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Eileen Harris has been a curator of parasitic worms at the Natural History Museum in London for more than 30 years, looking after its world-class collection of some half a million specimens. She has one of the most varied jobs in biology: when she鈥檚 not identifying species or looking for parasites in the dissected bodies of stranded whales, she is taking calls from members of the public unnerved by the appearance of a long wriggling creature in their bathroom. She talks to Lucy Middleton about her life with worms, and why we should be wary of sushi.

What is your favourite parasitic worm?

My giant pickled tapeworm. It鈥檚 around 10 metres long. It was brought to me in a bucket after being found in a killer whale that was stranded off the coast of south-west England. It was only the second tapeworm of that species ever to have been found. We鈥檝e grown close over the years. That worm and I have been everywhere together 鈥� even to Buckingham Palace. We went to a science fair for the queen鈥檚 80th birthday. I never thought being a parasite curator would allow me to eat royal sandwiches. The royals were very interested in the worms. I also have a plastic worm from the publisher Dorling Kindersley; that鈥檚 my other special friend.

Do you have a least favourite?

. It just makes me go, yuk! I think because it鈥檚 rather ugly. It gets into the swim bladder of eels and feeds on blood, so it鈥檚 very black. Most nematodes are really quite nice and you can get some attractive ones with rows of spines, frills or intricate teeth. Some parasites are beautiful, such as the tapeworm Prochristianella, which you might find in sharks: instead of hooks it has long tentacles with all these incredible spines. There is a nematode that kangaroos get that is unusual: the male lives completely inside the female. Imagine the conversation I had with an Aussie about that.

How did you get to be a parasite curator?

While I was doing A-levels at school a friend came to work at the museum. I asked if there were any other jobs going. I was told there were two vacancies, one in bryozoa and one in parasitic nematodes. I was asked if I minded working with worms and I said no, so I was chosen for that job. It didn鈥檛 take very long before I realised just how complex and fascinating the world of parasites was and it grew from there. The longer you work with them the more you love them. I love my worms, much to everyone鈥檚 disgust. Flatworms and roundworms are my babies. I also love solving problems for people: for example, vets worried because an animal has died and they want me to identify any parasites present. That鈥檚 very rewarding.

You get a lot of enquiries from the public about worms. What do they ask?

They range from people who have found worms in their lunch to those who have turned on their water tap and something nasty has come out.

What kind of nasty?

I鈥檓 talking about Gordian worms, which as larvae are internal parasites of insects such as crickets, cockroaches and grasshoppers. They鈥檙e so-called because in water they squirm and twist and knot themselves up into something resembling the Gordian knot. They are also known as horsehair worms because in their adult stage they are brown and very thin and grow up to 25 centimetres long. They鈥檙e clever: they can , making it seek out water. When the insect finds some, the worm emerges from the insect鈥檚 body and swims away. You might find these long worms during the late summer or autumn in streams and ponds, in your dog鈥檚 drinking bowl, in swimming pools, in the water tank in your loft, or even in your bath or toilet. Of course, they are usually alive when you find them. I get concerned people on the phone wanting me to identify their toilet inhabitant. I also get people with , which is when you are convinced you have parasites coming out of every orifice. It鈥檚 a well-documented psychological disorder.

What is the most unpleasant thing you鈥檝e had to do?

I can鈥檛 think of anything.

You mean that in your 30 years plus of dealing with parasites and dissecting animals that you鈥檝e never had to do anything objectionable?

Well, I was once sent some unpreserved gorilla dung that arrived in plastic boxes, and when I opened the boxes: poooah! It was from the in Rwanda. They wanted to see what parasites were in there. We said send the sample and they took it literally. Anything from dead badgers also gets to you. So does a dead whale, especially if it has been lying around.

Is it usual to find worms in whales?

These animals can be riddled with parasites and not be affected. We had specimens from a big dolphin weighing more than 500 kilograms that had parasites in its lungs, blubber, stomach, heart, blood system, kidneys, liver 鈥� everywhere. And it had been fine. Each parasite has its own little niche, and providing the animal is fit and healthy, the parasite just exists and that鈥檚 it.

We鈥檝e just recently finished a 10-year whale stranding project. The aim was to find out whether or not parasites were the cause of the strandings. Some researchers in the US said that were getting into the inner ear of whales and porpoises and affecting their echolocation. So we collected and analysed parasites from stranded whales and porpoises, and compared them with those from animals that had been caught in nets. There was no difference in the parasites they carried, so we concluded that the parasites were not the cause.

Tell me about worms you鈥檝e discovered and described.

I discovered a and species of worms (Teporingonema cerropeladoensis) in volcano rabbits 鈥� very small rabbits found around volcanoes in Mexico. The rabbits were being bred at Jersey Zoo in the Channel Islands and several died. They were found to have a large number of nematodes in their stomachs and the worms were sent to me for identification. It didn鈥檛 take me long to realise that they were all new to science. One name for the rabbit is teporingo, so I named the worm Teporingonema. I have probably discovered about a dozen new species in total. If we had the time we could describe a new species every week, there are so many out there. Only a small percentage of the world鈥檚 parasites have been named.

Knowing what you do about parasites, do you have any advice for people?

Put it this way: I never eat my steaks very rare. I went to a conference in the Netherlands once and they ate raw herrings 鈥� I wouldn鈥檛 do that. I would be wary about eating sushi in some places. A good chef would always see any worms in the slices. You need to know what to look for though. Make sure fruit and vegetables are properly washed when you go to some tropical countries in case you swallow any Ascaris eggs, which are too small to see. When it comes to parasites and food I can put people off pretty much anything.

鈥淚n the Netherlands they eat raw herrings. I wouldn鈥檛 do that鈥