Tapeworms are generally transmitted by the ingestion of infected meat (in humans and cats), or transmitted by infected fleas (in dogs). The tapeworm larvae is ingested and "hatches" in the digestive milieu. With a combination of hooks and suckers, the tapeworm attaches to the intestinal wall. Living in the "predigested" food environment of the intestine, the tapeworm does not require a mouth, it simply absorbs its nutrients through it's body. As they mature, the tapeworm will grow in length and begin shedding it's posterior segments chock full of new tapeworm larvae, which either reside in the muscle of the victim (waiting for it to be ingested in the next link in the food chain) or expelled in the feces and transmitted by the coprophagic (poo-eating) behaviors of many species to result in transmission.
For one man's personal experience with tapeworm in residence, check out: The Worm Within
There are a number of advertised tapeworm-based diet remedies from the early 1900's. It was never firmly established if the pills actually contained tapeworm eggs, or if it was false advertising so long associated with the diet industry.
Larval tapeworms, or cystericosis, deposited in the muscle of an infected human. Beef Tapeworm (Taenia saginata) is contracted by humans by eating undercooked meat. It takes approximately two years after infection for symptoms to become noticeable. (weight loss, muscle pain, fever, wriggling bits of wormy rice in one's excrement, etc) Tapeworms of several meters in length have been removed from infected humans.
An intact, extracted tapeworm courtesy of: e-radiography.net
And, NSFL (Not Safe For Lunch):
Shed tapeworm egg cases as most typically observed.
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Somebody just have to know where there're tapeworm pills on the web.
Would be nice, if anybody could tell me.