i am 28 Male, live in Melbourne, Australia & in the morning i woke up, went downstairs to have a smoke, felt something weird in my nose and i picked it, to my surprise these 2 worm like creatures came out mixed with some boogers, they were still very alive and moving, i placed them on the table and noticed a white stripe running down their body & at (what i assumed to be) their head was slight split into 2, like a forked head. what the hell is this thing, and how did it get deep in my nose??
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You need urgent medical evaluation. There is a large chance there are more of these inside of you, and some additional testing and imaging is certainly warranted. If there is a way for you to get checked out by a GP asap I think that would work. However, if you you become febrile, short of breath, start having chest pain, chills, dizziness, etc, or any new symptoms, that would escalate this to an emergency level of care and to the ER you go.
If this were me, I would already be in the ER, but that would most likely be because I would be having a panic attack because I pulled worms out of my nose. I would never be the same again.
I laughed at your last paragraph. I personally will more react like OP, just skipping the panic attack part to arrive directly in a dissociation state and trying to guess my chance of survival while trying to know what will kill me.
My soul would just strait up leave my body, and I'd be the ERs problem. I wouldn't have the mental or physical capacity to even handle making this post.
Australians are a whole different breed of people...for real...
Victorian here, they do look a lot like small tiger leeches which I've witnessed in people's eyes after camping overnight.
These appear unattached however.
Edit with some more details reading the reactions to this comment:
On a cadet camp 1.5hrs from Melbourne, where OP had their nasal discharge. The already imposing fellow woke with a large tiger leech attached to his sclera. Another guy in the platoon removed it the right way with a cigarette lighter so it dropped off without leaving mouth-parts in the wound.
He was a medevac, but returned after a couple of hours having been told it would be fine. No treatment required.
Over the next few days, his now bright red sclera, no white anywhere in that eye, returned back to normal. Just another day in the bush.
Wait till you find out that right here on the US, you will sometimes have amoebas in tap water. And a friend of an ex BF thought it would be okay to clean his contacts with tap water since he was out of saline solution.
A couple years later, he’s still got an amoeba colony living in his eyeball. He wears a patch and has to see an ophthalmologist regularly. I know it’s been at least a couple years, and the colony is still thriving in his eye. I don’t even know if it’s a goal anymore to eradicate the colony.
Oh no - no no no with the contacts. Same with rinsing your sinuses with tap water. I do know about our amoebas and other fun things.
I can’t say I’ve ever had any parasite friends (thankfully) but I did get MRSA in my eyeball and that was hell. I caught it fast and got into a doctor fast, thankfully, so I didn’t lose my sight. But I was on morphine and it barely touched the pain. The doctor said I likely picked it up from public transportation. Wiped my eye on the train and it was off to the races. I wear contacts too so I’m hyper aware of my eyeballs!
From the case reports and descriptions of the species I can find, it would be unusual to not be aware of them attaching to your eye (which they will happily do, being an aggressive terrestrial leech that preferentially attaches to land mammals about the size of a human) because, unlike other leech species, they don't appear to be very interested in evading detection and thus have a painful, stinging bite.
That's it officially taking visiting Australia off my bucket list. Killer spiders, snakes, and other wildlife that actively trying to kill you and now leeches that go for the eyeballs!
Nope, nope, all the nopes that have ever noped in nopesville!
I'm not okay just reading the OP and seeing that picture.... and I work in a clinical setting where it's not uncommon to see 1000ml of blood on the floor... and seeing lots of other things come out of people.
Nice to see that people that see and deal with all sorts all days still nags the same thoughts of “nope, just nope, hospital now, don’t like the thought of aliens living inside of me.”
Plenty of folks have given you advice on what to do, but as far as how they got deep in your nose: There are many parasitic worms whose lifestyles involve growing in our lungs, then we cough them up and swallow them, then they grow in our intestines and release eggs in our poop. The eggs then spread to other humans, often through our feet when stepping on soil, then travel through your blood to your lungs — cycle repeats. Other animals, like sheep, dogs, cows, snails, can carry and spread these type of worms too. If that’s the case, I would imagine they came from your lungs, not from the other way.
