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Horse hair worm: photo from Wikipedia Fascinating. Your hairworm was probably a Spinochordodes tellinii, aka horse hair worm. I could not find any reference to their having praying mantis hosts either. You discovery may initiate new research. The "mind control" is believed to have something to do with neurotransmitter activity or geotactic activity (body's response to changes in gravity). Infected hosts have different proteins in their brains than uninfected grasshoppers. Unique to this parasite is its ability to cause its host to jump into water just before the worm is ready to leave its host. I am puzzled about something, though. The life cycle of this parasite needs to end with the adult in water, but how does the egg get into the grasshopper?
Hairworm Observed Emerging from Mantis
As I watched the praying mantis crawling on my hand, I noticed something brownish coming out of its bottom. At first I thought it was feces, but then it started wriggling around vigorously. Was it a tapeworm, or some unknown species of worm?
Praying mantis: This isn't the mantis with the hairworm. But any excuse to post a photo of a praying mantis is a good excuse to do it.
Courtesy CatDancing
We brought the worm home in a bag and searched on the internet. It was a hairworm, a parasite that feeds on the insides of insects and brainwashes the insects into jumping into the water, where it completes its lifecycle. That makes sense because the praying mantis jumped off my hand into a wading pool just before I brought it onto land and the hairworm started coming out.
We've only found examples of hairworms coming out of grasshoppers and rarely emerging from damselfies/dragonflies. Has a hairworm ever before been observed coming out of a praying mantis? I found it on Oct. 4, 2006 at Kyodo no Mori in Fuchu-shi in Tokyo when my 4th grade class from ASIJ was on a field trip.
My name is Elsa and I am nine years old. I want to be either an entemologist or a herpetologist when I grow up.
Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas
Good question. Apparently it takes a host or two to get to the final host.
Horsehair eggs are laid in the water in long strings where the adults live. After hatching, the larvae penetrate some aquatic insect; they escape in some unknown way from this host and find their way into a second host; usually a beetle, cricket, or grasshopper; in the body cavity of the second host the larvae continue their development eventually passing out into the water where they become mature. Since the adults live only in water, those that survive probably emerge from terrestrial (flying) insects, which constitute their second hosts, that chance to drown in watering troughs and small ponds. horsehairworms photo via kaeahoeks.com
Thankyou for this information and the links. The credit and source of information is:
(Many thanks to Richard Webb, member of Four Creeks Chapter, for this information on harsehair worms. He credits INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY by Robert W. Hegner, printed April, 1933.)
The insects do not happen to drown by chance. The insect host is brainwashed into jumping into the water. While I was holding the praying mantis, it jumped unexpectedly from my hand into the water and did not attempt to fly as usual. The hairworm emerged right after I scooped it out of the water and put it on land. The hairworm emerged because the praying mantis was in water. There was also another praying mantis in the same large wading pool that I had scooped out later, but this one was dead.
Elsa, 4th grade student
Here in southern Philippines, I saw 2 hairworms come out of the Praying Mantis. 1 thick one and one smaller one. Totally gave me goosebumps as the scene reminisced the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Can't get it out of my mind as of the moment.
Ok the hair worm coming out of a praying mantis is nasty!!! I totally agree with you. Bleh, makes me want to puke. Now it's stuck in my head, thanks a lot.
*i hope that it is out of your mind now*
A video of cricket suicide due to hairworm can be found by clicking link.
My puppy/dog, who is 1-1/2 years old found a cricket with the hairworm coming out of its bottom end also. Long and wiggling fast. He had it in his mouth for a while until I retrieved it from him. The cricket was still alive, so I saved it and pulled the worm out of it with a fly swatter. I threw the cricket outside and continued to observed this worm since I have never seen it before. It would not die. I put bug spray on it twice and it would not die. I put it into a plastic bag and ended up poking it with a sharp ink pen in several places to kill it.
My question is that even though it appeared to be in one piece, is it possible that it could have gotten into my puppy and harm him? I hope not! Please respond to me at the above email address. Thank you.
My 10 year old son rescued a praying mantis from our pool this afternoon, only to find this weird animal crawl out of its anus.
I couldn't work out what it was, and just did a search on the internet and came across this.
Wow - so that is what it was - it was really long, and wipping around - couldn't work out which end was the tail and which was the mouth
I am really pleased to know what it is
PS-this was in Sydney Australia
Dear Artifactor,
My 12 yr. old daughter, my 6 yr. old son and I found a potatoe bug in our living room after some very heavy rains. We were preparing to scoop it up and put it outside when we noticed it had a dark loop attached to its back end. The loop became bigger and bigger untill one end became free ( the tail end) and then the other. We kept them both in captivity in my sons first grade class. The potatoe bug died after 24 hrs. The parasite is still alive after seven. We can let it go now that we know what it is and that its not harmfull to hunmans. A Horse Hair Worm! Long thin and dark brown. Approxamately 9 inches. Have you ever heard of one coming out of a potatoe bug? Thanks for the information, mystery solved.
