White worms with black heads have been infecting this reader and her family for almost a year, and she has reached out to us for help identifying the worms. She reports that these worms “as thin as a hair” have affected her family, friend and dog.
To start off with, we wish to give a quick warning to our readers that this article contains some images which may be of a sensitive nature to some, as they show marks on the body, such as entrance wounds created by the parasite. Secondly, we have to address the unfortunate fact that we will not be able to identify this worm for our reader. This is because this situation is clearly medical in nature, and we are not medical professionals. Thus, giving an identification would be tantamount to providing a diagnosis. For that reason, we recommend our reader consult a medical professional in order to receive a diagnosis and treatment. Our reader has mentioned that she already went to the doctor and took a sample of the worm with her but that she was told that they could not identify the worm, but that the issue was probably “nothing” to which our reader got upset. This is an unfortunate situation that we have come across before, where people infected with parasitic worms will be turned away by their doctor. The thing is, most doctors and general physicians will not have received any training in this area, and are thus incapable of helping their patients. It is sad that so many doctors are not willing to admit this though, and turn away patients in need of treatment, instead of redirecting them to someone who can help.
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This is an area in which we can help. Instead of going to one’s regular doctor, when one has cause to believe they have been infected with a parasite, it might be a good idea to consult a specialist. Doing a simple Google search for ‘infectious disease physician (name of closest big city)’ or ‘travel disease doctor (name of closest big city)’ can lead one to finding someone who is far more able to aid with these kinds of issues. We urge our reader to do this, as she is far more likely to get real treatment for herself and her loved ones. Likewise, if our reader wants to increase her chances of getting an accurate identification once she consults a specialist, or simply wants to get more than one opinion, she can also take samples of the worms to her local county extension office or entomology department at a nearby university in order for it to get identified there. Of course, these places will not offer treatment or prescriptions, but it might be helpful to get an array of opinions on the worms’ identities.
We think it is also important that we summarize the context our reader gave us, because although we do not know what these worms are, it might help any of our other readers in the case that they have been experiencing something similar. That way, you guys will know whether or not you might consider also consulting a parasite specialist. According to our reader, her family has been dealing with these worms since August of last year. She even remembers specifically the time and day it first happened, “a Friday morning around 6 a.m.” Her friend had found a “little blackish-brown spot” on her arm which was moving (as exhibited by the pictures above). Our reader thought it looked like the head of a flea but smaller. Once she pulled it out of her friend’s arm, they noticed it was a white worm with a black head which was “as thin as a hair.” The worm broke in two upon trying to pull it out, but upon trying to pull out the other half, she noticed another worm, and states that “it looked like the worm was two worms wrapped around each other”.
As stated, they went to a doctor with the worm and were turned away. A week later, her friend began “breaking out in [purple ] bumps on her arm” and swelling occurred as well. They went to the doctor again, and were turned away a second time. Then, our reader herself noticed these same black dots on herself, and hence discovered the same worms in herself. She then started noticing them in her dog as well. Naturally, she started worrying about what this may be, not trusting her doctor’s advice that it was “nothing”, which is a reasonable mindset to have. Her symptoms include: swelling, burning sensations, itching, tingling in fingers and toes, and the sensation of something moving underneath her skin. She adds that when she gets in hot water, her skin appears to bruise. This whole ordeal has taken a toll on her “mental health and happiness” and that is why she has reached out to us.
In response to her context, we also urge our reader to take her dog to a vet for it to get treated, as having a parasite infection is not pleasant for any creature of any species. If by circumstance, she ends up taking her dog to her vet first, and the vet identifies the worm, then our reader will also get another professional opinion on the worm’s identification which she could bring to the parasite specialist once she has her consultation with them.
To conclude, we sympathize for our reader and her family. We understand how this would negatively affect her mental health, and although we can not provide all of the answers, we hope that this article nonetheless helped steer her in the right direction toward the help she can get from qualified professionals. Likewise, we hope that she does get this treated as soon as possible, so she can put her mind at ease.
All About Worms is always free, always reader-supported, we don't subject you to ads or annoying video pop-ups. But it does cost us money out of our pocket to keep the site going (nearly 20 years so far!) So your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP Publishing.