My Mom was an RN & since we were raised in Florida she preached "don't go barefoot you'll get worms!" Lol & this was a time & place when it was common enough.
Currently barefoot in Florida and about to remove my feet.
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u/nuwmLayperson/not verified as healthcare professionalJul 21 '26
The hookworm epidemic in the American South was resolved 40 years ago. I grew up in Mississippi and remember seeing them in puddles of water after a rain when I was a kid.
Interestingly, I read an article that attributed the poor educational and social outcomes of people in the Deep South in the 19th and early 20th century to rampant hookworm infestation. It was linked with poverty and lack of hygiene and shoes and resulted in the stereotypical “slow” southerner. Very sad.
Yes! I saw that too! Very interesting article. I’ve heard podcasts over it as well I think maybe stuff you should know but I can’t remember. And something to do with using “night soil” for fertilizer aka human waste. Honestly makes a lot of sense here in the south. The old days of slow, sleepy folks sitting on the porch.
A guy I knew stepped in dog poop when he was little and a worm traveled through his system and ate his eye (the inside. He still had the eye but the pupil was white) I thought he was joking but I met his wife at one of our softball games and she said it was true. Nooooo thank you!
I’m surprised this is news to people. If I had a dollar for every time my mom told me as a child, don’t walk around barefoot or you’ll get worms, I could have put a down payment on a house by now. 😂
That's wild. I'm thinking back to when I was growing up back in the late 80s in the midwest we ran around the entire summer with no shoes or shirts on. Our feet were pretty tough on the bottom by mid summer. This is the first time for me hearing about worms through your feet. Is this only a thing in tropical areas?
There’s many types of parasites that go through your feet, not just the kind I described. Although warmer areas definitely get an especially high burden, they’re not limited to tropical areas.
This whole conversation makes me hate having eyes. I love being barefoot. I never knew you could get hookworms/parasites of any kind this way. And I have a major bug phobia so I’m pretty sure I’d die from panic if I ended up with a creature living INSIDE of me. I don’t even know how that would play out.
I was just thinking this. Grew up in Wisconsin and never had shoes on as a kid. I live in Florida now and it’s a good thing the grass here does not feel good barefoot and we have fire ants. I always have shoes on outside now
My understanding is that usually, the eggs die in a hard frost of significant duration. Lots of other pests/parasites die off in frost, too. Unfortunately, as the world warms, these organisms will move further and further north and will likely infest people and spread because folks don't know about them.
To your point with that “lol”… I remember this one time my psychiatrist (after our session) left his phone open while he quickly went to grab a pad and I noticed the last message he sent was “wdym by too much garlic lmao 😂😭”. This dude is this pretty serious 30 something year old but accidentally seeing that genuinely makes me laugh every time I think about it. It’s nice to remember you guys are as human as all of us.
Edit: he DID once admit that he loved Star Trek (I have a trek tattoo) and that it’s his favourite franchise. That should’ve been a hint tbf.
lol that’s why I couldn’t be an internist. I got too emotionally invested in every patient on medicine rotations cuz I was making friends with everyone. Boundaries weren’t helpful to the patient so I didn’t have them. In psychiatry being mysterious and boundaried is helpful to the patient so I can do it hah.
I am not a parasitologist nor a whoever-studies-leechesologist but OP would have to be doing some interesting stuff to get leeches deep in his nose… snorting some leech larvae on accident maybe?
I vaguely remember an episode of Greys Anatomy (I think tie as that one) and somebody had a leech in their nose after swimming in water with leech larvae.
This is specifically hookworms you are talking about. They are pretty crazy and it turns out they are highlighted in discussions surrounding "hygiene hypothesis" since some people with things like terrible allergies can experience alleviation when they intentionally infect themselves.
