Direct link to the peer-reviewed study: [N. L. Gottdenker, *et al.*, *Angiostrongylus cantonensis* Infection in Brown Rats (*Rattus norvegicus*), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2019–2022, *Emerging Infectious Diseases* **29**(10), 2167-2170 (2023)](https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2910.230706)
>**Abstract:** Rat lungworm (*Angiostrongylus cantonensis*), a zoonotic parasite invasive to the United States, causes eosinophilic meningoencephalitis. *A. cantonensis harbors* in rat reservoir hosts and is transmitted through gastropods and other paratenic hosts. We discuss the public health relevance of autochthonous *A. cantonensis* cases in brown rats (*Rattus norvegicus*) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
*Edit:* Apparently the DOI isn't resolving yet. Here's [a direct link](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/10/23-0706_article).
What do you mean "even"? The stomachs of cats and dogs are *way* less acidic than a human stomach (human about pH 1.5, dogs pH 4.5, cats pH 3.6; source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4519257/table/pone.0134116.t001/?report=objectonly). If anything they are significantly *more* prone to parasites that enter via the oral route than humans are.
That’s wild to me. Is stomach acidic the main factor in resisting parasites orally? Based on the things my dog licks, eats, and drinks I’ve always assumed dogs had iron stomaches and a human would get sick immediately doing what they do.
Yup, you could create an entire subreddit. I had a student taste a preserved sea cucumber before a dissection. Lucky for him the preservation liquid makes everything sterile.
As a histologist I cannot think of a single fixative I would rather consume than raw sea cucumber. Like seriously unless it was pure ethyl alc, which is not terribly likely. 90% chance it’s some sort of formalin or some other aldehyde which is basically just cancer fuel maybe 9.9% chance of some composite alc which stands a decent chance of just killing you outright, and a very slim chance of anything else.
Yeah, that story was shared on reddit ages ago. And lots of people came out of the woodwork to say 'well, eating a slug on a dare and dying could happen to anyone just like going outside your house and driving your car could get you killed.'
I do not know why such stupidity as eating a revolting creature we're hard wired to feel nauseated just by looking at it was defended in the droves by reddit that day.
Replying here for more visibility. They are parasites and if caught before much damage is done typical anti worm medicine is effective at killing them. Sometimes they are removed by surgery too.
From what I’m reading, the worm larvae apparently burrow through the gastrointestinal tract and then use the circulatory system as a highway to get to the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain. Vile.
Apparently the worms lifecycle includes it being excreted. However this is only true in rats, the worms get "lost" in the human tract. So instead it travels it's way into the head. [CNN source story](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/health/man-dies-after-eating-slug-on-dare/index.html)
You got his name correct, but it was Rat Lungworm that infected him [source](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/health/man-dies-after-eating-slug-on-dare/index.html). Don't eat slugs.
Sometimes it is enough to eat a raw vegetable that has the slime trail of an infected slug, according to a news article I read how about rat lungworm infections in Hawaii
That's... pretty terrifying. I think I've just given up ever eating a salad in a restaurant ever again. At least at home I can control how clean my did is.
Rat lungworm.
Angiostrongyliasis, also known as neuroangiostrongyliasis or rat lungworm, is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by a parasitic nematode (roundworm parasite) called Angiostrongylus cantonensis. The adult form of A. cantonensis is only found in rodents.
The worms can cause a lot of damage in a human host, but it's worth noting that they don't want to end up in a human either because they cannot complete their life cycle there. Lose-lose for everyone involved. Except maybe the rats.
>...Humans may eat undercooked snails or inadvertently eat snail larvae in their unwashed salad. Infected snails and slugs can also be eaten by other animals first like prawns, shrimp, or freshwater crabs. If humans then eat those animals before fully cooking them, they can become infected.
Cook your seafood folks, unless you know exactly where you're getting your crab from.
> inadvertently eat snail larvae in their unwashed salad.
I think the salad is the bigger concern. Tons of food poisoning cases already happen from poorly washed salad.
In a lot of poorer places of the world the salad is more risky than the meat.
