SOME TIPS FOR IDENTIFYING PARASITIC WORMS
After seeing all the requests for help, and reviewing the flotsam and jetsam in the parasite Image Gallery , I skipped dinner and decided to write up a little blurb on how to identify different worms. I hope this helps.
First, put on gloves and a mask, grab a set of forceps/tweezers, a SHARP knife...preferably a razor blade or scalpel, a magnifying glass, some note paper, and obtain your parasite specimen. Take it outside on a paper plate, to a table that is covered by a plastic bag. Place the specimen on plate, and on top of the open bag, so when you're done you can just wrap the whole mess up and chuck it in your neighbor's yard...I mean, in your trash can.

Then Look at the following:
Head....find a head and decribe it. Better yet, look at Both ends of the creature and note the characteristics of them. Are both ends the same? Nematode or trematode. A Tapeworm has a scolex at one end, but the scolex doesn't always exit with the rest of the worm. A scolex has one hole at the top, two or three around the side (sometimes), but other worms have hooks and big scolex-looking heads too. So do your best to decribe the head...how many holes are coming out the TOP? Some roundworms have three. Tapeworms have one. Acanthocephalans have two, but sometimes you can't find their head. Why? Because acanthocephalans can pull their head into their lorica, which is like a flexible shell. When they retract into their shell, they end up looking like a chubby mini squid, a flaccid human mini penis, or a coffee bean.
The tail end: Nematodes have tapered tails, like an earthworm. Cestodes have a squared off tail that looks like the rest of them. Flukes (trematodes) have no tail, and often its hard to tell one end from the other in a fluke. For the most part they look like a flattened kidney bean, with a sucker on the underside....theres a little mouth slit in the middle of the sucker. Acanthocephalans are WEIRD looking. They often have a long leggy appendage that comes out the back (?) of their lorica. So it will look even more like a squid. One thing though, the leg-thing will often be twisted like rope or a corkscrew, and have a V shape at the end, or a set of pincers like an earwig. These worms are also the only ones that have eyes...usually red, but other colors too. They can also have more branches or appendages, so they might not look anything like a worm. If they appear to have segments, look closely to see if there are dark things in each segment...if so, it's a tapeworm; if not, it could be an acanthocephalan.

What they will look like: Tapeworms are often Long...and they are the only one that is truly segmented. There are little dark structures (reproductive organs) inside each of a tapeworm's segments, too.
Flukes look like a flattened kidney bean or a somewhat dried rose petal. Roundworms and other nematodes look like spaghetti. Acanthocephalans can look like tiny plants, hairy sticks, tangled sea weed, squid, chopped tomatoes, bell peppers, onions or rolled tacos. (I know, sorry.) They also CAN have a typical worm shape except that one end is somewhat wider than the other. The actual head is inside the wider end, and looks like a cone-shaped bristle brush, if you can get to it. The funny thing about acanthocephalans is that they like to stick together, so they often appear as a stringy or clumpy mass that won't come apart, or even solid like a body, with a long neck, head, and leg. Sometimes theres a pair of eyes at each end. Sometimes they are three sided, with two mouths and one or more legs. Also, if you see anything on either end that looks like a shredded, ripped or ragged edge, fringe, or like tiny spaghetti the diameter of toothbrush bristles, it's an acanthocaphalan.

The bad news is that most western doctors will not admit that acanthocephalans can parasitize people, and acanths are different from other worms. Their eggs can be so small as to be undectable in stool and blood samples, so they are often missed by labs. They are also NOT closely related to the other parasitic worms, and thus, not all remedies will work on them. Several people appear to be expelling them, though, based on the parasite Image Gallery ...maybe they should tell us how they did it. But one thing is for sure: do not continue to use the same formula daily ...only use a treatment for one or two days, then switch. Come back to the first formula again in a couple weeks. Rotating between several formulae can prevent the worms from becoming resistant, which is really a bummer when it happens. Good luck!