We recently received a seemingly straightforward question from a reader: "How did a Phoenix Worm end up in my toilet?" This question about Phoenix Worms, although refreshing in its brevity, is actually a little bit tricky to answer, as it gives rise to other questions: what is a Phoenix Worm exactly (hint: it's not a worm), and could this creature possibly end up in a toilet? If not, then what is our reader finding in his toilet? Then again, if our reader did find a Phoenix Worm in his toilet, we only have one question to answer: how did it end up there? Continue reading [...]…

One of our readers has shared a photo of a dark-colored cylindrical worm with antennae she found in the bathroom. Her concern is largely whether this is an intestinal parasite or could have been in the toilet bowl before it was used by a person. With its cylindrical body shape and antennae, we think it's not a worm, but an arthropod, alarmingly named the snake millipede and harmless to humans, and was most likely in the bowl before she noticed it. The black (or white legged) snake millipede (Tachypodoiulus niger) and blunt-tailed snake millipede (Cylindroiulus punctatus) are among those most common to the UK and parts of Europe. The blunt-tailed snake millipede grows up to 25 millimeters, is typically pale brown with a striped appearance, and often has darker spots along its sides. Continue reading [...]…

We recently received a question through the All About Worms Facebook page about "two red worms in the toilet bowl." The worms were "10 cm long, thin, like one millimeter in diameter, and alive, even in the water, they were still moving." The reader didn't actually ask for an identification, but instead asked if the worms might be parasites. This is his main concern, and we will focus on this question, although the answer is of course tied to what exactly the reader found, so we'll touch on the matter of identification as well. What might the red worm in the toilet be, and are they parasitic? Continue reading [...]…

A reader wrote to us a few days ago about some tiny larvae he is finding in his toilet bowl. He specifically asked if they are moth fly larvae, which we think is likely. The reader asked where they come from, and he also asked how to "get rid of them for good," which perhaps suggests he has had this problem before. First we'll discuss why we think what he found is moth fly larvae, and then we'll move on to address where they came from and how to get rid of them. Continue reading [...]…

We received a fairly confusing question from a reader about gray worms in the toilet. Actually, the gray worms (or grey worms if you prefer this spelling) were not in a toilet, but in a "potty," which we are assuming is a trainer toilet of some variety or another for your children. The reader is hoping she found a "fly larva," and that no one in the family has any sort of parasitic worm infection, and for this reason she wanted us to identify the gray worm in the toilet. Continue reading [...]…

On two recent occasions in the last week, a reader found a worm in her toilet. She found the worm after she used and flushed the toilet in both instances. The worm in the toilet is quite small - it is only about a half an inch long (about 1.5 centimeters) - and it has a white and grey body. (It isn't really either color, so the worm is more of a whitish, grayish color, with both end tips of the worm being a darker, almost black color.) Understandably, the reader was worried about finding a worm in her toilet, so she went to the doctor to be tested for parasites. She was given Albenza by the doctor as she awaited her test results. In the meantime, she asked us to weigh in the matter, hoping that we can identify the small worm in the toilet she found. Continue reading [...]…