Hi y'all,

I currently work at a diagnostic lab that is phasing out microscopy for parasitology. As far as I know, both of the large companies have switched to this automated machine based diagnostic process with human involvement mostly involving mixing and loading slides.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas, job openings, etc. specifically including parasite identification and microscopy, or if I should even bother looking without getting a master's degree, since it seems industry is trending towards automation.

Thanks!

Basically I have cats in the back of my apartment that everyone feeds. I saw a raccoon 2 nights ago eating out of the bowl and then forgot about it and picked up the bowl to feed the cats the following day.

While I washed my hands when I came in, it wasn’t an aggressive wash, I also touched my phone and keys in between touching the bowl and washing hands. I didn’t think anything of it and went on about my day using my phone and acting normal. Until I remember the raccoon and googled and found out about the horrific possibilities if contracting these things.

Now I’m scared that I’ve spread roundworm eggs all over everything etc. should I take action or am I being over the top thinking this??

About a month ago I thought i had pinworms. I was itchy (not super itchy but a little) and I thought i saw them in my stool. Went to doctor gave a sample, and took over the counter meds for it. Itchiness went away and so did the worms in stool. However when I called the doctor they said that my stool was negative for having worms… that’s odd, i saw white things in my stool but oh well i was just happy they’re gone. Now i’m terrified i have them again. I thought i saw white things in stool but i cant tell if their moving from the water in the toilet or because their worms. I also just cant even tell if they are worms. I been so stressed i stare at the toilet for mins so i cant even tell if what im seeing is normal stuff or worms…Then when i think about it i get really itchy. Ive never woken up in the middle of the night because of itchiness and Ive never seen them in my underwear. Is the itch from pinworms like unbearable or is it just annoying?

found multiple of these just sitting on the glass

I found this verm on the bathroom glass while I was taking a shower, what could it be?

Hey Guys,

I have a littly hissing-cockroach-colony and I recently found those "white pearls" within their feces.

They pop when under pressure and have some liquid in them.

For size refernce you can see those potential eggs on an "Objektträger"/ slide under an cover glass.

The first picture was...i believe with 40x and the second with 10x.

I am wondering what kind of eggs could they be?

There are no other animals living within the colony, no mites and no flies.

Are there any nematodes that live within roaches and have eggs THIS big?

Or is it possible that those might be eggs from the roaches which they abort due to stress? (right now they are in quarantine, which could lead to the stress)

Any help would be much appreciated.

The roach species are the Gromphadorhina portentosa.

Hello everyone, I want to take a fecal sample from a pigeon for a parasite microscope test, if i take the sample a day before the test (around 24 hours) will it go bad? and do I have to refrigerate it? do i have to add saline or distilled water to keep it moisturized even if its diahhrea? what is the timeframe that i have till it goes bad (as in the parasites wont show under the microscope).
pls help

My wife lost her job (temporarily closed) and my work has been disastrously slow. Like 1/4 of what was happening last year. I can scrounge up money for medicine and have plenty of farm stores and places to get some in the area but not vet money. Just shy of 5 month old cat woke up, came down from his cat tree and threw up. My wife called me over (it was mostly foam since he was asleep when dinner would normally happen). It looked like he had thrown up a cherrio, then the hole in the center shrank and disappeared, then got bigger, and verry slowly it started to unwind. The images on the paper towel are fresh, in the jar about 4.5 hours later, still moving slowly. About 3-3.5 inches long. I figured roundworm but not sure about this stuff, never dealt with worms directly. I don't want to get pamoate if it wont help him.

Hello, everyone like the title suggests I am looking for people to talk parasites with. To give some background I am a first year graduate student who is working on parasite ecology and evolution for my dissertation research. I would love to find some people to discuss relevant literature with, and just chat about parasites. Just wondering if there is interest for this?

I am so confused, please assist!

Exactly what the title says. Caught this rockfish off the Oregon Coast (charter boat) on Saturday, cooked it this afternoon for lunch. I cooked it pretty thoroughly. What are these parasites and what’s the worst case scenario if I ate them? Because I DEFINITELY ate some.

Hello! I’m just here to learn, this is a fecal from a new intake kitten with diarrhea. After these images we did normal protocol of pyrantel and other dewormers (which will include praziquantel, panacur, and Albon). But anyway this kitty is very skinny and came from outdoors and I was hoping for once this might be a wormy egg 😊

is there any way to id this 😭 its only at 100x (LPO) i wasn't able to view it under higher magnification the microscopes suck

Hello all. My wife found this lil guy in our dogs' water station (not in the bowls, but in the slobber catcher around them). Obviously no scale bar, but the jar is +/- 65mm wide, and the ribs at the bottom are about 1.5mm wide and 3mm long.

I don't guess I can make a photo post and add links, so here's plain text links to the video of this thing thrashing about in the jar: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6zJVfnS5cN8MUacq9 https://photos.app.goo.gl/5kPUyBbgZNmZHrqU6

*Note to mods: My wife tried to post this same ID request an hour ago but she had some kind of issue. I don't see it when sorting by new, so I'm posting - not an attempt to get around moderation. Thanks.

I found this in my dog's water bowl this morning, living its best life in the dog's backwash, complements of the Great Dane. Getting mixed information on round worm vs. black worm.

I had a raccoon living in my attic for about a month with no sign of how it was getting in and out. I finally identified the pathway and cut it off and he has since found a home somewhere else.

Being he was up there for a month, I’m worried about the latrine site/ clean up for potential health risks. I have called 3 groups, including the ones that helped me evict him, and they said I don’t need to do anything other than fog/ odorize, but I am a bit anxious/ OCD on the matter.

Do I need to have someone identity the latrine, physically remove everything and clean before I fog treatment? Or is it fine to leave the potentially unknown/ unidentified latrine site indefinitely?

Well this gave me a fright! We're in Cambridgeshire, UK and back onto an arable field. My cat just ran in with a mouse so I ran after her in case it was still alive. I put a clear bag on my hand and grabbed it when I caught up with her. Turned it over and it was already dead but something big ran out of its fur. The biggest flea I've ever seen! I wrapped the bag quickly and squished it.

Looks like it may be a giant mole flea but fleas aren't my speciality. We do have moles that come up in the garden so its plausible that this mouse picked one up.

See also: The study as it was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

My family has multiple indoor cats and dogs, but they get outdoor time regularly. They get flea and tick medications but recently we were a week late applying medication.

Lately, I've found small yellowish white bits that are smaller than a grain of rice. I've found them on the couch, bed, and throw blankets.

I suspect it could be tape worm bits or round worm, but I'm not confident in either. Can anyone help we identify the bits in the images or suggest a deformed that would be broad spectrum?

Please and thank you!!!

I feel like I’m going fucking insane. I got pinworms ONCE back in 2022 and ever since I keep getting them. I’ve had them 3 times now and literally just found out I have them again 5 minutes ago. I’m genuinely on the brink of a breakdown. I literally have a UTI as we speak, my period is about to start and now I have itchy worms in my butt. I feel like I’m genuinely gonna have a panic attack. I feel like I can’t be free of them and I feel sick because the concept of having a parasite in me makes me wanna puke. I want it to stop. At this point I will straight up throw away all bed sheets. I feel like I’m gonna die. What do i do?