“Can you help me identify what this thing might be that I found on my bathroom counter?” asks Linda in her submission regarding the photo she sent in below. “Sincerely appreciate your time and effort.” We were not sure what she was referring to in the photo below. There are some black, hair-like objects, as well as a red, lint-like object in the photo. But since Linda refers to the “thing” in the singular, we are going to assume she means the red thing. In our opinion, this does not look like an organism, but just like a piece of lint, but that could be because the photo is so blurry that the details of the organism’s identifying features are muddled, making it look like a piece of lint. Regardless, since the photo is as blurry as it is, we will not be able to provide a confident or accurate identification.

“Is it a blood worm?” asks Almohannad about the bright red, worm-like creature pictured below. He also sends in an excellent video of the “worm [he] found in [his] toilet.” He does not provide more context than this, but based on the photo and the little context he did provide, we would say this likely is a blood worm. The term “blood worm” does not refer to any one species of worm, but is actually an umbrella term for those worm-like organisms which have a bright red color due to the excess amount of hemoglobin they produce, which enables them to sustain for long periods of time in low-oxygen conditions: like underwater. In fact, a lot of blood worm species are marine worms.

“I found these in my horse trough”, writes Karen about the red worm-like critters pictured below. “They seem to have ‘casings’ of some sort that seem to be ‘absorbed’ by the plastic/rubber trough itself. There are strange “scratch lines” on the side of the trough, and these lines I have noticed elsewhere in my barn. Is it a pinworm? Can pinworms be transmitted through different types of materials? Please, tell me everything. I am in Stafford, Virginia, and these worms were in water. It is October, and the weather has been pleasant. There was recently a huge amount of rain with Hurricane Ian. Can these worms get into wood? Is this the larval stage of something else? Thank you!”

“Can you help me ID this worm?” asks this reader in his submission concerning the reddish brown creature pictured below. “I found it in the morning in my toilet before anyone had gone to the toilet.”

“What is this worm?!” asks this reader in the UK about the red-striped worm-like creature pictured below. “Hoping it’s not a harmful parasite.”

“What kind of worm is this?” asks this reader in the submission she sent us. “I went to the bathroom and went to flush and saw it at the bottom,” she continues, referring to the long, red worm pictured below.

“Is this a bloodworm or a parasite?” asks this reader in his submission regarding the creature photographed below. The critter in question appears to be a bright red color, with a thin, segmented body that is seemingly quite bendy.

“These creatures are found on the bathroom floor” says this reader about the light brown larva-like organism in the photographs below. She states that she has been finding “more and more of these creatures” in her Michigan apartment, and that she would greatly appreciate any assistance we can provide.

“I need help please” starts this reader in his query in which he asks for our “thoughts on these” organisms pictured below. The first photograph shows what looks to be a long, thin, dark red worm-like organism tangled in hair and other debris, and the second photo displays what we can only describe as white, cloud-like matter.

When someone says ‘bloodworm’, it may not bring up the most pleasant of images if you have never seen one of these critters before; the word itself is somewhat creepy! This article will detail the various worms that fall under this umbrella term, and why they are not nearly as terrifying as their name makes them out to be.

“Very thin, little red worms” have been coming from this woman’s tap in La Union, the Philippines. She asks that we help identify the critters and provide insight on how to get rid of them completely.

Red, “free-moving, thread-like” worms of varying lengths were discovered in the bathroom of this concerned woman. She says they look “dangerous and unpredictable” given their speed, and worries that they might be parasitic to humans.

A man from the UK recently sent in this image of a small, thin, red-striped worm found on the rim of his toilet bowl. According to him, the worm is 1cm (0.39-inches) in length and was found after his son had used the toilet.