I'm seeing memes about eating bugs and the parasites that live inside them and the counterargument about how it's "ok" because insect parasites don't infect humans. Particularly the horsehair worm. I don't care about the finer points of this asinine debate because I will never eat bugs, but it got me thinking.

Ten years ago I was reluctantly house hunting and I would just stop off and look at places that were empty and had signs posted. I saw a house in a neighborhood I liked so I pulled over. Everything was quiet and I knew the neighborhood was chill (I had lived a couple of blocks from there) so I walked into the back yard to take a look.

There was an open barrel (looked like an old rain barrel) on the patio full of water. Containers full of standing water are not an uncommon sight in Seattle in the spring. This water looked quite stagnant and pondy. As I got closer, a bunch of worms "stood up" in the water and waved towards me. The parts I could see were 1-2 feet long.

I left like I was being chased and I'm pretty sure I went home and just got into bed for a while. I swear I block this memory out every couple of years and it comes back when the "bugs are full of parasites" people are doing their thing