe for hours until the bleach water finally won the battle. YUCK!” Well, unfortunately we can’t tell what organism our reader is referring to in the photo. We assume it could be the translucent, ovate objects on the clear dish, but we cannot be certain. And the photo is quite blurry, so we nonetheless would not be able to provide an identification that is certain or accurate. On top of that, we cannot confirm or deny if any organism is a parasite, because parasites always pose a medical threat. Since we are not medical professionals, we are not qualified nor legally able to identify organisms of this nature.

“What are these?” asks Stephanie about the little, yellow, worm-like creatures pictured below. “Found in the pantry.” From what we can tell, the worms in the picture are on top of a canning jar lid, which gives us a good size comparison: these worms are clearly very tiny. In any case, we believe that Stephanie found Indianmeal moth caterpillars. Otherwise known as pantry moth caterpillars, these creatures are found in –you guessed it– the pantry: which is exactly where Stephanie found them. How predictable. That said, they are also found all over the kitchen, and wherever dried food goods are stored.

A woman recently contacted us about a moth infestation she has been experiencing over the past couple of months, and she asks for our help in identifying and dealing with the problem. She has herself identified the moths as pantry moths (Indianmeal moths) “because they have a stripe across their body”, but is now wondering whether or not they could be drain moths.