One of our readers wrote to us about some tiny black worms that have been causing him some distress. He explained, “whenever I go to the toilet, I notice these worms after flushing. Sometimes there are 5 or more, sometimes just 2. I think they are coming from inside of me. I’ve been taking tapeworm medication, but the results haven’t changed. I’ve done a lot of research and haven’t found any parasitic worms that look like these creatures. What do you think they are?”
In this first photo, our reader has placed the creature in question next to a battery. This is incredibly helpful because it allows us to use the battery for size comparison and understand how small the organism is. Based on this photo and the information we got from our reader, we don’t think he is dealing with a parasite…we think the creatures he has been finding are drain fly larvae.
This next photo provides a closer look at the organism. We are confident that this is a drain fly larva. These tiny black worms are segmented and covered with tiny hairs. They are also common household pests and nothing to worry about! We do recommend that our reader do a little work to get rid of them, but we don’t believe they are parasites that are coming from his body.
Drain fly larvae live in the organic matter that builds up inside a drain. This gunk is where they breed and even what they eat! If our reader has been noticing them in his toilet, it is just a sign that he needs to give it a thorough cleaning, not that he has a parasite.
To clean out the toilet bowl and drain, he will need a pipe cleaning brush and a cleaning agent designed to eliminate organic material. We recommend Bio Drain Gel or Bio Clean Powder, both available on Amazon. He should thoroughly scrub all the surfaces, pour hot water down, and repeat. Once there is no more gunk in his drain, there won’t be any more larvae in his toilet!
To conclude, we believe the tiny black worms our reader found in his toilet are drain fly larvae, not parasites. Drain fly larvae aren’t considered harmful and aren’t known to carry or transmit human diseases. If our reader is still convinced these worms are coming from his body, then we encourage him to see a doctor! We aren’t medical professionals and therefore can’t weigh in on medical matters.
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I am infested in my body. I get up at 4 00 am and take photos of black patches and lumps. They are groups of dots under my skin over about a week they grow and come through my skin and form what looks like a scab magnified they are still dots or long dots. By chance I took some antibiotics they the larvae didn’t seem to like it and eat there way out. How I got into this hell. They came from a near by septic tank. after 7 months there were 3 followed by one hundred zeros. I am old and had open wounds. Hello hell. These creatures are nocturnal and during the day I look normal white male. At present rate I will be like a black african in 2 years every night. Doctors When I tell them show them proof in photos and I say what is it ? Say I don’t know but you can’t be infested so get mental help they will give you tablets so you no longer care.
Hi Dori,
Thanks for the explanation. You are 100% right. I did a little experiment and poured a bucket of water into the toilet drain (I actually repeated this process a few times). And I’ve seen these little rascals come up again. I realized that these creatures were the larvae of drain fly from the beginning. I admit that I acted little paranoid and I used Albendazole. Fortunately, I’ve learned how to deal with these creatures, thank you again :)