We recently received a short message and two photographs from one of our readers. She wrote to us about discovering some tiny worms hanging from a pool towel that was drying in her bathroom. She explained the towel was hanging in the bathroom for a couple of days, and prior to that the towel was outside by the pool. Here is the first photo she sent us, which shows the towel and a small specimen hanging from the bottom of it:

Our reader said that the creatures have big heads and skinny bodies. She thinks they are hanging from a silk string or something similar. At first she thought they were mosquito larvae, but the organisms were not in the water, they were on the towel. Mosquito larvae are aquatic, so our reader is correct, they wouldn’t be living on a towel. We agree with our reader, these aren’t mosquito larvae. But we think she was onto something because these specimens are larvae. To be specific, we believe these are geometer moth larvae, more commonly known as inchworms! Here is the other photo she sent us:

Despite having the word “worm” in their name, inchworms are actually caterpillars, not worms. They feed on the foliage of a variety of trees depending on their species. These trees include blueberry, mulberry, apple, pine, and fir. There are roughly 35,000 species of inchworms around the world and around 1,400 in North America! While some farmers and gardeners might consider inchworms pests because of the damage they can do to crops and plants, inchworms are harmless and not considered household pests.

These inchworms probably found the towel when it was sitting by the pool, and then were accidentally transported into the bathroom when the towel was brought in. Our reader can simply shake the towel out outside to get rid of the inchworms and then wash the towel.

To wrap up, a reader found some critters hanging from a towel that was out by the pool. We believe these worm-like organisms are inchworms.