“Translucent, striped, microscopic, hairlike worms in Miami Beach apartment water faucets”, writes this reader in her submission regarding the array of organisms pictured below. “I had previously found this after bathing my dog with Septol. This nightmare never ends. Now I noticed they come from our faucets. What is going on? I’m so scared. Thanks for your help.” The first thing we want to bring attention to is our use of the phrase “array of organisms”; we do think our reader is actually dealing with multiple different organisms that are not necessarily related. For example, the yellowing, segmented worm-like creature pictured below looks to us like a fly larva (maggot). People can commonly get these during the summer as flies enter the home and lay eggs in one’s organic compost. The best way to tackle these is to consistently throw out compost and larvae in trash cans outside, keep one’s kitchen clean, and maybe buy fly traps if the issue is bad enough.
Similarly, the other ovate, translucent creature is definitely neither microscopic or hairlike. We are not sure what this is, but our best guess is that it is a pupa, or not an organism at all. When it comes to the microscopic hairlike worms, we are not able to identify these for the very reason that they are microscopic. Our reader did send in far more photos than the ones we attached, but the majority of them did not show us anything due to the reason that the worms are microscopic. In one of the photos we see a mass of dark-colored, hairlike worms. However, the photo is so blurry that we cannot make out any more identifying information than this. Our best guess here would be that they are sludge worms, which are harmless bloodworms that are often found in or near sewage: they eat decomposing organic matter and are usually found clumped together. It is not entirely impossible that they would be coming from a faucet, especially if there is a leak.
Speaking of which, we only just responded to a submission from another Miami Beach resident who informed us about a water boiler alert in Miami Beach due to a “water main break“. She also reported on hair-think worms coming from her faucet. Now, we cannot confirm if this is the same phenomenon our reader is experiencing, but it could very well be correlated. During a water main break, drinking unboiled tap water should be avoided: only drink bottled water or tap water that has been boiled for several minutes. We recommend that our reader contact her city to find out if her area is affected by the main break and if it is possible that worms are coming from her faucet as a result. Similarly, she might need to contact a professional to clean out her boiler. On top of that, if she has been drinking or using the water from the taps and is worried about her health, we recommend consulting a medical parasitologist. Equally, if she is worried about her dog, she should take it to the vet.
To find a medical parasitologist or other health care provider who can actually help, our reader can do one or more of the following:
– Visit our parasite care resources page here: https://www.allaboutworms.com/get-medical-attention-and-tests-for-parasites
– Search for a medical parasitologist in Miami Beach using this directory of medical parasitology consultants: https://www.astmh.org/for-astmh-members/clinical-consultants-directory.
– Search for a local parasitologist by doing a Google search for “medical parasitologist Miami Beach” or “tropical medicine specialist Miami Beach”.
To conclude, we do not know what the hairlike worms are that our reader found. We recommend that she contact the city and potentially a medical parasitologist and vet. With regard to the other organisms, we recommend that our reader deep cleans her home, consistently cleans it, and moves any live worms outside. We hope this helps, and we wish her the very best.
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dam Laverne, been getting that same hair as you for 2 years im so tired of it man.
i thought it the was cat also, i think its some kind of bacteria or fungus.
its getting worse and worse. my ears and sinus’ seem to be an endless supply of this crap. when i clean my ears and nostrils with a qtip, a bunch of fuzzy fuzz comes with the gook. its so bizarre.
been on antibiotics but that didnt do a damn thing. developed a cleaning disorder, place is spotless, except for this phantasm.
goodluck.
Hello, my name is Laverne and I live in southwest Michigan. Those clear hairs found in faucet I have been dealing with too. Whenever I find them they look like a wad of black and white and clear hairs or fibers tied together and wadded up. I find them everywhere in my home, clothing, bedding, carpets, on lamps and flat surfaces. They can move on their own. I have cats so at first I thought the white hairs I was finding around the house was cat hair that had gotten missed by the vacuum. But as time went on I noticed these things floating through the air out of the corner of my eyes and when I would pick one up it could move by itself! And it looks like cat hairs. I noticed they range in color from white to black and even some light golden ones which is the color of my hair. Then I realized they were either the cat’s and my hairs or these things are mimicking our hair! I don’t know, all I know is I have never ever seen anything like this in my life and it’s the most bizarre situation I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing. And I can’t talk about this with anyone because they would think I’ve completely lost my mind. I also find itty bitty clear white fibers either on or coming out of my fingertips. My question is, what the hell is going on? I’m not crazy and I’m very confident and sure about that. This is like something out of a sci Fi movie except it’s reality mirroring a sci Fi movie. It’s a relief to know I’m not the only one experiencing this insanity with moving hairs and white fibers. I wonder if this is what was meant by pestilence in the Bible? Is this biblical since it’s worldwide and is iit one of the plagues they mentioned? Nothing surprises me much anymore. There’s an electricity in the air, so to speak, like a pressure cooker that’s about to blow it’s lid and I can feel it. Many people can feel it too and many still can’t. I have just been bracing myself for whatever is to come and this weird stuff happening to people is just part of it perhaps?