“I can’t figure out what this is”, writes Thomas in his submission regarding the thin, white worm-like creature pictured below. “I found it in my backyard soil. It’s extremely thin and maybe four inches long. You can see how small it is by the wire it’s crawling on for size and the mite that goes near it. It looked like a piece of fishing line at first but then I noticed it moving. It’s mostly clear/white in color with some black insides. I’ve been trying to find what it is but I can’t find anything similar to this. Do you know what it is? Thanks.” To start with, we want to thank Thomas for his incredible photo, which has definitely been magnified, as the green wire that the worm is crawling on looks like a pipe! We also want to thank him for the context which is super helpful.

“This morning I found dozens of tiny worms on the cement in my backyard”, writes Suzanna about the darkly-colored, worm-like creature pictured below. “They are about a half inch to maybe a little shy of an inch. The article “Segmented, Black Worm-like Critter with Spiky Rear and Huge Eyespots” had an image of the closest thing I could find online that looks like them, except instead of four spikes these little guys only have two tiny “spikes” that look barely more than two well-defined tips. But the color and texture of their body and shape are exactly the same as the reader’s critter, perhaps slightly lighter in color. I’ve attached a few pictures. I live in the Piedmont area of North Carolina and I’ve never seen these before and I’m particularly interested because it’s winter, and although yesterday’s high was 65 F, last night temperatures were in the high 30s. Could you please help me identify these? Should I be concerned, especially since there are literally dozens of them that suddenly appeared overnight?”