Horsehair worms are long (often over a foot (30 cm)) skinny parasites which are especially fond of infecting certain spiders and insects (especially the jumpy kinds like crickets, grasshoppers, katydids, and locusts). They mature and grow inside the insect's body. When they are ready to see the world, they somehow stimulate thirst on the part of their host. Once their host starts drinking, the worm emerges to spend the rest of its life in the water and to engage in sex. The host usually dies as a result.
Their name is derived from the fact that people often found them in watering troughs and thought that they were horse mane or tail hairs which fell into the water and became animated. They are also called Gordian worms from the mythical knot of the same name, due to their tendency to form entanglements with their bodies. They belong to the phylum Nematomorpha, which means "looks like nematodes." They, however, are not nematodes, so do not let anyone tell you to the contrary.
They are totally harmless to mammals. People sometimes see them in toilet bowls, draw erroneous conclusions, and become alarmed. However, what most likely happened is that someone probably flushed a cricket in the bowl, thus releasing the worm.
For you endoparasite fans, the attached link is to a viral video depicting what happens after you bugspray a spider infected with one of these guys.
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