Family from Sonoma California
How exciting. I get freaked out just seeing the pictures. I don't think I could touch one. According to Wikipedia, hairworms would be happiest released in water.
We have had some kind of flying bugs since our roof was replaced this fall. The bugs fly around, leave a larva of some kind, then the larva hatch and we have more bugs. Is there anything we can do to get rid of these things. They are on our ceiling all over our house.
My training is in physics but here is how I would tackle the problem.
- use a reference book from the library to identify the insect
- research how it lives and what it likes
- use that information to make the insects want to leave
While walking in downtown Goondiwindi (4hrs south-west of Brisbane Australia) we discovered a praying mantis being attacked by ants... the super heroes that we were decided to rescue the poor fella from certain death and after picking him up discovered 3 long thin worms protruding from his cloaca!!
This certainly was the highlight of our trip to Goondiwindi- we had never seen such a strange occurence. We came home to check the internet to discover what they were.
I wonder if the worms knew that the praying mantis was being attacked because they were coming out and he wasnt in water!?
While working on the Harrier Jet in Iwakuni Japan, we noticed a praying mantis laying on the floor. Two long brown ( seemed like worms, but moved like snakes ) came out its bung holio. Myself and the other Marines were curious as to what they were. I came in the shop and looked on the internet to find the name of this wierd parasite. Thanks for your help;)
I was relaxing in a park having a nice lunch over hear in Japan. I saw a Praying Mantis just chilling in the middle of the concrete path as they usually do. Don't know why they like concrete so much. Well a little kid rode by on his bike and hit the poor bugger. I went over to see how the Praying Mantis was doing. He seemed ok. I think the kid ran over its butt. I guess there butts are pretty tough. Well after about a minute this long worm started to come out of its rear. However it was black, dark black, not brown as described in the above posts. Well I was pretty disgusted. It was a nasty thing. All long and wiggling. I really couldn't believe it came out of the Mantis. I had never seen anything like that. I was wondering what it was so went online to check it out. I got the answer from this website. Thanks.
I've seen a few photos of cockraches with a long hair looking thing coming out of the rear end and it's always described as a "nematode", never a horsehair worm. Thanks for narrowing down this species. If anyone is wondering how someone works with insects on a day to day basis I'll tell you - it takes time to be desensitized and even then, there are times when you must learn to shut down your brain and memory or you'll end up a starving insomniac, especially if you service restaurants -- even the fancy "Hollywood" type. There's no such thing as a pest-free restaurant---ever.
Happy dining,
Artie pco
Well first hand too I have seen a worm coming out of a Praying Mantis rear end, The cat brought the Mantis into the kitchen and was playing with it when I found it as i thought it was nearly dead I went to pick it up and take it out side when it tried to bite me so I put it into a box when I noticed something coming from its behind curious I kept watching and this dark brown worm about 10cm long came out and the whole time this was happening the mantis looked like it was in a trance until it was out then the mantis came to life and it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen,
This all happend in FAR NORTH QLD AUSTRALIA
I was looking around on a Chinese webpage, and this one guy had posted up these series of pictures of a cat fighting a praying mantis.
Link: http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200804/news-gb2312-575892.html
Apparently, the poster wanted to take some pics of some rare monkeys found only in that area, but came across this small cat fighting a praying mantis. S/he also saw a long worm about 16 cm emerging from the mantis as they fought, but the worm made no attempt to hurt the cat. In fact, it crawled away as quickly as possible. Ffrom the pic, it looks like it was emerging from the mantis's rear end (the pointy thing at the butt of the mantis), but it was really bizarre. The mantis remained concious throughout the fight, but was killed by the cat at the end.
According to Chinese stories (told by old people), if you touch a praying mantis, a long worm will crawl out of its tummy and get into your ear. I think the ear part is just a story though---I hope!
I saw two praying mantis' on the screen door outside my house, i had a closer look and saw that there was a strange bug looking thing, about 1.5cm long, protruding from its anus, it was wriggling but wasn't actually coming out. The praying mantis was still alive which i thought was strange.
Central QLD
Wow, aren't horsehair worms the weirdest? While playing with a cricket in my mom's office one evening, my six-year-old son accidentally dropped the bug into a small pot of fragrant, melted wax. I scooped the poor little fellow out of the wax quickly. But, it was obviously too late since he was coated in pinkish wax and not moving. We put him in a tissue on the floor--planning to put him back in the yard later--when we suddenly saw some movement in his abdomen!
As we watched... his outer shell erupted and a very large black worm came wriggling out! Ewwww...!!! I had no idea what it was and my son and I were both freaked out. All I could think of was the scene in the *Alien* movie where a creature bursts out of a person and slithers off into the ship. The human host is dead but the *monster* has made his escape.
