Talk:Cestoda/Archive 1

not very useful as written, needs layperson level information
This article is not very useful as it's written. Wikipedia articles are supposed to be written to start with content that is informative towards the layperson, and only after that possibly go into the depth for specialists. Below are two other comments that were related to this issue. Ashi Starshade (talk) 15:02, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I am not an expert in this area, but I think this article could have a bit more content, particularly from a human perspective, including how to reduce the risk of infection. I.e., good hygiene. Right now the articles looks like a descrition of what a tapeworm is, plus a few sentences of trivia. AJH —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.98.27.91 (talk) 06:28, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Shouldn't the symptoms a host exhibits, both human and animal, be listed here? -- Mellesime 06:18, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

What is the lifespan of the different species of tapeworms? How long do they take to mature and how long can they live outside of a host?

There has recently beeen a treatment put out on the market for human use!! It is a tablet that can kill any form of tapeworm that you have in ur system and it is clinicl proven.......But how do you get tapeworm if you dont eat bad meat can it still be in the meateven though it is fresh??? Evie 17:07, 26th june 2008 (UTC)

random junk from talk page
I remember reading about what I thought was more than just an urban myth: pills sold as diet drugs that were really just a coating around a live tapeworm, very effective in weight loss up until inexplicable death. Anybody have any information on this that could maybe be added to the article? I found it awfully interesting. --128.227.95.149 07:08, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually, you are right. The FDA took it off the "market" because it caused inexplicable death.--71.156.121.156 01:21, 20 March 2006 (UTC) In response to the pill part, yes this did happen, and after they discovered why there was so many deaths, people who had lost family members sued and won.

Just so talk page viewers are aware, none of the above is true. :-) Sperril (talk) 19:40, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Are vertebrates actually the only taxonmic group that are hosts for adult tapeworms? --Mperkins 05:04, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC) hg this site says that tape worms can affect the eyes, brain and muscles aswell. can someone who knows more about them than me verify this? --hamilt0n 01:04, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

My roomate and I were watching a documentary about parasites on the Health Channel once, and it mentioned worms live right underneath your skin, and could actually move into your eye. However, these were not tapeworms. If I find the documentary or the name of that worm, I will cite it. Unfortunately, at this time, I cannot as I watched it more out of boredom than interest. -- Mellesime 06:22, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

UPDATE: According to this site you were correct. -- Mellesime 06:37, 29 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Discussions of tapeworms used as diet aids can be found on Snopes and Straight Dope. Neither of them are entirely certain that this ever happened (as distinct to the use of parasitic worms to combat autoimmune diseases, which is a separate topic), but it might be an idea to add something about the urban legends either here or on something like the Taenia (tapeworm) page.--Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:22, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

So why is there no mention of the diet pill usage in the article? It deserves mention. Are people still intentionally using tapeworms to lose weight? --98.232.176.109 (talk) 09:44, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Leading genus section
Much of this information is wrong. Even if ite were correct, it wouldn't belong in this article, and should be put in Taenia instead. I've bolded some of the things I know are wrong for sure and put the reason in parentheses.


 * In man, the great source of tapeworm is measly pork, eaten uncooked or but partly cooked. The pork tapeworm, T&aelig;nia solium, is more common in Europe than in North America.  Linnaeus named it  solium because it is generally found alone in an infected patient.  The farther from the head, the larger is the proglottid (detachable segment).  Each proglottid is hermaphroditic and may produce ova ("eggs") when mature.

"T&aelig;nia saginata, the beef tapeworm, is common all over the world.  Cattle are the intermediary hosts; it is transmitted through imperfectly cooked veal or beef.  Its length is about 12 to  25 feet (4 to 8 meters) in its adult stage, which often occurs in man.


 * The dog tapeworm, T&aelig;nia echinococcus (echinococcus is a genus), seldom exceeds 1/4-inch (0.635 cm) in length. Usually, its length is about 4 or 5 mm.  It has only four segments, including the head.  The final segment, when sexually mature, equals in length the three anterior ones, and contains as many as 5000 eggs.  Man may serve as the intermediary host and become infected with hydatid cysts (cysticerci).  In its larval condition, it is, perhaps, more fatally injurious to man than all of the other entozoa put together.


 * T&aelig;nia nana (this actually goes in the genus Hymenolepis) is frequently found in man in Egypt and Sicily. It is the smallest tapeworm to be found in man in its adult stage.  T&aelig;nia cucumerina infests the dog and the cat; the flea is host to its larva or cysticercus.


 * The word t&aelig;nia is from the Latin, t&aelig;nia, Greek, tainia, "a ribbon." Some generic words have been created that apply to tapeworms.


 * Tenia - Same as T&aelig;nia.
 * Tenioid - Resembling a tenia, or tapeworm.
 * T&aelig;nicide, t&aelig;niacide, tenicide - Any substance which kills tapeworms.
 * T&aelig;nifuge, tenifuge - Any substance used to expel tapeworms from the body.
 * Tenifugal - Expelling tapeworms.
 * T&aelig;niasis, teniasis - The presence of tapeworms in the body.