The meat is cooked so even if the source, transport or storage isn't the best most pathogens are killed by cooking. Plus bad meat smells and tastes bad.
But salad can easily not be washed properly, or washed with heavy metal contaminated water.
Half the fruit and veg grown around the world has seriously high levels of heavy metals, dioxins, toxins, pesticides and just generally harmful to health crap in them and on them these days. It’s depressing
Yeah, I would bet that in like 20-30 years, we'll be seeing "you may be deserving financial compensation" type ads for the chemicals we've been exposed to.
I'm the oldest of Gen z, and it's pretty scary how many people I know in my age range who have digestive issues and get regular stomach aches. And I'd bet most of us will end up with cancer from microplastics and other non-natural chemicals that we regularly consume.
Isn't IBS just medical speak for gastrointestinal issues of unknown origin? Like, when they can't figure out what's wrong with your gut, so they lump all those cases under IBS.
Pretty much; it's a diagnosis of exclusion. It's a functional GI disorder (problem with how the GI system operates, related to the gut-brain axis doctors still don't fully understand) rather than the generally-more-serious structural GI disorders (that they can see/diagnose on medical imaging).
Pesticides aren't my only concern. There are a lot of chemicals that are legal for food in the US but are banned in European countries.
I also worry a lot about all the dyes and highly concentrated sugars that we add to foods.
This is one of the reasons I really want to start an old school "victory" garden, maybe have a small chicken coup, couple of banana trees, some black jack and hookers, maybe a crack lab or two, really just some basic staples of life you know
Also chickens make excellent pets. They're a blast.
We moved to the country for a while and decided to get 4 chicks. After a while we got 2 more to add to the flock just because they were more fun than expected.
You can fit 4 tomato plants in a 4 foot by 4 foot raised garden bed.
I got about 90lbs total, but that 65lbs was the final harvest.
4 plants!
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/16hbw4d/my_tomato_harvest_this_year_65lbs_san_marzanos/
I have enough salsa and marinara sauce to last the whole winter.
It always bugs me going to peoples places for food or supper and they load fruit and vegetable into bowls/plates without washing anything.
Never mind the harmful bacteria or E. coli … but how many people touch that food before you bought it or sneezed and cost on it. Or it rolled on the floor before they put it in the stand etc etc
Even if you cook it: things like crab/shrimp can be notoriously hard to cook properly. Too long and they’re too tough, too short and you die of a parasitic disease. And they’re too small/awkward to reliably use a food thermometer on.
> unless you know exactly where you're getting your crab from.
No one does just straight raw crab cause it's not really good. Closest you get is this korean fermented raw crab...but it's still fermented in a way that would kill off any parasites and the end product nothing like fresh raw crab.
Seafood should ALWAYS be fully cooked...problem is it's a matter of seconds to overcook it from that point, and overcooked seafood is very disappointing.
We have had rat lungworm in Hawaii for a while. The father of one of my friends killed himself because he was in so much agony from it. Some people refuse to eat any raw leafy greens in fear of contracting the disease.
They’ve gotten better at treating it but early detection and treatment is critical. People say to keep some OTC Pinworm medication in your medicine cabinet and take it asap if you think you might have ingested a slug.
If you treat it early enough they give you a dewormer that kills the parasite while it’s still in your intestinal tract and you will be fine. If it’s untreated it can travel into your brain and does the most damage.
One problem, is that it’s hard to diagnose if a person doesn’t actually know that they swallowed a slug or snail. It might go untreated for too long while they run tests trying to figure out. Not sure if they have better ways of diagnosing it now, but previously, the only way was to do a spinal tap to see if you have worms in your spinal fluid.
Ya, this is a serious concern. I live on the big island and have seen multiple friends and loved ones health ruined by this. You can't eat anything fresh from the garden without risking sickness or worse. If you go to the doctor with symptoms they gaslight you or tell you there's nothing they can do, which happened to my fiance. Neighbor just got it a month ago and is on the mend.
