Ah yes. Phylum Nematoda - the roundworms. Many nematodes infect humans, including Acaris lumbicoides, Trichinella spiralis (which causes trichinosis), hookworms, and pinworms. Some nematodes even infect plants! In fact hookworms are the most common parastie affecting humans. These are endemic in about 1/3 of the population of North America. The females crawl out of the human anus at night to lay their eggs and then crawl back in or die. This can cause an itchy feeling at the anus. I know more about Nematodes, Trematodes, Cestodes and Nematomorphs than I do frogs, I bet I could give your vet a run for his money.

I know that earthworms carry nematode eggs specifically, I just called these parasites (cuz they are) in my first post. I have cut the "genitals" out of many worms and viewed them under the microscope to look at the eggs. This is exactly what I was talking about when I said that you don't want these worms. First off, knowing that your pets are infested with internal worms is straight up nasty. Second, you run the risk of infecting youself (although if you don't think they are nasty in your pets, maybe you won't think they are nasty inside of you).

These nematodes have extremely complex lifecycles and require numerous hosts to complete their various lifecycles. An earthworm being one, and your pets being the other. This is known as an indirect lifecycle. Luckily, this means that after the eggs develop and mature in your pets, the "new" eggs which were made in your pets will exit in the feces and the adult womrs inside your pets will die, and you pet will be "clean" again. However, if you keep feeding them the same earthworms, the keep ingesting the eggs, and the eggs hatch and mature once again in your pet to finish their lifecycle. If you are ok with this, then thats fine, they probably do no harm to your pets. I am just saying that this is something I am very against, and I know alot of people in the pet trade are.

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