A reader recently wrote to us about a black worm she found on the wall of her house. The worm is also described as “slick” and is about four inches long. The reader’s house is on the east coast of Florida, in a town called Fort Pierce. So, the reader’s worm is from Florida – it is a Florida worm, if you will, although of course the worm she discovered might be found in any number of other places depending on what it is. The reader was also concerned if the worm is dangerous or harmful, as she has a nine-month-old baby in the house. What is this black, slick worm from Florida, and is it harmful?

We decided to title this article with more or less the exact wording of an email we recently received from a reader. She reported that her “catalpa worms have white spikey things all over them,” and she is wondering what is going on. Something is clearly amiss with her Catawba worms. (For the record, Catalpa worms are Catawba worms and vice versa, as the words “Catalpa” and “Catawba” are interchangeable). The reader asked no additional questions, so we will focus only on the white spiky things on the Catalpa worms. We won’t worry about general matters of identification, presuming our reader is definitely dealing with Catawba worms, and we also won’t worry about ways to rectify the problem, which may not be possible anyway.

A reader recently asked us an interesting question about worms on the sidewalk. The subject matter isn’t strange – lots of people wonder why worms come out on the sidewalk – but his focus was unusual. He wasn’t curious about the presence of the worms, but rather about the “black balls of dirt” that came along with them onto the sidewalk. The reader asked “what” he was finding, which seems fairly simple – black balls of dirt (or possibly worm castings) – so we suppose we should expand the scope of the question, covering the matter of why he is finding dirt on the sidewalk along with worms.

A reader wrote to us recently about an amazing and beautiful worm, or what is believed to be a worm, that he had found on his patio. In fact, both those adjectives were combined, making the worm, in the reader’s words, an “amazing beauty.” The worm, which is about an inch long, had a red head, white “puffs” on its back, and two large antennae. Given this worm’s aesthetic appeal, it is not surprising that the reader wanted to know what kind of worm it was.

We received a question recently about a worm that a reader found in his bathroom. More precisely, the worm was found in the “gunk” between the tub and sliding door. The reader actually said he “found a ‘worm’ in the bathroom,” which we call attention to only because of the reader’s use of scare quotes. The reader acknowledges that he might not have found a worm at all, and in fact he probably didn’t. The “worm” in the bathroom could be a larva (or something else – it’s hard to say, as you’ll see). The reader was wondering what he had found, and also if a mere cleaning could address the problem.

One of our readers has asked about “hard shelled worms about 1/2 to 1 inches long that curl into a…

A reader recently wrote to us about, as the title of this article suggests, a small, brown worm with stripes on the counter. (The worm was on the bathroom counter, more precisely.) The reader sent pictures of the brown striped worm and was merely wondering what it is. She was very matter of fact in her email, not seeming particularly alarmed by the small worm, nor did she ask how to get rid of it, so we presume she is dealing with an isolated incident and not a recurring problem. (She did add the word “blah” after her short email, so she wasn’t altogether happy with finding the worm either.) So, we have a simple question before us: what is the small, brown, striped worm on the bathroom counter that our reader is finding.

Hook worms are intestinal parasites that are quite common in cats and dogs, especially kittens and puppies. They can also infect humans. Hook worms (also written as “hookworms”) can be found throughout North America, but some types of hook worm are more likely to be found in tropical and semitropical regions. There are several types of hook worm including: A. caninum (canine hook worm), A. braziliense (canine and feline hookworm), U. stenocephala (Northern canine hook worm), and A. tubaeforme (feline hook worm).

At a minimum of 8 inches long, the ribbon worms body is long and lean with finlike appendages. Some giant ribbon worm species or ‘Lineus longissimus’ may reach up to 100 feet long.

A reader wrote to us a while ago to ask about worm she found on the beach. Actually, she didn’t really ask about a worm on the beach – she wasn’t particularly interested in the beach worm itself – but she did mention it bit her son. Presumably, this is what concerned her about the worm. Peculiarly, though, she didn’t ask us anything. She merely said she found a white worm on the beach (it might have been more of a tan color, adds the reader) and that it bit her son, which created a mark on his skin that is red and itchy. Nothing else is added to the email – not even a period. We are of course in the business of answering questions, and the reader submitted her question through our eternally popular “Submit a Question” feature, so we are compelled to supply some information about her situation. What is this worm on the beach? Is this beach worm even a beach worm at all? Are worms on the beach generally dangerous?

A reader recently submitted a question via the All About Worms Facebook page about a worm “coming out of the ground” in his garden. The most distinguishing characteristic of the worm is that it is “very thin, almost like nylon fish line,” and it moves in a “swaying motion.” The reader only asked if what he found is a type of worm, but we’ll do him one better by identifying the exact worm we think he found: a horsehair worm (occasionally spelled “horse hair worm”). Since horsehair worms are nematodes (roundworms), they are actually worms, not just creatures that everyday language, with its understandable but often frustrating contempt for scientific precision, has wrangled into the “worm category.”

The earthworm’s moist, sustenance rich environment plays an extremely important role in reproduction as well. Worms prefer to mate and reproduce in warm moist soil, away from the light. If the conditions are not suitable for reproduction, the worms won’t reproduce.

We received a very interesting question recently about, essentially, parasitic worms that infect other worms. Most of us have heard of parasitic worms that infect other hosts, including humans, but are there parasitic worms that take worms themselves as their host? More broadly, the reader was wondering if there is any “example of a parasitic animal whose host is a worm,” so in addition to looking for parasitic worms that infect worms, we are also looking for any sort of parasite that takes a worm as a host.

A reader wrote to us a while back about a long brown worm with black stripes that she found in a decaying stump. Fortunately, she sent us an excellent photo of the brown worm, which we were quickly able to identify as a hammerhead worm (sometimes understandably, but incorrectly, spelled “hammer head worm”). The reader was merely wondering what the long brown worm was, so we’ve technically already answered her question, but if we stopped writing now, we wouldn’t have a very satisfying article to read. So, below we supply some information about hammerhead worms, which includes the reader’s excellent picture.

Grub worms, with their white C-shaped bodies, are lawn pests that are difficult to eradicate. In the larvae, or grub stage, grub worms feast on the turf’s root system.

Vermiculture is the practice of ranching – with worms. As the population grows, the vermiculture worms are used or sold for composting and for bait.

Worms in dogs are commonly found in the intestinal tract and sometimes in the heart. Professional treatment and owner prevention are critical to the well-being of your canine companion.

Heart worms affect dogs, cats, coyotes, wolves, and other wild animals. The heart worm was first found in dogs over a century ago. Heart worm disease is often found within 150 miles the gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Hook worms can not only invade your family pet, but can also infect people. Hook worms infect both pets and people in the same way, by penetrating the skin.

Silk worms are really not worms at all! Silk worms are actually the larvae of certain types of moths! The silk worm has been used for centuries in the manufacturing of textiles.