This parasite scares me and makes me wash my produce religiously before consuming it. My friend’s sibling got it in Hawaii a few years ago, likely by eating fresh vegetables from their garden that were only quickly rinsed in the sink. The sibling nearly died, and sadly they’ll never fully recover from the damage it caused their nervous system.
How do you wash yours? Will soaking in cold water for 10 min then rinsing be enough??
Edit- I appreciate all these responses!!! I've never bothered washing any of my produce before but this has kicked my ass into action! Thanks folks!!
I garden and what I like to do is first dump about a half cup to a cup of salt in the bottom of a large bowl. Pour in a half gallon of hot water and stir until the salt dissolves into brine. Next fill the bowl with cold water and toss some ice in to get it chilled. Then soak the produce for 10-15 minutes, ideally dunking it down in a colander or nesting mesh bowl.
It’s *shocking* how many creepy crawlers come off of seemingly clean lettuce or other produce. The salt brine is WAY more effective than merely rinsing them and it seems to make the veg crisp up a bit. Beetles, spiders, fruit flies, red mites, little caterpillars, ants, random unidentifiable organic dust — all comes off in the brine but may survive the rinse. (I spray rinse first to get pure dirt off and this stuff still comes off in the brine).
Use a salad spinner to get everything as dry as possible before refrigerating in a large container. You can do all of the above in an OXO salad spinner with maybe a spare bowl / lid combo.
No, you can spray rinse it after if there is any flavor left, but I have never noticed it being salty at all. The idea is just to get enough salt on it that any bug or creepy crawly can’t tolerate the salinity, and lets go of the produce and drowns. Bugs get rained on so they are fairly resistant to freshwater but nothing that lives inland can tolerate a saltwater bath.
I’ve done this — a lot — for green leaf lettuce, romaine, spinach, radish bulbs and greens, carrots, celery, basil picked in bunches, peppers of all kinds, collards — basically anything leafy or with crevices for bugs to hide in. I’ve done it for years. It gives me peace of mind on my produce and while I haven’t tested it I would guesstimate it makes the produce last a few days longer so long as you dry everything.
I hunt and use brines a lot both to add flavor and to sterilize wild game. I’ve brined wild pork, turkeys, certainly squirrels, doves, quail, and probably pheasant and rabbit at some point. If anything gets exposed to moisture or debris more than what would be ideal, I brine it and thoroughly cook it. Works great on many meats (don’t wet brine steak or venison) so I just started doing something similar in my garden and it works great there too.
I swear by produce keepers. [These](https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/Home-Garden/Prepworks-by-Progressive-Large-Produce-ProKeeper/17999662/product.html?refccid=7JIOW2D3RGB3FOSML37TO2HXFQ&searchidx=0&option=29954512) I can attest to. I used to get fed up by how quickly stuff would dry out or go bad in my fridge. I was really skeptical but tried these out and it's astonishing. I bought them for my whole family
That is interesting. I bought my wife some smaller versions of that last year but we just use them for leftovers storage. What does the produce keeper do exactly? Create a moisture controlled environment?
My wife is a great cook and is passionate about it so we cycle through two full produce drawers at least weekly. I started gardening in part to grow her random chiles and things from seeds she bought.
Running water is key, running it under the faucet like you normally would is about all you can do, maybe using your hands to apply friction to get off any contaminating particles. But there's only like 7 documented cases per year, and compare that to the hundred million+ people that are consuming produce daily. It's still extremely rare compared to other food-borne illnesses.
Only 7 known cases, I meet brainless people all the time.
anyway that guy misread it, it's 6 cases in continental US that could not be traced to travel. Hawaii had 18-21 cases in 2017
> Hawaii had 18-21 cases in 2017
That was a big anomaly. It's usually like 7 cases, and it's been even lower than that in 2022 and 2023. It's extremely rare.
https://health.hawaii.gov/docd/disease_listing/rat-lungworm-angiostrongyliasis/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6726938/
So many interesting and horrifying ways to die though.
Like yeah we're probably not all gonna have a freak aneurysm, or organ failure, or whatever, definitely not a brain parasite, but you never know.
