Horsehair worms may be found inside homes in toilets causing people to be concerned that it is a human parasite.

They are especially noticeable after a rainfall.Horsehair worms are often seen in puddles and other pools of fresh water, swimming pools, water tanks and on plants.When the horsehair worm is mature and near water or damp soil, it emerges from its host.When they infect their host, horsehair worms store up fats and food reserves.It is not clear how immature horsehair worms infect hosts.They can attack a wide variety of insects and related animals: grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, beetles, and katydids, as well as dragonflies, caddisflies, millipedes, centipedes, spiders, crustaceans, leeches, snails, slugs and other invertebrates.Once they hatch, immature horsehair worms try to infect a host.Eggs are laid in a long, gelatinous string in fresh water.It is common to see a number of worms to be intertwined, forming a loose ball during mating.One of the most common worm infections in people worldwide, ascariasis is uncommon in the United States. Adult worms, which reproduce, can be more than a foot (30 centimeters) long. These worms are parasites that use your body as a host to mature from larvae or eggs to adult worms. Males coil around females in pools of fresh water or damp soil. Ascariasis (as-kuh-RIE-uh-sis) is a type of roundworm infection.Horsehair worms mate during spring, early summer or fall.

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