“What kind of a worm is this?” asks this reader about the light brown, segmented, worm-like critter pictured below. “It’s tan and one-inch long, with legs in the front and back that crunch when killed. Found on the floor. We live in Vermont and they have just been showing up lately (March and April).” Naturally, we have gotten to this submission very late, as it was sent last spring, so perhaps this issue has already been resolved. In any case, we still wish to cover the story, in the case that other readers have found similar things, or will find similar things this upcoming spring, and wish to know what it is.

“What is this?” is all Rocky asks about the brown worm-shaped creature pictured below. It is unfortunate that Rocky does not provide any context, as that always helps us narrow down the possibilities for what the given organism might be, especially when the photo does not already tell us what it is. And in this case, we cannot tell what this critter is based on the photo: it kind of looks like a cigarette or a dried up worm. Our best guess is that this is a mealworm, and we base this solely on its coloration. Mealworms also possess clear segmentation that we cannot see from the photo, but we suppose that, given the low resolution of the photo, the segmentation could just not be visible on the photo.