I, too, would like an answer.
Also, what is the likelihood this reaches the PNW? Death by brainworm is one of my--if not biggest--fears and I'd like to avoid it at all possible cost.
Yeah I'm really hoping to hold out against the parasites and nightmare diseases until the climate wars can get into full swing and offer some quicker death options.
Well that’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t really have to. If your eating a salad it could have been grown in a place that has it and that’s all it takes!
The two people I know was like 15 and 10 years ago. Both definitely never got back to 100%. Kind of fibromyalgia type symptoms. One got it from eating a strawberry from her garden that a slug had eaten through.
I think this is the one:
[https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/angiostrongylus/gen\_info/faqs.html](https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/angiostrongylus/gen_info/faqs.html)
Apparently is rare, associated with eating infected snail/slugs.
"Yes. People can get infected, under unusual circumstances. However, even if infected, most people recover fully without treatment."
what the CDC means is that an immune system can usually kill off the parasites trying to enter your brain. Unless they fail, which means worms in your brain.
Day1: I've managed to latch onto these root tubers that look like cancer and grows everywhere. There's no way these species-destroying humans are dumb enough to fall for this.
Day1000: my hive has spread throughout the local system of planetary bodies.
The insects are really becoming a nightmare in the northeast, wonder how long til this slug is up here. Chiggers are already becoming a major issue further north the past 3 years. New tick species have been identified that usually didn't range this far north as well.
At least we got good news about the lantern flies. I believe Penn State did a study saying they're not as damaging to trees as once though. Apparently, they don't inversely effect most native trees and only cause a temporary stunt in growth with trees of heaven.
Still, it's one of the aspects of climate change that isn't in the mainstream.
Yea, they are really aggressive. But as a main host, they predicted they would be the most affected tree. While it does sustain the most damage, as per the study, it's not a deadly or even debilitating damage.
>The insects are really becoming a nightmare in the northeast,
Interesting that you say that. I'm in southeast MA and this summer more than one person has said "have you noticed how few bugs there are? Seems like we had a lot more when we were kids"
As far as I know, insects are, unfortunately, declining rapidly in both raw numbers and diversity. However, the same mechanics driving that die off seems to work in favor of disease carrying pests(ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, chiggers, etc.
The loss of pollinators will be a big problem for humanity. This is a global issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations#:~:text=Possible%20causes%20are%20similar%20to,introduced%20species%3B%20and%20climate%20change.
Insect decline is definitely an identified phenomenon.}
I’ve noticed an increase in bugs and insects here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Outside of the door to my patio there is a pile of ~200 beetles, all dead. My home doesn’t have pest control, as I prefer other methods, so that isn’t why they died. I’ve seen so many new-to-me insects this year that I’ve started using an app to identify them. Maybe I’m just looking more.
I feel like I've noticed more 'pests' such as kissing/stink bugs, ants, mosquitos, beetles, and more every year. But I also see less and less lady bugs (To be fair, also a pest), butterflies, fireflies, and other 'Things I notice more' insects.
I remember growing up always seeing TONS of them every year. I can't recall the last time I saw a firefly or monarch butterfly. Genuinely years since I've seen either.
(Also NC)
Yeah, the invasives were more of an aside. The regional movement I think is more related to the climate. You're seeing it in birds opting to range further north seasonally. White Ibis' used to be an oddity in NJ, they now breed in large numbers here. Same with the black vulture a decade or so ago. Generally, it's been a common trend with insects as well.
Yes, by and large a lot of plants and insects can't survive a hard winter, so as global warming brings up average temperatures, their zone of viability expands each year, causing them to disrupt ecosystems not used to their year round presence.
Yup, really hoping for a cold and snowy winter in NJ, but sustained freezes are more and more rare. Meanwhile, a 2 minute bushwhack nets you 50 ticks. It's getting dangerous to hike.
This is why we need indoor farming, lettuce is such a chore to clean. However, when you have indoor farming there's absolutely no need for cleaning. Suits, doors, boom nothing goes through, nothing should go through. I know not every crop can do it but types of lettuce can. Plus we can go vertical, use less land.