 * Interestingly, in an allied genus, a tapeworm Bothriocephalus latus (Diphyllobothrium latum (D. latum is a pseudophyllid, not a cyclophyllid.  They're not closely related at all.) is sometimes 25 feet (8 meters) long, nearly an inch (2.540 cm) broad, and may have 4000 joints (segments, proglottids).  The plerocercoid or infective stage is harbored in fish and probably in a mollusk.  It may be found (somewhat smaller) in the dog and the cat. It is said to be the largest tapeworm that lives in man.

May 2nd, 2005 @ 05:07 GMT--- All of the information that was submitted in Leading genus was gleaned from a number of reference books. Those books were compiled in the United states from about 1900 to about 1980, so the terminology and the taxonomy may have changed over time. One book is an old medical dictionary, another book is a regular dictionary, etc.

I'm sorry that things turned out to be incorrect. 05:14 GMT.


 * They went ahead and re-named the okra plant the Abelmoschus esculentus because that is "right", not "wrong."

May 4th, 2005 at 10:08 GMT or Z or UCT


 * 11:00 GMT or Z or UCT (Added)  New, and I knew.  11:03 GMT or Z or UCT

The words in Leading genus had been "correct" when they were written down, but they are now "incorrect" words.

Things are being shifted and re-named.

As for me, I'd rather say millibar than hectopascal.

May 2nd, 2005 06:25 GMT

Scientific terms are subject to being changed from time to time, so that fact makes it risky for the contributors to Wikipedia when submitting blurbs into certain articles.

I had taken the words Leading genus directly from a tome.

Basically, I had simply read the material and strung together the information. The medical dictionary still says that the dog tapeworm is T&aelig;nia echinococcus, of course. It was written prior to World War Two, though.

May 2nd, 2005 at 13:45 GMT.

Tapeworms slither?
I removed this from the bottom of the Home Remedies section:
 * Some places in South America leave a steak out for a couple of days until it starts to smell. They would then have you place your head over the steak with your mouth open. Eventually, the tapeworm will slither right out your mouth.

Isn't this either some well-hidden vandalism or a complete myth? I don't think tapeworms can slither. And I don't think a place can leave a steak out/////// hehe haha

Home Remedies- LOL!--71.156.121.156 01:20, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Besides, tapeworms eat predigested food. 08:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I've done some translations for the WHO where they state that a similar procedure is used in the highlands of Peru. The village doctor would take the person with the tapeworm and keep them sequestered for a few days without swallowing food; they would be given food to chew and made to spit it out while not swallowing any. After a few days of this, the collected food would be placed near the person's naked rectum, enticing the tapeworm to come out and eat, at this moment, the "doctor" would literally grab on and pull out the worm and beat it to death. It wasn't exactly clear in the document whether this had been directly observed or if its hearsay. Hdezela (talk) 06:25, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Michelle Niles
Not sure if this info is true. COuld someone please check.Dlohcierekim 00:15, 3 May 2006 (UTC) TAPEWORMS DO NOT SLITHER, BUT THEY CAN MOVE A BIT....TRAVELING SHORT DISTANCES

Tapeworm
I don't think tapeworm can slither but i know that they take food from your body and like slowly kill you. My sis thinks i have tape worm. D=

One thing I wonder about is, if the Cestoda DOES kill you, what does it do when the host dies?

--Jojje 15:35, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

It (the tapeworm) also dies. --Whoop whoop pull up (talk) 02:04, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Types of Tapeworm
Added a types of tapeworm section. -- Mellesime 07:03, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Tapeworms DONT slither
Bold text Tape worms do not Slither. They move like regular worms do. Tapeworms arch there backs up and down to move. This information is correct. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BRiANNA PERFECTLY UNPERFECT (talk • contribs) 17:53, 29 March 2007 (UTC).

Slithering tapeworms
LOL, obviusly all of you skipped the 7th grade. Tape worms dont even move! They have hooks and suckers that keep them anchored in. So why are we arguing about how they move, IF THEY DONT MOVE!. (Of course they might wave around) The information my argument is based on came from my 7th grade textbook and answers to my questions by my 7th grade science teacher. So that would be why i think all of you skipped the 7th grade.

My 9th grade textbook says the same thing.

Vandalism?
The passage:

Tapeworms can cause additional death to animals. Starting with dogs especially toy breeds, the worm starts at the stomach wrapping its enormous build around the stomach then moving on to the heart. If they don't get treatment they die within 27 hours of infection.

seems hyperbolic - not to mention ungrammatical.

--TommyLeeBennett 03:22, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

"Breaking news!!!" Is this for real? I need a source.

Yeah its true, there is some kind of "parasite" that grows in the stomach then eventually somehow causes heart conditions to dogs and cannot be treated, dogs get vaccinated for this annually (Mine does). Im not sure its the same thing though, next time I pay a visit to the vet Ill ask for more in depth info. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.75.251.155 (talk) 21:00, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Cestodapetitus?
"Cestodapetitus is the power of a tapeworm to gain knowledge from another tapeworm just by eating it." Bottom of page.

