Can You Make It Through All 26 Of These Disgusting Parasites?

Or in it, in some cases.

1. Flea (Pulex irritans)

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Drawing of a flea by Robert Hooke, from Hooke's Micrographia. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons / Via nmm.ac.uk

There are around 2,000 species of flea. Pulex irritans is known as the "human flea", although it actually makes a home on several species of mammal. Common worldwide.

2. Head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis)

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Gilles San Martin / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Licence / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Wingless insects that live their entire lives on human scalps. Their eggs are known as "nits". Found everywhere, mainly among children: It is estimated that as many as 12 million American children become infested every year.

3. Body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus)

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Gilles San Martin / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Licence / Via commons.wikimedia.org

The body louse is related to the head louse, but the two species diverged around 100,000 years ago – possibly at the time of the invention of clothing. It's most common in cold, overcrowded places: Soldiers on the Eastern Front in both world wars were plagued by them.

4. Bed bug (Cimex lectularius)

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Gilles San Martin / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Licence / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Bed bugs feed exclusively on blood, and live most of their lives in warm crevices in places like beds and sofas. They tend to come out at night on to human bodies, to feed. Found pretty much wherever there are humans.

5. Crab louse (Phthirus pubis)

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Ed Uthman / Flickr / Creative Commons Attribution http://2.0 Generic license / Via Flickr: euthman

The crab louse is also known as the pubic louse, and usually lives in pubic hair, but can also live in your eyelashes. Found everywhere there are humans; it is estimated that between 2 and 10% of the population are infected.

6. Rodent and bird mites (e.g. Dermanyssus gallinae)

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Luis Fernández García / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons licence / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A variety of mites which usually infest birds and rodents will also bite humans, including the red mite, habitually a parasite of chickens. Most common in rural areas.

7. Cryptosporidium

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EPA/http://H.D.A. Lindquist / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Another protozoan which gets in your guts and makes you poo a lot. It's common throughout the world.

8. Demodex folliculorum

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"Demodex mite 1" by Joel Mills - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA http://3.0 via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Arachnid mites which live on the skin and have no anus. They just sort of burst when they die and scatter their faeces on the skin. In some cases they cause the skin condition rosacea. About 25% of people have Demodex on their skin – and that number gets higher among older people – but for most people it causes no symptoms.

9. Entamoeba histolytica

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"Entamoeba histolytica 01" by CDC/ Dr. George Healy - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #http://1474. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A protozoan intestinal parasite, an amoeba, which gets from human to human (and other hosts) through cysts in your poo and again causes diarrhoea. It's most common in poorer countries which lack modern sewage disposal systems.

10. Chigger mites (Trombiculidae)

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"Trombicula-mite-adult" by Alan R Walker - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA http://3.0 via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Chigger mites don't suck blood; they eat the skin by cutting into it, spitting digestive fluid on to it, and consuming the liquefied results. It's found throughout North America and across much of the Eurasian supercontinent, from western Europe to east Asia.

11. Scabies mite (Sarcoptes scabiei)

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"Sarcoptes scabei 2" by Kalumet - de.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA http://3.0 via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Unlike most mites, scabies mites burrow into the skin, causing redness and irritation. It's common everywhere.

12. Loa loa (Onchocercidae)

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"Loa loa - microfilaria", Stefan Walkowski. Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A worm spread by the bite of the deerfly, and which is also known as the eye-worm because it can get into the eye and be seen moving around on the surface. It's prevalent in about a dozen African countries, and around 12 million people suffer from it worldwide.

13. Giardia intestinalis

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"Giardia lamblia SEM 8698 lores" by CDC / Janice Haney Carr / Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons / Via phil.cdc.gov

A single-celled organism that gets into your intestines and causes diarrhoea. Famously common in the water system of St Petersburg, Russia, apparently, but it's also the most common intestinal parasite in the US, and as many as 1 in 3 people in the developing world have had the disease.

14. Itch mites (eg Pyemotes tritici)

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Eric Erbe, USDA Agricultural Research Service / Via insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu

Itch mites usually feed on insects, but when there aren't any around they will bite other creatures, including humans. They're found across the world.