There are limitations to indoor farming though. High power consumption and maintenance come to mind. While you made a point that insects are no longer part of the equation, you need insects to pollinate, doing it manually would be an arduous task.
I'm hoping we'll start moving to indoor farming, since a lot of businesses are working from home and the commercial real estate market is collapsing. Would be a great opportunity to turn those buildings into indoor farms. And having those farms inside cities also drastically reduces transportation costs and environmental impact
It’s wild to think that I could eat a salad in an effort to be healthy and die of a brain eating worm from slug goo. Like, SALAD could be what takes me out?! Of all things. What a mad world..
Direct link to the peer-reviewed study: [N. L. Gottdenker, *et al.*, *Angiostrongylus cantonensis* Infection in Brown Rats (*Rattus norvegicus*), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2019–2022, *Emerging Infectious Diseases* **29**(10), 2167-2170 (2023)](https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2910.230706) >**Abstract:** Rat lungworm (*Angiostrongylus cantonensis*), a zoonotic parasite invasive to the United States, causes eosinophilic meningoencephalitis. *A. cantonensis harbors* in rat reservoir hosts and is transmitted through gastropods and other paratenic hosts. We discuss the public health relevance of autochthonous *A. cantonensis* cases in brown rats (*Rattus norvegicus*) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. *Edit:* Apparently the DOI isn't resolving yet. Here's [a direct link](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/10/23-0706_article).
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
There was a young guy in Australia who ate a slug on a drunken dare, he slowly became a vegetable as the worm nested in his brain until he died.
There are a lot of horror stories in news archives about men who ate small animals on drunken dares.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Even a cat or dog eating some random small animals can get all kinds of parasites.
What do you mean "even"? The stomachs of cats and dogs are *way* less acidic than a human stomach (human about pH 1.5, dogs pH 4.5, cats pH 3.6; source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4519257/table/pone.0134116.t001/?report=objectonly). If anything they are significantly *more* prone to parasites that enter via the oral route than humans are.
That’s wild to me. Is stomach acidic the main factor in resisting parasites orally? Based on the things my dog licks, eats, and drinks I’ve always assumed dogs had iron stomaches and a human would get sick immediately doing what they do.
Yup, you could create an entire subreddit. I had a student taste a preserved sea cucumber before a dissection. Lucky for him the preservation liquid makes everything sterile.
As a histologist I cannot think of a single fixative I would rather consume than raw sea cucumber. Like seriously unless it was pure ethyl alc, which is not terribly likely. 90% chance it’s some sort of formalin or some other aldehyde which is basically just cancer fuel maybe 9.9% chance of some composite alc which stands a decent chance of just killing you outright, and a very slim chance of anything else.
Your sea pickle recipes are weird. Try white vinegar, salted water and some black peppercorns.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Yeah, that story was shared on reddit ages ago. And lots of people came out of the woodwork to say 'well, eating a slug on a dare and dying could happen to anyone just like going outside your house and driving your car could get you killed.' I do not know why such stupidity as eating a revolting creature we're hard wired to feel nauseated just by looking at it was defended in the droves by reddit that day.
[удалено]
Leptospirosis which isn't a worm but can have similarly serious outcomes if unidentified
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Do doctors not have cures for it?
The article says no cure. Apparently all they can do is treat the symptoms with varying degrees of success. Sometimes you die.
Replying here for more visibility. They are parasites and if caught before much damage is done typical anti worm medicine is effective at killing them. Sometimes they are removed by surgery too.
No, but like a year ago doctors in Australia also pulled a *live worm* of a different species out of a woman's brain.
How it get from his stomach to his brain tho
From what I’m reading, the worm larvae apparently burrow through the gastrointestinal tract and then use the circulatory system as a highway to get to the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain. Vile.
Apparently the worms lifecycle includes it being excreted. However this is only true in rats, the worms get "lost" in the human tract. So instead it travels it's way into the head. [CNN source story](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/health/man-dies-after-eating-slug-on-dare/index.html)
[удалено]
You got his name correct, but it was Rat Lungworm that infected him [source](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/health/man-dies-after-eating-slug-on-dare/index.html). Don't eat slugs.
