The Hair of the...?

Way back in the days of my youth, we would occasionally find hairworms in buckets of water or puddles after a rain storm. 

 

 

 

The story my father told us about these odd and interesting creatures went something like this: if a horse hair found its way into the water, overnight it might turn into one of these long, wriggly worms. I believe this was a bit of old and well spun tale telling that had been passed on to him and he couldn't resist teasing us with it. Hence, these particular beasties are also called horsehair worms.

They are usually found in shallow water in late summer or fall and they are actually a parasitic worm that develops in crickets and other insects that are unfortunate enough ingest the larvae while either drinking them as they slake their thirst or while nibbling plants on which the larvae have created cysts to hide in waiting for a host to come along. From there, they develop entirely in the body of their host insect and emerge as adults when the host gets thirsty again and goes to another puddle or pool where the worm emerges and starts the cycle again, laying lots of eggs in the water. 

I hadn't seen one of these in years, so spotting this one was unexpected and fun. They're totally harmless to humans and other animals and are considered mildly beneficial because they exert a little bit of control on grasshopper, cricket, cockroach, cicada and other large insect populations. 

Yet another name for them is Gordian worm, since they are so flexible and can twist themselves into knots!

So, here we have a tale of the dangers of drinking - at least for crickets and their ilk! You just never know what peculiarity I might stumble across!!