Is this actually true? Seems far-fetched. If untrue, then in the context (talking about a fictional superhero), it should be something like "the mythical power of a tapeworm...". --84.9.75.24 09:16, 11 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I know that some worms can gain memories from eating other worms. They did an experiment where worms were kept in the dark.  When the light was switched on, they'd receive an electric shock, and flinch.  After continuing this for a time, these worms were ground up and fed to other worms.  Whenever these new worms saw the light come on, even with no electric shock at all, they still flinched. Dream Focus (talk) 08:49, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Comments please
I'd like to hear what others think about this edit. TIA. Avb 20:49, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Additional facts/trivia
I added two facts I found most interesting, along with a creditable source for the information. An additional article could be made on the "reducing pill" made from tapeworms, if any wanted to spend some time Googling for resources about that. Dream Focus (talk) 15:44, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Here's an ad from the 1920s: Eat! Eat! Eat! And always stay thin! Esn (talk) 06:25, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Problems with the intro of this article.
I'm not sure what was meant by the statement "the first of the Cestoda class that can live amongst humans". If it means the first cestode that can live inside a human, then its just obviously wrong. If it means the first cestode that can be transferred from human to human, its still wrong. If it means the first cestode that can complete its entire life cycle inside a human, that may or may not be true (not really a cestode expert to be honest). Even if it is true, it still bothers me because:

1. It's meaning is vague and unclear (hence the confusion above). 2. Who cares? Helminth experts might, but why is information aimed at 'experts' in the introduction of the article? To the vast majority of people reading this, its unimportant, and certainly uninteresting.

My point then I guess is that I agree with other comments above in that the intro of this article needs to be rewritten, aiming at a layperson level of knowledge. It goes from an 'expert' level of boring details, into what reads a little like a tribue to Larry Liu and his Fantastic Cestodes. 74.83.12.82 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 09:42, 7 May 2009 (UTC).

I flagged it with a neutral point of view warning for this reason - specifically that it includes a large tribute to Larry Liu. --Frozenport (talk) 22:03, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Neutral point of view!? How can an article about an animal be "unbalanced"? That is usually relatred to political, personal, and moral issues - not animal's characteristics (that aren't even in question). Hence I remove the neutrality marker. --190.174.72.239 (talk) 13:01, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Bad Info from Bad Source
There was a statement of a world record about a woman with the world's longest tapeworm that was removed through the mouth. The reference was "International Junk Mail Clearinghouse," which I don't believe is a credible source. The story also sounded like an urban legend. I have removed the statement and reference.--76.124.187.93 (talk) 23:25, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

There could be more information in this page(for the layman):
Are there any symptoms? Are tapeworms harmful to humans? What is the treatment for tapeworms? -Just a couple of thoughts. Unsafeatanyspeed (talk) 20:24, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is concluded. the decision was no move''. Please do not modify this section.

Cestoda Should be moved to the common name, the one people will most likely be searching for.
 * Tapeworm redirects to this article, so a move is unneccesary. -- Diannaa (Talk) 00:52, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
 * O-kazay. How do I close this discussion? --Whoop whoop pull up (talk) 01:21, 3 October 2010 (UTC)


 * And why has my proposal here been responded to, but not my proposal to move "1962 Air France Orly crash"? --Whoop whoop pull up (talk) 01:23, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't know. -- Diannaa (Talk) 01:27, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Self- or cross-fertilization?
This article states that cross-fertilization is the rule. Britannica, on the other hand, says it is self-fertilization. Which one is true? Thanks. Nuvitauy07 (talk) 12:56, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Title should be "tapeworm," cross reference "Cestoda"
Tapeworm has 7 or 8 times the Google hits: Cestoda 965,000 Tapeworm 7,170,000 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.167.95.174 (talk) 20:45, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

"Tapeworm" should not refer here, but to Tapeworm infection
The overwhelming majority of searches for "Tapeworm" are going to be looking for the medical condition: Tapeworm infection  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.167.95.174 (talk) 23:12, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

Marne varieties
I didn't realise until today, reading the porbeagle article that they are found in marine species. I knew that freshwater fish got them. This should be reflected in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.104.245.172 (talk) 15:16, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

Dietary Fad
The tape worm has been used as an aid in weight loss, and that reference could certainly help suppliment this article. - KitchM (talk) 18:31, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 11:12, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Tapeworms can wriggle?
I just came across this NPR article, which describes a tapeworm "wriggling" out of a man while he's sitting on the toilet, and "the creature began moving".

These things can move? I see some disagreement in some talk page sections above, but nothing about it in the article. I thought tapeworms were sessile creatures with no ability to move, they just latch on and feed. ~Anachronist (talk) 04:44, 20 January 2018 (UTC)


 * No they can't. Their free-living cousins have bristles they use to move with, but all the Cestoda are parasitic and do not locomote. I fear the wriggling described by your article was imagined, or, ahem, assisted by the sitter; or it may have been referring to roundworms, which certainly can wriggle. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:50, 20 January 2018 (UTC)