We recently received this question from one of our readers, “What are these tiny worm-like creatures hanging from our bathroom ceiling? They hang from a tiny strand.” The photograph he sent shows a small organism with a round white head and either black stripes or segments lining its body:

We have written many articles about very similar situations that other readers have dealt with. Based on the information we have and the photograph that our reader sent, we believe the worm-like organisms in our reader’s bathroom are inchworms.

Inchworms are the larvae of geometer moths, which means they are caterpillars. There are about 20,000 species of caterpillars around the world, and over 1,000 of these are inchworms. Inchworms are easy to distinguish from other caterpillars since they have different physical features than most other caterpillars. Most caterpillars have tiny legs lining their entire bodies. Inchworms have legs on the front end of their body and the back end of their body, but no legs in the middle. This causes them to have a distinct walking pattern that makes them easy to recognize. They move by clasping their front legs and dragging their back legs forward. Next they clasp with their back legs and reach forward with their front legs. This movement pattern is the source of the their name, since they measure the earth inch by inch as they walk. Inchworms can also produce silk. We believe the inchworms our reader found are hanging from this silk.

Although we have dealt with several other readers with inchworms in their bathrooms, we have never been able to figure out exactly what the creatures are doing there or how they arrived in the bathrooms. We recommend that our reader give his bathroom a thorough cleaning, and make sure all the windows and doors in the bathroom are properly sealed to prevent inchworms (and other creatures) from sneaking in from the outdoors. Our reader can also install a dehumidifier to make his bathroom less inviting to inchworms and other creatures.

To wrap up, a reader discovered worm-like organisms hanging from his bathroom ceiling. We are confident that he is dealing with inchworms.