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Ok thank god because now I don’t feel as crazy. This sucks whatever is going on. I thought it was scabies at first and maybe it still is I’m not sure. but It’s caused me to loose so much hair and now l a bald patch. I knew I had been loosing hair at a somewhat alarming rate every time I’d brush it but I started thinking maybe I was just stressed. I had a small one start after I felt a bump. I ended up thinking I had lice and treated it with ivermectin cream. It seemed to help for a very short period. And my hair actually seemed to stop falling out as bad. But just the other day I was in the shower and went to rinse my hair and had basically clumps of hair washing out. So I tried to treat it again but there was another sore spot that had already formed. So last night I’m about to go to bed and I go to brush and put some oil in my hair (to try and keep what I thought might be lice at bay. I should also mention I’ve been trying to change my sheets every day but also I have animals that have to sleep in the bed or no one’s sleeping -I know it’s not the best but my dog is 9 and at this point it’s not changing. And the cats do as they wish if I locked them out of the room they literally bang on the door all night- but I digress) and the hair in the other side spot that’s right next to the already bald patch, starts coming out. I’m not tugging hard or anything. It’s just not rooted properly or something. And tbh, it alctually feels a little better physically aside from the mental aspect. Like pressure is relived or something. But now this bald spot is huge. I also have these spots that are on my arms chest hands and face. I will say that most of them are shaped like a circle. Most of them are small but a couple of them are larger (other than the bald spots) but I thought maybe it was scabies because they will form a line of dots. especially the ones on my face. I have a line found from my scalp above one eyebrow down and across my forehead diagonally to the other eyebrow. But also have what I would describe as lines and welts on my face as well. Both the ones on my face and body seem like they just will not heal either. But I have also pulled tiny white stringy thread looking things but then I have also pulled out black ones. The black ones seem more straight bodied though. But I have sat there and watch them crawl slowly out after applying clove/tea tree/ivermectin etc… the white ones seem to be attracted to skin like a magnet though. If you go to touch one and stop before you pull on it, it will what I can only describe as reach out for your finger. I’ve even gone back and forth to see if it was actually following. But if I have tea tree on my hands it’s a lot less willing to attach. but I’m not sure exactly when this started. I’ve been having skin problems for the last couple years and I thought it was actually getting better cuz it was. And then boom. Ten times worse. So idk if it was just the calm before the next episode or if this is something completely new. Around covid is when I started having skin problems (no vaccine. I did get COVID both years the second one being worse but it doesn’t seem very related to it imo) but just within the past few months is when I’ve gotten this god awful situation. I don’t have insurance and have strongly considered taking animal dewormer / parasite medication. I don’t have the money to waste on going to multiple different doctors for them to most likely brush me off. I just don’t know what else to do.
Please anyone help with this problem I’m going insane. em************@gm***.com
Hi all,
I am currently experiencing this, as well and I dont know what it is, but there is a new Facebook group called: womens microfilaria parasite group. The admin is talking about making the group available to men, too
There is. Protocol you can take. It includes a dewormer called Fenben, curcumin, quercetin, frankincense, Berberine, and CBD. It’s quite easy. A little expensive but it works.
I am also dealing with this in my face and neck I did you find out where the all of us got it around the same time I believe that it started after I got my covid vaccine but I don’t know. I work in the medical field so I don’t want to blame it on that but never had anything like this and I feel like I’m going crazy from it and I’m embarrassed and I feel like when people see me they literally do think that I’m on drugs I now have scars on my face and my neck I’ve tried everything it’s like I will start to get them to go away and then this comes back and even if I touch a part of my skin it’s like immediately more will start I will get actual holes some of them tiny and then usually they get very large until the point where I’m pulling all these little pieces out because it’s the only way that it seems to go down otherwise it just continuously gets bigger bigger bigger but then when I do that it seems like it just moves to another spot I feel like I’m going crazy and on top of it my face is beginning to have scars all over I’m so sad and there’s no answers for any of this besides now that I have a mental problem apparently with picking my face which is absolutely ridiculous I have never had that my whole life I can’t tell him it’s going to start up and exactly I can’t even explain the weirdness of this but please if any of you could possibly tell me if there was anything when it started and by chance did you guys all have the code with vaccine and if so what kind if you don’t mind sharing because I went back and tried to figure out how this started and what it is and I don’t want to blame it on that because it could literally be a million different things but if you guys could all get extremely detailed with it that would be amazing because we need to figure this out sometimes it’s painful sometimes it’s itchy sometimes it’s really red or like flaky or one little black spot that almost reminds me of if you’ve ever seen a dog or a human get a tick in the head breaks off where you can see the head but no matter what you just cannot get it to come out that is how I would explain when I see the little black pieces on the other hand I’ve pulled out white pieces that are not white pcs they are way too thick and they’re usually hard for a black head