15. Pinworm (Enterobiasis vermicularis)

"Enterobius vermicularis" by Original uploader was Reytan at pl.wikipedia - Transferred from pl.wikipedia. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Pinworms emerge from the anus at night, and lay their eggs around it. The itching causes people to scratch, getting the eggs on their fingers, and thus spreading the eggs around. It's particularly common in western Europe and the United States.

16. Tapeworm (Taenia solium)

"Taenia solium scolex" by Rjgalindo from es. Licensed under CC BY-SA http://3.0 via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

They can grow up to 10 metres long. They occur worldwide, but mostly in rural parts of developing countries, especially where pigs are raised.

17. Trichinella spiralis

Navaho / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Licence / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A nematode, or roundworm, which you catch from undercooked meat and which causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. It's endemic in Japan and China, and relatively common in parts of Europe.

18. Blood-flukes (Schistosoma)

"Schistosoma 20041-300" by David Williams, Illinois State University - genome.gov (http://NHGRI-79094.jpg, formerly http://20041-300.jpg)Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Magnus M / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A parasitic flatworm, or trematode, which lives part of its life cycle in freshwater snails and causes a disease called schistosomiasis in humans. According to the World Health Organisation, 42 million people were treated for schistosomiasis in 2012, 90% of whom were in in Africa.

19. Whipworm (Trichuris trichiura)

"Trichuris trichiura" by Delorieux for Johann Gottfried Bremser - XIX tabulae : Anatomiam entozoorum illustrantes, congestae, nec non explicatione praeditae. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A parasitic worm called a helminth, transmitted via human faeces in the soil. It's common in the developing world, and occurs in the southern United States as well.

20. Giant roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides)

"Ascaris lumbricoides adult worms" by SuSanA Secretariat. Licensed under CC BY http://2.0 via Wikimedia Commons / Via Flickr: gtzecosan

Another soil-transmitted helminth which can grow up to 35cm long in the human gut. It's incredibly common, with an estimated 2 billion sufferers worldwide.

21. Hookworms (e.g. Ancylostoma duodenale, Necator americanus and Strongyloides stercoralis)

"Hookworms". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #http://5205.Note: Not all PHIL images are public domain; be sure to check copyright status and credit authors and content http://prov / Via commons.wikimedia.org

More helminths, which usually have no symptoms but can cause intestinal problems and anaemia. As many as 740 million people are believed to be infected worldwide, mostly in the developing world.

22. Lymphatic filariae (Wuchereria bancrofti)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL) / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A little worm which gets into your lymphatic system and can cause elephantiasis. The worms live for up to seven years and are spread by mosquitoes. The World Health Organisation estimates that around 120 million people suffer from it worldwide – two-thirds of them in southeast Asia, the rest in Africa.

23. Toxoplasma gondii

"Toxoplasma gondii". Licensed under CC BY http://2.5 via Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org

A protozoan parasite which infects cats and rats, getting into the brain. In rats, it's been shown to alter their behaviour – and there is some evidence that it does the same to humans, making their reactions slower, and making them more neurotic. The US Centers for Disease Control estimate that more than one in five American citizens are infected.

24. Naegleria fowleri

US Centres for Disease Control / Via dpd.cdc.gov

The "brain-eating amoeba". It is caught through swimming in infected waters, and is fatal in 95% of cases. It's fantastically rare, but there have been cases in the United States in recent years.

25. Tick (e.g. Ixodes ricinus)

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"Ixodus ricinus 5x" by Richard Bartz - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA http://2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Blood-sucking parasites which are common in rural areas around the world and can cause Lyme disease, southern tick-associated rash illness, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, and tularaemia.

26. Human botfly (Dermatobia hominis)

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Geoff Gallice / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Licence / Via commons.wikimedia.org

The larva of the botfly parasitises several mammal species, including humans. It grows to about an inch long, breathing through a hole in the skin, before emerging. It's fairly common in South and Central America.