We received a very interesting question recently about, essentially, parasitic worms that infect other worms. Most of us have heard of parasitic worms that infect other hosts, including humans, but are there parasitic worms that take worms themselves as their host? More broadly, the reader was wondering if there is any “example of a parasitic animal whose host is a worm,” so in addition to looking for parasitic worms that infect worms, we are also looking for any sort of parasite that takes a worm as a host.

Natural cures for dog worms don’t actually exist, but preventative measures do. Before you can treat or prevent dog worms effectively, you should become familiar with the different types of dog worms and how dogs get them. The different types of dog worms include tapeworms, roundworm, whipworm, and heartworm.

“Can you identify this worm found in my toilet bowl after peeing?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the red, semi-transparent worm pictured below. “Doctor I visited was very uncertain but suspected it was a schistosoma.”

“This one centimeter-long worm-like creature was found in my mother’s tub today and on a few previous occasions”, says this reader about the segmented, green-gray creature in the photograph below. Our reader’s mother is concerned that these are pinworms, and our reader wonders if we can verify whether or not these are millipedes, centipedes or indeed pinworms.

Worms in dogs are commonly found in the intestinal tract and sometimes in the heart. Professional treatment and owner prevention are critical to the well-being of your canine companion.

Heart worms affect dogs, cats, coyotes, wolves, and other wild animals. The heart worm was first found in dogs over a century ago. Heart worm disease is often found within 150 miles the gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Hook worms can not only invade your family pet, but can also infect people. Hook worms infect both pets and people in the same way, by penetrating the skin.

Pinworms, also known as pin worms, or just pin worm, are a tiny parasitic worm which lives in the human intestinal tract. Pin worm infections are thought to infect as many as 400million people worldwide, and 40million in the United States alone. Pin worms often affect children.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, worms in the vagina are pinworms who have lost their way.

Worms in humans are often, but not always, filarial worms. Filarial worms are parasitic worms in humans that require a human host to survive and complete the life cycle.

Loa Loa worms (also known as the “eye worm”) are classified as filarial worms, meaning they thrive in human tissue. Loiasis, often misspelled as “loaisis”, is the infestation of loa loa worms in humans.

The Guinea worm is often referred to as the “fiery serpent”, likely due to the painful symptoms of Guinea worm disease. The life and survival of the Guinea worm is unique in many ways, often requiring a year for full development of the parasite, during which entire time the Guinea worm is painfully impacting a human host with that Guinea worm disease.

Hook worms can be be transmitted by contaminated soil or feces. Currently it is believed that as many as one-fifth of the world’s population is infected with hook worms.

Roundworm, commonly called “round worms” or “round worm” is one of the most common worms to infect pets. But round worms can infect humans, too.

Hook worms are parasitic roundworms that can live in human intestines, causing diarrhea, stomach cramps, and in severe cases anemia and protein deficiency. Although hook worms are not transmitted from human to human, they can be contracted through contact with contaminated soil.

Tapeworm can infect any mammal, including humans. Fortunately it is not usually serious, and is readily treated.

Ringworm, sometimes called ringworms, ring worm or ring worms, isn’t actually a worm at all. Ringworm is a highly contagious fungus.

“What I have found, I have discovered in every grocery store, in every food product”, writes Matthew in his submission, which does not include any photographs. In such instances we do want to make clear to our readers that any identifications we make will inherently be less accurate, as it is only based on what our reader has told us. “I asked a local butcher, and his response was: ‘What can we do?’. What I am talking about are tiny C-shaped nematodes about 1 mm wide and 2-3 mm long. They are clearish white, and move slowly. But what is interesting is that inside each little “C” is a lint-like worm that is a zig-zag shape, and capable of floating. The lint worms are incredibly thin, and seem to burrow into pieces of hair, clothing fibers, etc. And they gather and wind around each other as well as burrowing into our skin. But they grow. Often leaving worm-trails in the beard skin of men. So, my question is: How is no one noticing these things? Because they are everywhere. I’ve found them in tree leaves, and grass, but mostly just floating through the air. I am positive that they are what’s behind Morgellons. Except it is not rare. They are everywhere and in everything!”

“What are these clear worm things with black insides?” asks Robyn in her submission regarding the organism pictured below. “They were in the bathtub after giving my dog a bath. HELP!” Although the photo is quite blurry, we think that — given what we can see, Robyn’s description of the creature, and the context in which it was found — Robyn found flea larvae. Now, we realize that saying this could be cause for panic, given that fleas do infest dogs, and it is not the nicest thing to hear that this could be a possibility. What we will say is that flea larvae do not have the same diet as their adult counterparts, meaning that while the adult flea attaches itself to the outside of animals like dogs to suck their blood, the larvae do not do this.

“Yesterday my kids caught a Hentz Orb-weaver in a small mason jar. I was going to set it free but I completely forgot about the spider and it was left in the sealed jar on my back porch and when I woke up I noticed the spider was dead but there was also a long skinny light brown worm like creature inside the jar next to the dead spider”, writes Kelsey in his submission regarding the worm pictured below. “I’m completely baffled because this worm was not in the jar last night and the Mason jar has a sealed aluminum lid so I can’t imagine anything getting through that. How did the worm get in the jar? Is it some kind of parasitic worm? Can orb weaver spiders carry parasitic worms? I am a little freaked out and I really want to know how and why this is possible. Please help! Oh and the worm is very much alive by the way.”