Strange worms on my negatives

[Edmond3]

Hello, this is my first day on this forum, I am most excited about becoming familiar with it. I am relatively new to large format photography, though I have been shooting, processing and printing my own work for 33 years. I have a constant problem with my 4x5 negatives and would like to hear if anybody has any ideas. What I can only describe as worm trails are in all of my negs across the board. I have tried 3 developers, and I use dedicated trays and beakers for my chems, and I have shot 4 different boxes of HP5 across the span of 4 months on 2 different cameras and many different holders, and still they appear. They seem to be part of the image as one can read grain within the "tracks" the vary in length from 5mm to 3 centimeters (roughly) and are smack in the middle of the greys. I have shown them to many people here in NYC to little reward, though one person thought that it might be static electricity. I shot 8 exposures today very carefully and yes, they ares till there.... Ideas? Thank you very much
~Edmond3

[E. von Hoegh]

Any chance you could show us a scan?

[Edmond3]

I am heading out of town for the week, I will scan this weekend and post, and also research how to post images, thanks for your interest

[polyglot]

Does it look like this? That's a 6x7 frame, so dribbles will look smaller on your 4x5s of course.

[Edmond3]

No, unfortunately they do not resemble your example. They are more like dozens of small noodles randomely splattered around the neg. I can see now that I will have to post some scans, will do so this weekend hopefully. Thanks for the reply however, it is really very frustrating!

[Michael_4514]

Dust

[Edmond3]

HMMM... dust where? Is it common for dust to be exposed in to the neg? Because the noodles have exposed grain and width, can you clarify? I have been rather methodical about cleaning.

[SergeiR]

Short haired dog or cat in house?

[ROL]

Shrooming, by any chance?

[Edmond3]

No animals, and I haven't walked through wonderland in years! As I said I will post scans. It isn't hair, as the squiggles don't resemble anything close to hair. The most likely explanation I have heard is static discharge as it resembles sparks, and the film really does appear to be exposed within these trails when observed through a loop, but I've never heard of this phenomenon. Sergei, I like your portraits in the September portrait thread!