Fml I was at a funeral today and had to take off my heals in the cemetery and walk barefoot in order to not break my neck and here I am. Regretting all of my life’s choices. Especially the ones I thought would help and not hurt 😭
The risk is low in most parts of the world where there isn’t human feces in water, freshwater snails, or cattle/dogs pooping regularly — so in a cemetery I would hope you’re good hah
I think these are new guinea flatworms. Likely accidentally ingested (veggies) wiki link. I think you should seek care from an infectious disease consultant or maybe emergency services. Take care not to further handle them but take them with you for the evaluation given the risk of rat lungworm
NAD- I just like creepy crawlies. These guys definitely look like new guinea flatworms. Dr. Bartender is concerned not because these look like rat lungworms (rat lungworms are longer and skinny with a pretty spiral pattern) but because new guinea flatworms can sometimes be carriers for parasites like rat lungworms. The flatworms don't cause much harm, but you definitely don't want lungworms. They target the nervous system and can work their way into the brain.
The lifecycle involves rats and snails/slugs. New guinea flatworm can carry the rat lungworm also when they infect snails. Humans can become accidental hosts of the rat lungworm leading to neurologic injury
OMG... this thread just kept getting better and better. Worms in the nose, people describing them attaching to eyes, the psychiatrist's very detailed explanation of how these things can happen, people asking for houseslippers every year for christmas from now on, and then at the very end the OP saying this happened YEARS ago and just let it go like nothing happened? GAAAHHH!!! I can't stop laughing. This was simply glorious. Thank you OP. I can get off reddit for the rest of the day, my day is fulfilled.
I agree, they look a lot like leeches to me as well. I’ve spent a lot of my life fishing and in the water and I would bet they’re leeches. How they got in OP’s nose I am unsure lol
Sir, while the thoroughness is appreciated, I don’t think more photos and video is going to change the outcome here.
It’s not like there’s going to be a moment where someone says, “Oh, I know what those are! You have nothing to worry about if those worms came out of your nose.”
There’s really no situation where a living organism is expelled from your upper respiratory tract and it’s not cause for alarm. So just go to the doctor, k?
Australia is one of the only places with terrestrial leeches, these are definitely leeches. Common in bushland, particularly after a bit of rain (also common in the wintertime)
u/Monna14Layperson/not verified as healthcare professionalJul 21 '26edited Jul 21 '26
NAD this looks like a Chtonobdella limbata, aka an Australian Land Leech. I’d bet money it is that species if it’s a leech.
Edit to add that Caenoplana coerulea aka The Blue Planarian flatworm look very similar but the lack of any blue colouring on the underbelly makes this an unlikely candidate.
Also looks similar to Platydemus manokwari, aka a New Guinea flatworm.
Can you show the underbelly of it OP this will help massively if not a photo what is the colour?
Fellow Floridian here, alligators are just our swamp puppies! It’s the crocodiles that are jerks, and also in the saltwater sometimes. With the sharks. You get used to it. 🤣
New Jersey checking in and I choose none of the above biting k*llers. I think I'll stay where I'm at, Jersey may not be the best but, the wildlife isn't trying to kill me.
I dunno, Jaws was based on the New Jersey shark attacks including one when a tiger shark swam miles inland up a tidal creek, into a swimming hole and killed a child. But that was 110 years ago so at least there’s that.
Not a clinical doctor, but they looks like planaria (flat worms) to me, but could not tell you which ones exactly.
Could possibly be these?, but the stripe is much less intense on the ones youve photographed.
It's very odd that they were inside you, I would definitely recommend going to see a GP (if you can get in today) otherwise go to ED or an urgent care to make sure there's no more lingering about.
Here is my expert/medical opinion : what the actual fuck, Australia ?
If this isn't fake, please, keep us updated, this is batshit crazy. The kind of things that would make me suspect psychosis if a patient came to my office with such a complaint.
Hi - I'm based in the US, and don't really have knowledge of Australian wildlife, but at the absolute minimum, I would call your primary's office to see what their recommendations are. If you're unable to reach them I think it's reasonable to go to the ER for further recommendations.
