Post your favorite internal parasites.

[Mongoose]

thanks beirut.

Mine would probably have to be the tape worm-It's about 33 meters long, and lives in your intestine.

[Beirut]

My favorite internal parasites?

My kids.

They're in the house and they cost me a bundle.

[Mongoose]

Oh, so just because they absorb resources from another creature and given no resouces in return, that makes them parasites!?

[Big_John]

oh man, it's hard to pick.. i tend to like the cute ones.. like gonorrhea.



http://www.giantmicrobes.com

[Kanamori]

awww. i dont think it would meet forum guidelines to post apicture of the result.

[Togakure]

I don't have a favorite, but I do have a least-favorite: giardia. When I was a youngster, I often frolicked like a stoned hobbit in the idyllic woodlands of Desolation Wilderness, Southwest of Lake Tahoe in California. Now, thanks to hordes of city dweeb wannabe rangers defecating too close to water sources, I can't drink the stream or lake water there because it's saturated with giardia. As perpetual intestinal gas and diarrhea are not to my taste, giardia tops my list of most despised internal parasites. Having to filter all my drinking water takes all the fun out of just bending over a lil waterfall and drinking deep.

[Big_John]

I don't have a favorite, but I do have a least-favorite: giardia.

but giardia is cute too!

[Dutch_guy]

hmmm difficult decision , still , gonorrhea is cuter than giardia..

[The Stranger]

i'm my favorite parasite

[BDC]

The big "C" is always a fan favorite.

So long as you consider cancer (being a virus) a parasite.

It's not a virus...

Mine has to be fish tape worms. They grow big, and take years to kill. I watched a video on it. Some expert in parasites managed to get one after eating some sushi. It took him three years of drugs to kill it. He called it Fred.

[Ludens]

The big "C" is always a fan favorite.

So long as you consider cancer (being a virus) a parasite.

Most cancers are not caused by virusses. Sloppy lifestyle seems to be a major cause, as are genetic defects. However, a tumor could be considered a form of parasite, but I always think of them as a group of anarchist cells.

My favourite parasites are the Herpesviridae (Herpes Simplex and family). They are so cleverly designed that you can never get rid of them. Off course, they only are my favourite because I observe them in other people, not in myself .

[Ser Clegane]

oh man, it's hard to pick.. i tend to like the cute ones.. like gonorrhea.


http://www.giantmicrobes.com

Brilliant - I'll have to order "Ebola" as Xmas gift for my brother (a doctor for tropical diseases)

[Reverend Joe]

Also, my favorite parasite isn't internal...

[master of the puppets]

there is a parasitic fish in the amazon rizer that will...uh...swim up your p-hole and start drinking blood

[master of the puppets]

like lice? you have lice? or would it be mange?

[Reverend Joe]

Crabs.

(No, I don't have them... )

[Viking]

I don't have a favorite, but I do have a least-favorite: giardia. When I was a youngster, I often frolicked like a stoned hobbit in the idyllic woodlands of Desolation Wilderness, Southwest of Lake Tahoe in California. Now, thanks to hordes of city dweeb wannabe rangers defecating too close to water sources, I can't drink the stream or lake water there because it's saturated with giardia. As perpetual intestinal gas and diarrhea are not to my taste, giardia tops my list of most despised internal parasites. Having to filter all my drinking water takes all the fun out of just bending over a lil waterfall and drinking deep.

Giardia is pretty known around here.
For some, Giardia might even turn into a chronic infection, despite that the parasite is no longer in the body.

[Mongoose]

i said internal parasites.

get back on topic or i'll post some more info about tape worms(Only joking, of course)

Another cute little parasite would be the hook worm, which you can pick up just by waking around on infected soil, and goes through your skin IIRC.

Here is some more information:


What are the symptoms of hookworm?

Itching and a rash at the site of where skin touched soil or sand is usually the first sign of infection. These symptoms occur when the larvae penetrate the skin. While a light infection may cause no symptoms, heavy infection can cause anemia, abdominal pain, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and weight loss. Heavy, chronic infections can cause stunted growth and mental development.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I vote for those snail parasites which breed inside of birds before being passed out, and eaten by snails. They then make the snails antennae huge and swollen to attract birds so they can continue their life cycle.

I think that's pretty clever.

[Togakure]

I read somewhere about a spider that will break your skin and lay her eggs underneath. It swells up like a giant pimple and then bursts, and a horde of tiny spiders ooze out and start crawling all over your body. They are born fertile, and start doin' the nasty right away, and pretty soon your whole body is an arachnid party hall, covered with bulging, bursting spimples. Before you know it, you're just a mass of moaning, groaning, spider-infested flesh, wishing you'd been somewhere else that day!

I used to be a summer camp counselor ... can you tell? It would be interesting to visit all the wards that my former campers now occupy, muahaha.

[Reverend Joe]

I read somewhere about a spider that will break your skin and lay her eggs underneath. It swells up like a giant pimple and then bursts, and a horde of tiny spiders ooze out and start crawling all over your body. They are born fertile, and start doin' the nasty right away, and pretty soon your whole body is an arachnid party hall, covered with bulging, bursting spimples. Before you know it, you're just a mass of moaning, groaning, spider-infested flesh, wishing you'd been somewhere else that day!

I used to be a summer camp counselor ... can you tell? It would be interesting to visit all the wards that my former campers now occupy, muahaha.

*vomits and then proceeds to skin himself screeching "NO SPIDERS! NO SPIDERS!"*

[English assassin]

Are there really parasitic spiders?

Although I can't really believe I have a view on this, as I had to study it for finals I think you should all give it up for the various malaria parasites, clever little suckers that say "bollocks" to the immune system and usually manage to avoid killing the host whilst turning him of her into a walking malaria factory.

BTW a tapeworm is, strictly, not an internal parasite. Your gut is external, topologically. (My bid for pedant of the year award)

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I'm fairly sure that spider thing is an urban legend.

Clicky

[King Edward]

I had an internal parasite! Got him in Russia cant remember what it was called but made my poo very smelly and made my stomach hurt.

Cant remember what it was called but it was very small.

Hes gone now and i feel lonely.

[Xiahou]

there is a parasitic fish in the amazon rizer that will...uh...swim up your p-hole and start drinking blood

You mean the Candiru....

It is feared by the natives because it is attracted to urine or blood, and if the bather is nude it will swim into an orifice (the anus or vagina, or even in the case of smaller specimens the penis-- and perhaps deep into the urethra). It then erects its spine and begins to feed on the blood and body tissue just as it would from the gills of a fish. The candiru is then almost impossible to remove except through an operation.

link

[Togakure]

You mean the Candiru....
link

Now THIS is a truly horrifying parasite. I was bummed out when our month-long trip up the Amazon was cancelled about ten years back (my friend is an avid freshwater fish admirer, and book merchant on the subject). Now I'm glad I didn't go--I love to swim, and given my "no guts no glory" attitude, I probably would have ... sheesh.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Oh, so just because they absorb resources from another creature and given no resouces in return, that makes them parasites!?

So, technically, our governments are parasites?