When I was in elementary school everyone's parents were sent a letter about pinworms, recommending that they shine a flashlight on their childrens' butts at night to see if the queens were poking out. I forgot about that until just now.

I am going to boil my hands every day....

will I ever get to sleep tonight?

Me thinks not.

@underclassed: oh god oh god oh god...

@underclassed: "Queens poking out". Lord have mercy!!

OMG! THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE SCARES ME MORE!!!!!!!

Shortly after I saw this, my butt began to itch. I don't dare scratch.

Whatever, you all act as though you've never heard of pinworms. What elementary student hasn't had them. They're the thing of my itchy butt childhood past.

Haha, when I was kid my little brother had a recurring problem with pinworms. He would kill me if he knew I just posted that on the internets!

i HAD these when i was little... ahaha... oh dear.

And God bless her for introducing "tossed salads" and "rainbow parties" into the American lexicon.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. I LOVE THIS. This reminds me of a fabulous documentary about parasites that they show a lot on Animal Planet called "Eaten Alive" (it's also been posted on youtube). I recommend everyone see that show at least once in their lifetime. I find parasites to be a really interesting topic. Yes, I'm a freak.

Both of my younger brothers had pinworms growing up and as a result I had endless teasing opportunities.

The thought of my Mom going in my brothers' bedrooms with a flashlight at night to check their butts still makes me giggle a little.

Oh the joys of motherhood. ;)

@msb2: The scotch-tape test makes for one hell of a visual.

Ahhhhh! Yet another ailment for me to be paranoid about getting.
After that video from inside a colon, I'm not sure I can eat dinner. I'll just smoke a bowl and hope for the best.
Until I go to bed and my butt starts to itch...

@underclassed: I had a college zoology class that practiced that test. Thanks for the flashback.

@rubalicious: me too. it must be psychological, right?

@franceshasbeen: I'm going to operate under the assumption that if I haven't gotten it yet, I never will. Otherwise, it's back to Lysol-ing everything I touch.

I watched this at the gym and everyone was screaming on the treadmills and elliptical cross-trainers -- but doing it really softly so no one would hear them. Totally hilarious. I LOVE Doc Oz.

Weeeird. I think that my sister had those when we were little, and had to drink apple cider vinegar?

Maybe that's a fabrication, I don't know.

If you've had kids, you know all about this horror show.

I know so many peole who've had pinworms, including myself. It really wasn't that bad, just annoying. Maybe that demonstrates the incredible tolerance I have for gross things as long as they pertain to human anatomy/disease.

I'm so pumped for med school, maybe I'll get to do the scotch tape test on someone. Heck yes!

When I studied abroad my host "sister" was drop dead gorgeous, and all my guy friends kept begging me to set them up. Until she launched into her love of parasitology (she was majoring in tropical diseases). She was particularly fond of that worm you have to slowly wind around a pencil each day to pull it out of your leg and yes, of the butt worms, as she called them. Kirsten was awesome!

@hoboqueen: You should read Parasite Rex, by Carl Zimmer, excellent book.

This is why, every morning, as soon as I wake up, I wash my hands and while washing I clean under my finger nails with a sharp tool. You'd be SURPRISED the stuff that comes out. I'm hoping it's just dead skin, but either way, I am pin worm free baby!

my dad was a doctor and mom was a nurse, so growing up is was kinda hard to fake the illnesses. after lots of suspicious stomachaches, my mom finally insisted I was suffering from pinworms, and told me the only way to be certain was to perform the scotch tape to bumhole test. my stomachaches were miraculously cured.

OMG I know a guy who got pinworms from eating the food from the taco truck at the dump. Coincidentally, I now think that he is a huge jerk and I wish that his pinworms would come back.

This is why I wasn't allowed to play in the sandbox as a youngun. Mrs. Vicious wasn't about to go rummaging around in her kids' bums and ruining her manicure, yo. I did have ringworm once as an adult, though, and I can still hear the screaming in my head.

@madamequeen: They have taco trucks? And they're in dumps?

Wow. I haven't heard the word "pinworm" since I was, like, seven. I'm going to try and forget it again now.

Do not, I repeat do not Google Image them. The photo of them peeping out of someones MOUTH is enough for me.

