“I was wondering if you could help to determine what this stuff in the photo is that I found while cleaning a small tray I had on my bureau”, writes Sandra in her submission regarding the gray matter pictured below. “I just turned it over and this stuff came out. The tray is basket weaved and I had no idea the stuff was even there! I don’t know if it is eggs (although I have not seen any bugs) or what it could be but I tried looking for it online without success. I was hoping you could help me out with this and maybe what I should do? Thank you.”

“At least, I think they are worms”, writes Jay in his submission regarding the tubular, orange objects pictured below. “They are in my garden, and clearly invertebrate. I’m in south-central Wisconsin, north of Madison by about 1/2 hour drive.” We have certainly never seen worms that look like these. At first sight, we thought of carrots, albeit hollow carrots. But these are clearly not carrots. That said, they are also not worms. They are actually a species of fungus called Mutinus elegans. These guys have many nicknames, including elegant stinkhorn, dog stinkhorn, headless stinkhorn, and much more.

“Is there a worm that can live off of fabrics as well as wooden structures?” asks this reader in his submission. “I’ve been seeing damage to wooden furniture as well as drywall and fabrics in our home. There’s also a dramatic increase in the quantity of dryer lint produced when I do laundry. Like I mean an extreme amount. Our clothing and bedding is riddled with holes and loose threads hanging down. There’s also strange markings on walls and ceilings (etc.) that I can’t explain. These weird fuzzy web looking things that appear to be growing out of the wall, I don’t know? Do we have some sort of house pest or is there something else contributing to these issues? I’ve been searching for answers and coming up empty. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.”

“Can anyone identify these things?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the strange-looking organisms pictured below. “I have alot of pics but for now I’ll send a few. Please help, I desperately need to know what these are.” Now, our reader does not give any more context, which makes identifying these creatures pretty hard, especially considering that they are not easily-recognizable organisms, and they all look completely different. When it comes to the first image, we think this looks like a moth – almost like a common clothes moth.

Two, strange-looking creatures were found by Gary, a reader whose issue we only recently covered in “an article on what we identified as potential pupae” or debris. Shortly after we covered his story about the “two little guys” he found on his “couch after [he] spent the night sleeping on it”, he sent us new pictures. Here is what he said: “Actually I sent you the wrong picture. The one that I sent you was of them days later. Attached is them right after I found them. Closest thing that I’ve found is from Australia, but theirs has an open triangle on them as mine are filled in. Very similar otherwise.”

“Is this a bug or fungus?” asks this reader in Phoenix, Arizona who has been dealing with what she believes to be some type of organism. The organism in question is in her eyes, ears, nose, skin and hair follicles.