Wiggly things in a bucket of urine - animal or vegetable?

Factual Questions
1

Years ago I made the mistake of spending a week in a cabin with a bunch of neanderthals. There was an outdoor privy, but to avoid having to go out there just to micturate, the guys set up a plastic bucket in the mud room for urinating in.

After a few days, I noticed that attached all up and down the inside of the bucket were little wiggly things. It was disgusting.

But now I find myself wondering what they were. Were they some kind of worm? Or a fungus or mold? They seemed to be more or less regularly spaced and gradually growing denser and longer.

Any ideas?

2

Can mosquito larvae survive in urine? They do pretty well in very stagnant and scuzzy water.

3

No idea, but your story is highly reminiscent of a passage from The Real Frank Zappa Book:

4

These things weren’t swimming. They seemed to be attached to the sides at one end with the other end waving in the bucket. I don’t know whether they would have started swimming eventually.

5

Telling the same story someplace else (I don’t remember where), Frank hypothesized that whatever the things were, “they’re probably eleven feet long” by now.

.

6

Attached at one end would suggest a hydra or possibly a leech, depending on the size. I just found a case report of a leech living in someones urinary bladder, which is cool.

7

Are we sure it couldn’t be some kind of mold/fungus? It kind of looked like individual strands of moss or something like that.

8

Penis larvae. :smiley:

9

Is that better, or worse, than larva penises?

10

Well, they get better when they mature into their adult forms.

11

Clearly some one was jerking off in the bucket, and you’ve discovered you possess Superman-esque microscopic vision that is only enabled during bouts of supreme revulsion – which is unfortunate, as that is when microscopic vision is a most unwelcome guest.

12

How long can sperms live and what do they become when they mature…?

13

Wiggly when the bucket was moved or jostled > Simply agglomerations of whatever bacteria(s) was eating up the goodies in the urine

Wiggly due their own motile action > something that can live in a concentrated bucket of urine and thrive in that level of urea would be real extremophile - kill it with bleach and fire.

14

I don’t know but all I have to say is: :eek:

15

Yeah, I’m thinking your first option more accurately describes them. I’m astonished that bacteria can agglomerate so quickly to become that noticeable.

16

these things if agglomerations of single celled might move due to water movement caused by your breath or thermal differences between the top and bottom of the liquid.

17

We need pix

18

No, we don’t.

19

I didn’t take pics. Anyway, it’s an easy enough experiment to recreate for yourself. Just start peeing in a plastic container and don’t wash it out for a while.