“What is this in the video?” asks this reader in his submission regarding the tiny, red, worm-like creature pictured below. “Pest was very small, probably less than a centimeter. Was found on a roll of toilet paper. In the image, that’s a single square of Charmin it is on for perspective.” Now, despite the minimal context provided, there are some things to unpack here. Firstly, we will not be able to give a concrete answer as to what this creature is, simply because the photo and video provided are way too blurry to pick out the details of its physical characteristics. The most we can do is provide some educated guesses as to what it could be. Secondly, while the video is blurry, it does tell us something about how the creature moves. Its seamless gliding over the surface of the toilet paper tells us that this creature has legs, and is not a worm, but probably some type of larva (if not a millipede or centipede). Thirdly, our reader explicitly states that this is a pest, but does not elaborate on that point. For that reason, we will not assume that it has to be a pest when we suggest possible identifications.

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 frustrated reader wrote to us a while ago about tiny, red worms that he has been finding in his kitchen and bathroom. According to the reader, the worms are actually “redish” (reddish, presumably), approximately the color of rust. The tiny, red worms do not have any legs, and they don’t appear to have hair either. The reader finds the worms when he is sweeping – they crawl out of the piles of dirt that accumulate. The reader insists that no one knows what they are, and that no website dedicated to worms and larvae (including All About Worms) has any information about the worms in his bathroom and kitchen. What are the tiny, red worms he is finding?