Horsehair Worm

Adults are found in freshwater environments like puddles, troughs, swimming pools, and damp soil. Larvae are internal parasites of insects like crickets and grasshoppers.

Adults generally do not feed, relying on energy stores. Larvae are parasitic and absorb nutrients from the body fluids of their insect hosts (grasshoppers, beetles, cockroaches).

They are famous for their parasitic life cycle where they manipulate the host insect's behavior, forcing it to seek water and drown itself so the adult worm can emerge to reproduce.

Harmless to humans, pets, and plants. They cannot infect mammals. They are considered beneficial as they help control populations of pest insects like roaches and grasshoppers.