Wikipedia article: "after mating the male dies". Hurrah!

Alas, I can't unsee that.

I loved to play in the dirt when I was little and consequently got these a couple of times. I don't remember them being that gross, really. What I do remember is that you have to drink this nasty medicine to get rid them. My mom would dillute it with OJ, which honestly made it even worse. Yuck.

@underclassed: Yes, there are taco trucks all over CA, especially in LA and San Diego. Prob there's tons in Arizona too. Anyway, yeah usually the food is fine... it's like a hot dog/ pretzel cart, and it's fully regulated by the Health Dept. and all that jazz. However, there are serious turf issues... valuable corners/ intersections are "claimed." I think maybe the dump taco truck was kinda the bottom of the barrel? And the guys I knew who ate there were like, "Hey, let's eat tacos at the dump so we can say we did, ha ha."

Oo, my brother and I had ringworm! We got it from the cat. We took the nasty medicine in chocolate milk.

Yea, Oprah really does get real sometimes, especially when she said "I ain't here to talk about no books!" at an Obama rally.

@BabyPHAT: Because you told me not to and because I'm that kind of person, I had to Google image them. And among the moderately-to-severely gross pictures there, I found this fairly hilarious one:

I had no idea that people needed a picture to understand what ass-scratching was.

Er, that link didn't work. Try this one:

[www.fotosearch.com]

What I don't get is when they are reading it out loud and the letter says she checked her poop to see if it was s-shaped and he goes, "good, good." wtf? Did I miss the memo on this? I shit SUPPOSED to be s-shaped? Are we supposed to be checking for this?????

God, so much to worry about I'm just gonna pour a second goblet of red wine, have a Percocet, and settle in for a night of America's Funniest Home Videos. Damn butt-worm fear.

Sorry, "Is" not "I." Yup, I teach college.

okay, i'm adding a gross story, skip if you're queasy.

had 'em when i was a kid too, also a dirt player. They said (to me anyone) that they're fairly common. Just really itchy, took some meds or something and they went away. But I didn't know why I was itchy, and then one day I saw them in my poop when i wiped and it freaked me the HELL out. when you are 9 you do not know what that is or where it comes from or if you are going to die but it is in your poop and it is alive and it is moving. I am not going to watch a video and relive that nightmare. But any time my butt itches I get nervous that I never really got rid of 'em. I probably look at my poop a lot more than most people because of it.

:P

About 20% of the earth's human population are supposed to have pinworms, if I read the stat correctly.

y'know, if i was gonna have worms up in my backsides, it would be great for them to be useful and, like, help me lose weight or something. but nooooooo! they exist solely for the reason to have oprah and dr. oz explain them.

everybody will be thinking twice before they scratch their ass again.

Uh, Oprah goes to far, but the Dr. Ruth post earlier today didn't? Hmmm?

Oh I remember the good ol' days, bent over the side of the bathtub, my mother probing around my butt with a q-tip. They gave me a little pink pill and the itching stopped.

Those of you who have had RINGworm can breathe a little easier...it's just a fungal skin infection.

I'm reminded of the dirty talk post a while back [jezebel.com] there were many comments from those of the "I don't wash my hands after using the restroom" camp. You know who you are. Please listen to Oprah, WASH YOUR HANDS!

@touchmyshoe: Oh yeah, I know it's fungal and not, uh, wormy, but you know what? Anything with the word "worm" in it is not an affliction I want on my person.

The Wikipedia article with "disoriented" pinworms being found in the vagina just SET ME THE FUCK OFF. I. would. die. if a queen poked her head out of my vadge.

@americansplendor wait until you talk about Trichiuriasis infections. Heavy ones cause prolapsed rectums. That picture will haunt your dreams. Apparantly you just shove it back in there, and alls okay.

I've just watched the first 3 seconds of the video, and browsed the comments and already I want to go disinfect my brain. But, I must go forward. I must hear Oz. A friend of mine got a tapeworm a few years ago and the best thing to come out of that was a drunken night of yelling, "I gots the illest tapeworm you ever seen bitch!"

OMG this must've been what Cartman was referring to (he thought that's what rainbows were) in that pilot episode of South Park!