Horsehair worm

Natural Habitat

Adults are found in freshwater environments like ponds, streams, puddles, or occasionally in damp soil and domestic areas after emerging from host insects.

Diet & Feeding

Adults do not eat as they lack functional digestive systems; larvae are parasites that absorb nutrients from the body fluids of host insects like crickets or beetles.

Behavior Patterns

Larvae develop inside an insect host. When mature, they influence the host to seek water, where they emerge to mate. After mating, females lay long gelatinous strings of eggs.

Risks & Benefits

They are harmless to humans, pets, and plants. They are beneficial to the ecosystem as they help control populations of insects like crickets, grasshoppers, and beetles.

Identified on: 1/11/2026