“What is this worm?” asks this reader about the segmented, black worm-like creature pictured below. “I can’t seem to find it on Google or anywhere. In another article, you described it as an intermediate hooded owlet moth caterpillar, but after examining the images it’s the same thing I found, and in person you can tell it’s not really a caterpillar. It moves like one, but from what I could tell, mine had no legs, or very small ones. On one end it had four small spikes, things that looked like eyes, and two small pads it used to push itself along.”
Despite not linking the article she is referring to, we were able to find it. We can see now that this identification may not have been spot on, especially if the organism our reader found is the same one that we covered before, and they do appear to be. At that time, we did not have photos of the massive eyespots that are visible in the second photo our reader sent in (see below). That said, we are unfortunately not able to identify this caterpillar as we simply cannot find a match for it. What we can say is that it is still likely some sort of caterpillar, though it could also be a beetle larvae, given that it is not uncommon for certain species of beetle larvae to possess spikes or prongs of some sort on their rears.
With that said, we advise that our reader steer clear of those four spikes, and that she avoid touching the organism with her bare skin at all. It is not implausible that the spikes may be filled with some type of venom. Of course, given its small size in comparison to a human body, it will likely not be able to do any serious or long-lasting harm, but it could still potentially cause pain, itching or some other type of reaction. For that reason, we recommend scooping the creature up onto a dustpan and moving it outside. Since our reader did not find more than one, we do not think our reader needs to worry about an infestation, though she did not mention if it was found in her home in the first place.
To conclude, we are not able to make an exact identification of this worm-like creature, which is unfortunate. Nonetheless, we hope that something in this article proves helpful, and should any of our other readers have any ideas as to what this creature might be, they are welcome to share their thoughts in the comments section below. Until then, we wish our reader the very best!
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I live in Verona Mississippi, I walked out my house this morning, it’s cold and rainy, and found a bunch moving around on my porch. I touched one with a piece of paper it stopped moving. . I have four in a jar and they r moving. I don’t know if they r dangerous. That is my concern
I am pretty sure this is a crane fly larvae. I have several in my garden. These are not good for lawns or soil and sadly there is no clear solution to resolve.
You may have cracked the case, Suzanna! I always appreciate a mystery solved on the comments within these awesome pages. Good work. ?
I think this may be a type of crane fly larvae. I ran the reader’s image of his black segmented critter through Google and came across a Wikipedia article about Tipula Oleracea (Marsh Crane Fly) with an image of what appears to be almost exactly the same. What are your thoughts? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipula_oleracea
I came across this “allaboutworms.com” article while looking for information about dozens of tiny worms I found on the cement in my backyard this morning. They are about half inch to maybe a little shy of an inch. The reader’s image was the closest thing I could find, except these only had two very 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. 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. I wasn’t concerned, but after reading this article I wonder if I should be, especially since there are literally dozens of them thay suddenly appeared overnight. I will try to send in a picture shortly.
I also live in North Carolina Piedmont region (might be native here) and found tons of these under a pillow in my backyard, found only 1 living it doesn’t move much except when unburrowed, it burrows back under I have it in a container and will monitor it to see if it forms to anything.