Glenn A. Mandel, age 10 of Monarch, Alta., Canada, for his question:

WHAT ARE THE LONG, THIN WORMS INSIDE CRICKETS?

Imagine a long, thin strand of hair wriggling around and you have an idea of the almost invisible worms that sometimes live inside crickets. Strangely enough, these super thin white worms are usually harmless to the cricket unless they are in great numbers. They can be very long  the male sometimes reaching two feet in length, and the female a whopping three feet.

These worms are commonly called horse hair worms orjust plain hair worms. They are related to a large group of wormy creatures called nematodes,    and scientists who know about such things say their family name is gordiacae.  These wiggly fellows have a very complicated life cycle, one that includes living in clear, still water and also inside crickets and Cricket relatives.