“I live in Toronto, Ontario, and was wondering if you could identify this worm/larvae”, states this reader about the white worm-like creature pictured below. “This small larva, which is approximately half an inch in length, was found in the bathroom and may have been an intestinal parasite (due to how it was discovered). It moves quickly and seems to have six small appendages and a segmented upper body. It has a small reddish brown “head.” It looks closest to a clothing moth larva, but the body shape is not the same and it is physically flatter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.” Now, since our reader states that he thinks it may be an intestinal parasite, we cannot identify this organism for him. This is because we are not medical professionals, and are thus not qualified or legally able to identify any organisms that affect the health of humans or animals.

We recommend that our reader consult a medical professional, and that he give them the same pictures, as well as the same context. In fact, he should expand on his context, and tell the physician the way in which he discovered the organism, as he did not detail that for us. He can seek the help of his primary care doctor, though we recommend consulting a specialist, namely a medical parasitologist. Unfortunately, primary care doctors often do not receive training in parasitology, and many of our past readers — who were concerned about parasites — have not had good luck asking their primary care doctors about parasite-related problems.

So, with that in mind, what we can recommend is that our reader do one or more of the following:
1) Search for a medical parasitologist in the Toronto area using this directory of medical parasitology consultants: https://www.astmh.org/for-astmh-members/clinical-consultants-directory.
2) Search for a local parasitologist by doing a Google search for “medical parasitologist Toronto” or “tropical medicine specialist Toronto”.
3) Get in touch with Dr. Omar Amin at the Parasitology Center at https://www.parasitetesting.com.

In conclusion, we are unfortunately not qualified or able to identify the organism our reader found, due to the medical nature of the situation. We hope nonetheless that the information we were able to provide proves helpful. We wish him the very best!

Summary

Article Name

White Larva-like Creature has This Man Worried About Intestinal Parasites

Description

"I live in Toronto, Ontario, and was wondering if you could identify this worm/larvae", states this reader about the white worm-like creature pictured below. "This small larva, which is approximately half an inch in length, was found in the bathroom and may have been an intestinal parasite (due to how it was discovered). It moves quickly and seems to have six small appendages and a segmented upper body. It has a small reddish brown "head." It looks closest to a clothing moth larva, but the body shape is not the same and it is physically flatter. Any help would be greatly appreciated." Now, since our reader states that he thinks it may be an intestinal parasite, we cannot identify this organism for him. This is because we are not medical professionals, and are thus not qualified or legally able to identify any organisms that affect the health of humans or animals.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton