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

“Is this a tapeworm?” asks Tammy in her submission regarding the clear, whitish worm-like critters pictured below. “I’m sure it must be. But the strange thing is I found it coiled up, I thought it was just some type of elastic on the side table in the bedroom! How would it get there? I freaked out that I touched it, but realized it was strange if elastic. I put it in a baggie with some eye drops to keep it moist. I’m freaking out because I don’t understand where it came from to end up on a table! I have no pets in this room. I thought worms came out in poop! And rarely seen as a whole worm. Please help me with this ASAP. I’d really appreciate.”

“Can tapeworms live on walls?” is all Robin asks in her submission regarding the yellow object in the photo. To begin with, we have to point out that we are not qualified or legally able to identify tapeworms, because they are parasites. Only a medical professional is legally able to identify parasites, or any other organism that directly affect the health of people or pets, because that identification is tantamount to a diagnosis: it dictates what types of treatments and/or medications a human/animal might need as a result of finding that parasite. Now, we realize that Robin did not ask us to identify a tapeworm: she only asks if they can live on walls. But the photo is somewhat confusing, as it does not seem to show a tapeworm, or any organism for that matter, so we do not know its purpose.

“I found these in the aerator of my bathroom sink”, writes Clifton in his submission regarding the gooey-looking creature pictured below. “The pictures are after they were not noticed and the aerator was placed in boiling water: due to a boiling advisory by the city. So the color may be different than when they were alive. Someone else found the same ones in their faucet and they claimed they were tapeworm larvae.” To start with, we want to thank Clifton for the excellent photo. Usually, such a photo, which is as crisp as this one, helps us identify the organisms we are looking at. In this case, it just shows us in greater detail that we have no idea what we are looking at.

“I found this in my home”, states this reader about the long, white worm-like organism pictured below. “I have been tortured lately by some unknown “thing” in my house. May it be bugs, worms, or something else; I found this when I woke up after a very rough night. I got a ton of bites on me. I’m not sure what’s going on but please give advice. Any is helpful. I know you can’t give medical advice but if you can try to identify the possible “worm” pictures that would be great. I was leaning towards a tapeworm possibly. Thank you for your time.”

“I keep finding these black, thread-like worms in my bathtub”, states this reader about the multitude of minuscule worms pictured below next to the black insect. “And always in the poop of a dead ant or other dead bug that may have got in.”

“I keep getting attacked at night by something” states this reader in his lengthy query about the creatures that have been bothering him since “August of 2020”. Our reader is concerned about his health and is currently not getting any medical treatment that is helping his issue.

“I woke up and saw this next to my dog’s poop” states this reader in her submission. “What is it?” she asks about the small, pink-colored worm in the picture below.

Although worms make up the cuisine of several cultures across the globe, we Westerners typically do not regard worms as a tasty source of sustenance, especially if they were not supposed to be a part of our meal in the first place. Being surprised by a worm in your food can be an extremely unpleasant experience, and this article is going to provide some examples of the types of worms one can potentially find in their food.

There are many wonders and joys to owning a pet, but along with the enormous responsibility they impose, there are unfortunately also a lot of complications that one might have to overcome, such as health problems. One of the health problems that both dogs and cats alike can face are intestinal worms.

The tapeworm diet is a phenomenon that took the internet and world by storm a few years ago as its absurd and unorthodox method sparked controversy. This article will explore how this diet works, and why it’s problematic.

It is not uncommon for us to receive submissions from readers who have been on vacation and have come home to discover that they are infested with some kind of parasite. Naturally, we sympathize with any of our readers who have ever experienced something like this, and thus we wanted to write this article in order to give some basic tips to our readers on how to prevent something like this happening to them.

Many a dangerous worm exists in this world, many of which are overestimated, but just as many of which are severely underestimated. This article will outline some of the worms that you may encounter that pose some level of threat toward yourself and others. For the sake of organizing the content of this article, we will split this up into three categories, namely parasites, venomous worms and marine worms (many of which you will never have to actually worry about).

A woman diagnosed with “SIBO with methane” has been “losing things that look like worms for weeks.” She does not ask for a diagnosis, but simply what they might resemble, because her doctor and herself cannot decide what they look like.

“What are the symptoms of worms in the brain?” asks one of our readers. No worm in particular is specified, nor is any context given, but we will do our best to answer this question nonetheless.

After giving his five year old daughter a dose of albendazole (anti-worm medication), this reader from India wrote to us about the worms he discovered after his daughter used the toilet. The worms were found “wriggling around” inside the toilet together with his daughter’s stool, and appear to be, as described by our reader, “smooth and dark in color.”

A woman recently contacted us about discovering that worms were crawling on her and her mattress when she woke up for two days in a row. The worms appear to be somewhat oval in shape (though it could be the worm contracting its body to make itself smaller) and are described as being almost flat and a ‘greenish’ color by our reader.

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.

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.

Symptoms of worm infections are similar regardless of the worm that has infected the cat or kitten. The only way to be 100% sure of the types of worms infecting your animal is to provide a stool sample to your local veterinarian for testing.