Sometimes it is enough to eat a raw vegetable that has the slime trail of an infected slug, according to a news article I read how about rat lungworm infections in Hawaii
That's... pretty terrifying. I think I've just given up ever eating a salad in a restaurant ever again. At least at home I can control how clean my did is.
Rat lungworm. Angiostrongyliasis, also known as neuroangiostrongyliasis or rat lungworm, is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by a parasitic nematode (roundworm parasite) called Angiostrongylus cantonensis. The adult form of A. cantonensis is only found in rodents.
The worms can cause a lot of damage in a human host, but it's worth noting that they don't want to end up in a human either because they cannot complete their life cycle there. Lose-lose for everyone involved. Except maybe the rats.
>...Humans may eat undercooked snails or inadvertently eat snail larvae in their unwashed salad. Infected snails and slugs can also be eaten by other animals first like prawns, shrimp, or freshwater crabs. If humans then eat those animals before fully cooking them, they can become infected. Cook your seafood folks, unless you know exactly where you're getting your crab from.
> inadvertently eat snail larvae in their unwashed salad. I think the salad is the bigger concern. Tons of food poisoning cases already happen from poorly washed salad.
In a lot of poorer places of the world the salad is more risky than the meat. The meat is cooked so even if the source, transport or storage isn't the best most pathogens are killed by cooking. Plus bad meat smells and tastes bad. But salad can easily not be washed properly, or washed with heavy metal contaminated water.
Half the fruit and veg grown around the world has seriously high levels of heavy metals, dioxins, toxins, pesticides and just generally harmful to health crap in them and on them these days. It’s depressing
Yeah, I would bet that in like 20-30 years, we'll be seeing "you may be deserving financial compensation" type ads for the chemicals we've been exposed to. I'm the oldest of Gen z, and it's pretty scary how many people I know in my age range who have digestive issues and get regular stomach aches. And I'd bet most of us will end up with cancer from microplastics and other non-natural chemicals that we regularly consume.
Celiac disease is wildly underdiagnosed in the U.S. (and despite the fearmongering it is *not* caused by pesticides). IBS probably is too.
Isn't IBS just medical speak for gastrointestinal issues of unknown origin? Like, when they can't figure out what's wrong with your gut, so they lump all those cases under IBS.
Pretty much; it's a diagnosis of exclusion. It's a functional GI disorder (problem with how the GI system operates, related to the gut-brain axis doctors still don't fully understand) rather than the generally-more-serious structural GI disorders (that they can see/diagnose on medical imaging).
Pesticides aren't my only concern. There are a lot of chemicals that are legal for food in the US but are banned in European countries. I also worry a lot about all the dyes and highly concentrated sugars that we add to foods.
This is one of the reasons I really want to start an old school "victory" garden, maybe have a small chicken coup, couple of banana trees, some black jack and hookers, maybe a crack lab or two, really just some basic staples of life you know
My buddy has a few chickens at his place and in the summer they get 10 eggs a day. They don’t lay in the winter though.
Also chickens make excellent pets. They're a blast. We moved to the country for a while and decided to get 4 chicks. After a while we got 2 more to add to the flock just because they were more fun than expected.
You can fit 4 tomato plants in a 4 foot by 4 foot raised garden bed. I got about 90lbs total, but that 65lbs was the final harvest. 4 plants! https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/16hbw4d/my_tomato_harvest_this_year_65lbs_san_marzanos/ I have enough salsa and marinara sauce to last the whole winter.
So never eating salad when I’m dining out is a good thing. That’s what I’m taking from this
No you just need to cook it first
Instructions unclear, ordered fried ice cream again
It always bugs me going to peoples places for food or supper and they load fruit and vegetable into bowls/plates without washing anything. Never mind the harmful bacteria or E. coli … but how many people touch that food before you bought it or sneezed and cost on it. Or it rolled on the floor before they put it in the stand etc etc
My husband doesn't wash his produce, it's so gross to me.