Well, our little *monster* wasn't going to escape. I grabbed the dead cricket and the creepy, wriggling worm with the tissue and ran to the trashcan. I stuffed the bundle deep under empty bags and coffee grounds. In the car on our trip home, my son said that the cricket seemed to jump into the small crockpot, and that he didn't really drop it. We raise monarchs, praying mantids and we handle spiders and other insects, so I couldn't figure out why my son would *drop* this cricket into the only *wet* substance in the office. I also couldn't actually believe that the cricket would jump into the pot on purpose and then not try to escape once he was in the pot.
But, after reading the previous posts here, it seems that indeed the cricket *committed suicide* in a vat of wax! How the heck the cricket and/or worm knew where the only *wet* substance was in the entire room, I have no idea, but he sure found it.
And, unlike some of the other experiences mentioned here, this worm didn't exit out the *rear* of the host--he exploded right out of the belly of this bug! Ugh!! Glad I'm not a bug! So, everyone, thanks for the posts, this helped explained the cricket's behavior! And, got my son off the hook--so to speak!
If you want some more *gross* but interesting information from the animal kingdom, check out these pictures!
http://www.honoluluzoo.org/herp_jour_photos.htm
Cheers!
I was in Gympie, Queensland, working with a surveyor, i had to walk down the path to a reference mark and on my way i saw a praying mantis on the path, i brushed it outta the way as it was a hot day, unfortuately for the praying mantis i squashed it a little (woops), anyway, two long black things 1 approx. 13cm long and 1 approx 8cm long started squeezing themselves out of the tear in its belly, thick like course hair, they were particularly active, and started curling round, quite disgusting really. just thought i'd mention it as these observations seem to be all over the place.....
We found a hairworm in our pool in Bali last week (very alive) and a dead preying mantis near the drain - so thanks for clarifying all of this! Quick question (from a victim of a rather nasty tapeworm..): would hairworms pose any concern to a human "host"? The kids were not too keen to go back into the water after meeting the hairworm...
Hairworms should not be a concern for humans. Tapeworms, however, freak me out.
it's interesting that the worm is almost immediately aware of it's host's death and seems to escape as soon as it's obvious that the host is unable to take it to water. do other parasites do this as well? and so quickly?
My puppy, who is 1-1/2 years old, found a cricket with the hairworm coming out of its bottom end also. Long and wiggling fast. He had it in his mouth for a while until I retrieved it from him. The cricket was still alive, so I saved it and pulled the worm out of it with a fly swatter. I threw the cricket outside and continued to observed this worm since I have never seen it before. It would not die. I put bug spray on it twice and it would not die. I put it into a plastic bag and ended up poking it with a sharp ink pen in several places to kill it.
My question is that even though it appeared to be in one piece, is it possible that it could have gotten into my puppy and harm him? I hope not! Thank you.
I am pretty sure hair worms cannot survive in puppy mouths or stomachs.
heyy my name is shawna and i lovee the science museum. i try to come here alot. everyone knows me!!!!!! This story totally grossed me out never touchingany bug again!!!!! sick! can they come inside us???
My friends and I were sitting outside at my home near Toowoomba yesterday, the girls happened across some frogs, after they put those back a praying mantis was discovered scurrying across the cement, only a small one, it was very fiesty and wanted to bite, it was being held when we discovered a thing coming out of its nether regions "argh" it was so gross, this thing when it finally came out wiggling and coiling, and much screaming, (from us girls) was about 20cm long "ugh" I took some photos, it didn't live very long, about 10 min, unless it was feigning, the preying mantis didn't last long either some big oaf stuck his foot on it, from what I read above I don't think it would have lived long anyway. We had no water around perhaps it was headed for the dogs water !, Thanks for this page, a great explaination.
I live near Toowoomba Queensland and I'm so glad I found your page about the hairworms.
Still fighting the nausea as I write this. I just went outside to give a titbit to our regular visiting magpie, when I saw that he had a mantis,he let it go when I offered him some food. After I gave him the food I went back to see if the mantis was OK only to see seven 15cm worm like creatures emerging from his ? rear end. I have always loved crickets, mantis, stick insects, etc. but from now on I don't think I will feel quite the same about them.The mantis by the way was dead.I also wondered if the magpie deliberately discarded the mantis because it knew it had been parasitised, as previously when the magpies have had an insect that I wanted them to let go, they wont let go.
How good is the internet! After watching the hairworm wiggle it's way free from the praying mantis I popped in my turtle tank I was compleatly perplexed as to what exactly I had witnessed. So glad I found your site here.
Just wondering though, I only watched long enough to see (and remove) one worm from the water, but what are the chances there being more within the praying mantis? And could the worms then infect and or hurt my little yellow faced turtle?
We're a few hrs from Darwin in the Northern Territory Australia.
Hair worms have only been known to effect insects. I would not worry about your turtle getting infected.
i killed a praying mantis in pakistan and after a few seconds a snake like worm came out of it i made a video of that scene and uploaded it on youtube here is the link plz explain me what is this......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMZt0fZ9xvU
This video looks like exactly what several people have explained above, in this thread.
Thank you - I saw a worm come out of a praying mantis today and it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. I was wondering why the manris wouldn't eat anything since I found her. Very interesting!
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