Tapeworm can infect any mammal, including humans. Fortunately it is not usually serious, and is readily treated. Continue reading [...]…

No one likes a headache, and each kind of headache is bad in its own way, but you would probably be especially disturbed if your headache was caused by a parasitic worm crawling around your brain for several years. Such was the fate of a British man who recently found out that a one centimeter tapeworm (more precisely, Spirometra erinaceieuropaei) has been living in his brain for the past four years. Continue reading [...]…

We recently received several photos of a fairly long, skinny worm that a reader found in his backyard. We have received many questions about long, skinny worms, and every time we do our first thought is that the reader has found a horsehair worm (sometimes incorrectly written "horse hair worms"), as horsehair worms are indeed long and skinny. With respect to our present reader's question, we also think there is a good chance he found a horsehair worm. However, the reader specifically asked about tapeworms (which is also incorrectly spelled frequently - as "tape worms") and was wondering if the creature he found could "burrow" into a body. So, we'll address the reader's concerns concurrently, explaining why we think he found a horsehair worm (and not a tapeworm), and in so explaining it will be clear why there is no need to worry about this worm burrowing into a body. Continue reading [...]…

At three feet, the tape worm can have as many as 90 segments. These segments look like grains of rice. Continue reading [...]…