A Horsehair Worm Came Out of Our Pet!

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hello.

[00:00:01]I'm Kelsey from bugs and cyberspace. We sell pet bugs at bugsincyberspace.com such as Jerusalem crickets like this one.

[00:00:12]This one is my pet and about a week and a half ago it survived a horsehair worm parasite. Peter and I did not know that they could survive such a life-altering event.

[00:00:29]The horsehair worm came out of the Jerusalem cricket's body.

[00:00:35]We learned a lot along the way.

[00:00:39]And uh follow along as we make all sorts of discoveries about the alien creature that is a horsehair worm.

[00:00:51]I have a little Jerusalem cricket in here and it's still alive. I saw it move.

[00:00:58]But this was in its container.

[00:01:02]Is this a horsehair worm?

[00:01:08]Oh, it's being creepy.

[00:01:13]This is my first time seeing one if that is what it is.

[00:01:18]Regardless of what it is, it's my first time seeing it.

[00:01:27]Ew. I'm going to put it in a cup and see what happens.

[00:01:32]I'm going to spray it with water.

[00:01:44]Delicious water.

[00:01:47]I think there's a horsehair worm that came out of a Jerusalem cricket.

[00:01:51]>> That is not an uncommon thing to see happen.

[00:01:56]>> It was moving.

[00:01:57]>> Yeah, I can see that. That is the darkest hair hair worm I've ever seen.

[00:02:01]It may be because it's older and dying or it might just be a species of horsehair worm I've never seen.

[00:02:09]>> But the cricket's still alive.

[00:02:10]>> That is >> Is that normal?

[00:02:13]>> Yeah. Well, it's not normal that the cricket would stay alive. That it's still currently alive is a possibility.

[00:02:22]Um but I do think it's probably going to end up being a death sentence sooner than later.

[00:02:30]Um let's uh >> You're stretching it.

[00:02:36]>> Let's stretch this out. See how long it is.

[00:02:39]>> You always think it's gross when I touch house flies with my hands, but this is way grosser.

[00:02:44]>> [laughter] [snorts] >> Um the longest one that I've ever seen come out of a Jerusalem cricket was >> tied in a knot.

[00:02:53]>> 14 in.

[00:02:54]It is tied in a knot.

[00:02:56]Maybe that's why it's turning black.

[00:02:58]>> Does it have a head? Is it >> It Is it in a knot? It is in a knot.

[00:03:05]Well, >> the Boy Scout.

[00:03:07]>> It's pretty Yeah, give me my merit badge.

[00:03:11]>> [laughter] >> Uh couple times I taught insect merit badge >> Did you really?

[00:03:16]>> Yeah, at uh Boy Scout University uh back in Portland. Anyway, uh weird organism. I think this one is pretty much dying anyway. It feels a little, I don't know, rigid, a little dried out or something.

[00:03:33]Um I don't think there's anybody on the planet probably that would be upset that I tightened the knot on this thing. I think >> Here's the Jerusalem cricket.

[00:03:45]>> Oh, it's just a tiny little thing.

[00:03:46]>> Yeah, that's why it was gifted to me.

[00:03:48]>> came out of that.

[00:03:51]>> Yeah, thank you for the size reference.

[00:03:53]>> So >> Well, and this thing molted, too.

[00:03:56]>> What did?

[00:03:57]>> The Jerusalem cricket.

[00:03:58]>> It did?

[00:03:58]>> Yeah.

[00:03:59]>> That's fascinating. I didn't know that the horsehair worm would survive through a molt or that a cricket would survive through a molt with a horsehair worm inside of it.

[00:04:12]>> Are you still alive?

[00:04:14]>> No, I don't think so. I mean, it's pretty much always It is It isn't moving. Oh, it's actually >> It was scary.

[00:04:23]>> way more active than I thought it would be.

[00:04:25]>> You were so scared.

[00:04:27]>> so interesting. Well, we will continue to document and see what happens. You are 100% sure that worm came out of that cricket.

[00:04:35]>> It had to have.

[00:04:37]>> You're You're sure that aliens didn't come into the bug room last night and put that thing in the container.

[00:04:45]Okay.

[00:04:47]This is like the nicest, biggest home for a Jerusalem cricket that size that we've ever had one in.

[00:04:54]>> [laughter] >> Bye.

[00:04:56]>> Mansion.

[00:04:59]>> Okay, I Googled it and apparently the Jerusalem cricket can survive. In the wild, the horsehair worm uh controls the mind of the cricket to go into um a body of water so that the horsehair worm can then reproduce.

[00:05:18]And sometimes the Jerusalem cricket will drown and sometimes it'll climb out and then just live its life as normal.

[00:05:29]I just put it in water and it's unknotting itself. You saw how tight that knot was and you tightened it.

