We received a question about worms found in a dog food dish from a reader not long ago. The reader wasn’t sure if the worms in the dog food dish (actually, it is a puppy food dish) were parasitic worms; in fact, the reader isn’t even sure that they are worms at all. He speculated that they might instead be insect larva (or larvae – we’re not sure how many creatures we are dealing with), which is definitely a reasonable idea because so many larvae are worm-like in appearance. (This is why larvae are so commonly confused with worms.) The reader was merely wondering what the worms in the dog food dish (or larvae in the dog food dish) are, presumably not only because he is curious, but also because he doesn’t want his puppy eating parasitic worms, like tapeworms, for instance. What are the worms (or larvae) he found in the dog food dish?