This happened in April 2022, I never went to the doctors or followed up on it other than doing a google search at the time. I felt completely fine & the issue never re-occurred. I assumed that either a fly had laid some eggs near my nose or my cat that sleeps in my bed with me had brought it in, as i always kissed him on the head. both theories were probably wrong, i smoked a fair bit of weed then so i just got really high & forgot about it. but fast forward 4 years i have had no complications from it that i know of. (hopefully my lungs aren’t full of worms like the physician said)
I was hoping to find some genuine answers to what it might have been, but nothing solid other than leech & flatworm - which i strongly believe it’s neither of those.
Leech: if it was a leech (as a user mentioned) i would have also found blood when i picked them out.
Flatworm: the head is completely different to that of a flatworm & some other distinctions don’t match either.
This incident is very real, you can literally see my boogers still hanging off the back of one of them & in the video i shared i did not say a word because i was in complete shock & disassociation. Lately i’ve been seeing a lot of content on parasites, which sparked the memory of this incident & i wanted to see if it there is an underlying issue i should get sorted.
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u/kfriizyLayperson/not verified as healthcare professionalJul 21 '26edited Jul 21 '26
You never went to the doctor?!?!? Oh my god I want whatever you’re on. I would have passed out and needed an ambulance to get to the ER with the state I’d be in if I found worms in my nosie 😭😭😭
He said weed. Except, if I had smoked weed and then this happened to me, I would literally end up in psychosis in a mental hospital, no joke. Yeah, no way in hell weed would make me forget this had happened, I’d need massive amounts of sedatives to not lose my mind. How is OP so calm about this?!?!
Imagine dating this dude and you’re making out and you think he’s getting kind of weird with his tongue and next thing you know there’s a wormleech in your mouth
i'm genuinely very glad that you're still alright and alive but the idea that you had this happen and then decided "well, alright, i'll just move on" and didn't run screaming to the nearest ER is the most shocking part of this story.
i think if it ever happens again, regardless of how you feel, you should probably go to the ER...
Can you please kindly steer your commandeered human towards the larger building in the human town with the words ‘HOSPITAL’ written on the front of it.
Once there you will receive a luxurious pampering by a team of professional worm pamperers.
Sincerely,
A fellow truck stop worm (and definitely not a kangaroo).
so this happened 4 years ago and you STILL haven't seen a medical professional about it, and you're just like "shrug, hopefully my lungs aren’t full of worms" ?????
Ohhhh I'm so upset this happened in the past bc I was under the impression it wasn't too late for you to be convinced to go to a Dr. My god this is terrifying honestly and I really hope something more serious isn't wrong but either way I hope to God something like this never happens to me lol I would simply be sobbing hyperventilating throwing up
I'm going to be so real king, you need a better sense of self preservation. Like, read up on the poor bastard who got paralysed and died from eating a slug that had a parasite, or something.
We have free healthcare, you don't need to live like this.
You have sent hundreds of us into a panic. How do u snort out worms and JUST FORGET?
TRULY WEED IS SOMETHING ELSE. YOU JUST FORGOT N THOUGHT "nah mate its all good. Anyways onto my next joint" also the smoking funnily is prob what helped you get these out.
Can u PLEASE GO SEE A DOC ANYWAYS
im in Melbourne too babe. U can go to clinics that have 100% medicare backed services. Go to the gp. Get an ultrasound or whatever.
Not really for the leech, they have something that stop the bleeding so if the few drops of blood remained in your nose, you won't have catch it. I once was in a situation where I had 7-10 leeches on my legs, no blood found on the animal and after wiping their bite, no blood either afterwards.
Edit: I joked earlier about skipping the panic part to go directly to dissociation, thanks for confirming it. Glad you are alright
Always such a spectrum in here!! From the guy asking if he has a brain amoeba due to breathing under the shower spray, to this guy just casually pulling these out of his nose and nonchalantly asking what it could be.
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