[00:05:37]>> no There was no undoing it. I didn't think that that like hurting the worm.

[00:05:45]And that's blowing my that it's a knotting itself. I mean, I guess it's not that surprising, but it really is doing it.

[00:05:56]I remember brushing my daughter's hair when she was a kid and it was never that easy.

[00:06:05]>> God. [laughter] >> I learned that you start at the bottom and work your way up.

[00:06:10]>> Yep.

[00:06:12]Advice to all fathers.

[00:06:14]>> Yeah, I She and I both learned the hard way that I was doing it wrong. But what's a single dad to do?

[00:06:23]>> Parasites are gross.

[00:06:26]>> I mean, it's it's like the kiddie pool.

[00:06:29]It's either going to It's probably going to pee in there and legs.

[00:06:32]>> Gross. [laughter] Oh my gosh, it's so crazy seeing it move.

[00:06:42]>> Yeah, it's just really strange. I mean, it closest thing I could think of is a snake in terms of you know, just the shape of its body, but this is this is an alien organism.

[00:06:59]It's it's just such a weird life form.

[00:07:03]>> Yeah.

[00:07:08]>> But if it's amazing.

[00:07:09]>> Mhm.

[00:07:10]All right, you want to go here in a minute?

[00:07:12]>> Yeah, I do.

[00:07:13]>> Okay.

[00:07:13]>> Yeah, we're going to go out and look for some mantises for Lo Heat. We got three from a particular location the other day. Gina slid a nutria. He would like to have seven more for a total of 10 so that he can determine if they're a new species.

[00:07:30]These things right here first hair worms.

[00:07:35]The human imagination, I don't think it could come up with this thing.

[00:07:39]Nature is crazy.

[00:07:42]You know what's about to happen here, don't you?

[00:07:44]>> It's going to jump in your mouth.

[00:07:46]>> The secret to life is about to be revealed. That thing is going to come out in letters in a second.

[00:07:52]>> [laughter] >> And it's going to tell us something that we've always wanted to know.

[00:08:00]>> Okay, well, this is my pet now.

[00:08:03]The horsehair worm.

[00:08:12]It's murky water because I just put it in with the sand.

[00:08:16]But, it's going to be much happier in here with more space.

[00:08:20]Maybe it'll lay an egg and we'll have baby horsehair worms.

[00:08:37]I'm doing some reading on horsehair worms and apparently they feed on the insect or arthropod that they're living inside of through their skin, basically.

[00:08:53]And they absorb nutrients from the insect's blood or hemolymph.

[00:09:05]They feed and breathe through their skin. They don't have any complex organs.

[00:09:16]They're just gross little guys.

[00:09:21]Gross long guys.

[00:09:24]They absorb oxygen through the water.

[00:09:29]They don't need air.

[00:09:36]Some species can reproduce asexually and some need to reproduce sexually.

[00:09:44]Not sure what species this is or what it's going to do.

[00:09:56]Good morning, horsehair worm.

[00:09:59]Yesterday, Peter taught me the term diffusion. He asked me if that's what horsehair worms do.

[00:10:05]And I googled it and yes, they do do diffusion.

[00:10:11]Which is the passive movement of molecules.

[00:10:16]So, that's how they eat and breathe is through diffusion.

[00:10:29]I guess they only live a couple months as adults.

[00:10:33]Their full life cycle takes about a year.

[00:10:38]I believe this is an adult. I'm imagining that it is based on the fact that it exited the body of the Jerusalem cricket.

[00:10:53]Horsehair worm this morning tangled itself up.

[00:11:04]>> Whoa.

[00:11:04]>> Isn't that weird?

[00:11:06]>> Gordian knot.

[00:11:07]>> That's what uh they call them.

[00:11:10]>> Oh, and that's another name for horsehair worms. I've probably heard that before, just sort of peripherally.

[00:11:17]I thought it when you said it was in a knot that it was going to be more like a pretzel or something.

[00:11:27]Now, we need to Google the origin of Gordian knot.

[00:11:31]The word Gordian sounds Greek to me.

[00:11:34]>> It's like a Greek thing.

[00:11:36]>> Like that looks like Medusa's head or something.

[00:11:38]>> [laughter] >> If it was all one snake.

[00:11:41]>> [gasps] >> We learned about the Gordian knot.

[00:11:48]>> Kelsey just read that whoever can untie this knot will rule all of Asia.

[00:11:55]>> [laughter] >> But we're not going to do it because well, we got all these bugs to take care of.

[00:12:01]We don't have time.

[00:12:02]>> Peter prefers to tighten knots.

[00:12:05]>> [laughter] >> oversee an entire continent.

[00:12:09]We have We have too many bugs to feed.