Me and my gf live in Philly and been staying on an off in Nj in hotels as we continue to save . This all started a couple
Months back at a low rated shady motel in which we also thought we contracted lice my girlfriend literally found a bug in my hair and we went on to follow and treat the lice infestation. I went on to actually even shave my head … it’ seemed as if we had a hand on it until after a few trips to other hotels my gf started to say she felt things crawling on her and I was skeptical at first thinking she was paranoid from the weed or maybe at the least we came across a Motel w bed bugs but there were never any bug bites , it was so odd and then one day she said she had pulled a worm out of her me once again skeptical brushed it off and then it started to continue and get worse and I could not deny something was affecting and attacking her a little background info on her she’s anemic has to take iron twice a day . As it only seemed to continue to bother her more and more especially at night she started to scratch and even worse dig around in her skin trying to remove them . She attempted to go got to 3 hospitals and doctors of which they all seemed to hit her with the same reply you all seeemed to get brushed off with and misdiagnosed her with ivermectin 3 pills at once for one week and a second order if necessary in another week.. we have tried everything from changing hotels washing all our clothes on hot water even our cars it’s amazing how these things can travel and follow you … to the point I even made her throw out a bunch of our clothes . Oh a quick note for some reason they don’t seem to affect me it blows my mind I have only had two events one in whchb she pulled 2 worms I notice coming out of a finger in which if that was her she would have felt it yet I felt nothing .. a second event which affected us both was it started to affect our bowl movements one day our stomach’s were really bothering us both to an extreme and I had diarrhea but and for anyone who doesn’t believe we have photos and video I can’t even explain what I saw in my toilet other than snake like worm like moving green objects emerging from my stool and I would flush 5 times it would disappear and the. Reappear doing the same motion as a piece was stuck to the toilet now. If you think that was crazy not long after myself she then goes and guys I can’t begin to even begin explain what she left other than to say she had an ecosystem in there in which a two headed worm like or snail like creature was born out of this dumpling looking piece of poop that for some reason was the only one of this distance almost yellow color I gave insane videos of this in which I did a time warp to see the growth and change every 20’min it was amazing ! Unexplainable never happened again. But I must say I felt way better from that day on I dk why theee things don’t affect me like her it’s sad I feel hopeless I dk if it’s cause I’m a blk n
Male or what cause I have read females especially white are susceptible to this . She then got worse they started making holes in her hands getting under her nails and then in her scalp and head and every time we would remove one it would come
Right back we tried many things from anti biotics to creams meds today we finally saw a very good reseult In using bleach , itliterallly melted them i found they love the bathroom and it seems they start from white floaty hair like pieces that literally fly like they have their own will and direction and even looked like they had a nest under the door of which I went after with heavy bleach and bugs and they literally melted .I started applying bleach to her hands and almost remarkabley it melted the frames of the worms right out and returned her skin to normal i then applied it on her scalp and instantly any red affected areas or hives as she like to call the m melted her skin just almost healed and normal again and she neeed you no one at home believed us and our families even shunned us away as we have been forced to live like nomads our relationship has been under a lot ot stress as well I feel so helpless I just want to protect her please some one anyone help us!!!
Contact me at Sh*********@gm***.comSent from my iPhone Sent from my iPhoneimage0.jpeg
Hi there – Any further updates on this? I have the exact same appearance of spots. It has been a year now. Only recently have I pulled white worm-like items from each spot. Cant seem to find anything else out there similar to this minus your story! The doctor originally thought it was fresh water parasite and prescribed doxycycline. This didn’t work as this “bites” appear every month. Was then told it was just stress (this isn’t just stress!!) The latest potential diagnosis is Behçet’s disease given they consider these spots to be lesions. Trying dif meds, but nothing is working. Haven’t gone to doc again saying I think it’s worm.
This has altered my way of life given low energy and body aches 24/7. I hope there’s someone out there that has more detail on this, so spreading the word.
Anybody help us out here doctors say I’m on drugs and I pissed clean so idk what else to do!!!
I have the exact same thing going on right now so please if anyone knows what it is I need to know so I can get rid of it and get it taken care of
I have been suffering from exactly same thing absolutely stressful ??no one seem to know what they r my family thinks I’m crazy pls keep me updated as will I