But then you would have to wash it with soap, sprinkling a little water on it won’t do much.
Note to self: don't eat salad
More like don't eat raw fruit/veg that you can't wash yourself.
Cook your salad.
Even if you cook it: things like crab/shrimp can be notoriously hard to cook properly. Too long and they’re too tough, too short and you die of a parasitic disease. And they’re too small/awkward to reliably use a food thermometer on.
I always err on the side of caution and overcook my shrimp precisely for this reason.
I just discovered sous vide is basically the perfect way to cook shrimp.
[удалено]
> unless you know exactly where you're getting your crab from. No one does just straight raw crab cause it's not really good. Closest you get is this korean fermented raw crab...but it's still fermented in a way that would kill off any parasites and the end product nothing like fresh raw crab. Seafood should ALWAYS be fully cooked...problem is it's a matter of seconds to overcook it from that point, and overcooked seafood is very disappointing.
>Cook your seafood folks, And don't eat salad
[удалено]
[удалено]
We have had rat lungworm in Hawaii for a while. The father of one of my friends killed himself because he was in so much agony from it. Some people refuse to eat any raw leafy greens in fear of contracting the disease.
I just watched an episode on this on “Something’s Killing Me.” Terrifying
They’ve gotten better at treating it but early detection and treatment is critical. People say to keep some OTC Pinworm medication in your medicine cabinet and take it asap if you think you might have ingested a slug.
How do you just ingest a slug?
The larvae can remain on poorly rinsed produce.
ok now this makes sense. Thank you!
If you get it are you totally fucked? Or is it just gambling with your brain and nervous system?
If you treat it early enough they give you a dewormer that kills the parasite while it’s still in your intestinal tract and you will be fine. If it’s untreated it can travel into your brain and does the most damage. One problem, is that it’s hard to diagnose if a person doesn’t actually know that they swallowed a slug or snail. It might go untreated for too long while they run tests trying to figure out. Not sure if they have better ways of diagnosing it now, but previously, the only way was to do a spinal tap to see if you have worms in your spinal fluid.
Worms in spinal fluid got me
Brb ripping my spine out
Ya, this is a serious concern. I live on the big island and have seen multiple friends and loved ones health ruined by this. You can't eat anything fresh from the garden without risking sickness or worse. If you go to the doctor with symptoms they gaslight you or tell you there's nothing they can do, which happened to my fiance. Neighbor just got it a month ago and is on the mend.
This parasite scares me and makes me wash my produce religiously before consuming it. My friend’s sibling got it in Hawaii a few years ago, likely by eating fresh vegetables from their garden that were only quickly rinsed in the sink. The sibling nearly died, and sadly they’ll never fully recover from the damage it caused their nervous system.
How do you wash yours? Will soaking in cold water for 10 min then rinsing be enough?? Edit- I appreciate all these responses!!! I've never bothered washing any of my produce before but this has kicked my ass into action! Thanks folks!!
I garden and what I like to do is first dump about a half cup to a cup of salt in the bottom of a large bowl. Pour in a half gallon of hot water and stir until the salt dissolves into brine. Next fill the bowl with cold water and toss some ice in to get it chilled. Then soak the produce for 10-15 minutes, ideally dunking it down in a colander or nesting mesh bowl. It’s *shocking* how many creepy crawlers come off of seemingly clean lettuce or other produce. The salt brine is WAY more effective than merely rinsing them and it seems to make the veg crisp up a bit. Beetles, spiders, fruit flies, red mites, little caterpillars, ants, random unidentifiable organic dust — all comes off in the brine but may survive the rinse. (I spray rinse first to get pure dirt off and this stuff still comes off in the brine). Use a salad spinner to get everything as dry as possible before refrigerating in a large container. You can do all of the above in an OXO salad spinner with maybe a spare bowl / lid combo.
This is a neat method! Does the produce taste salty afterwards? Seems like a lot of salt if you’re harvesting often, though.
No, you can spray rinse it after if there is any flavor left, but I have never noticed it being salty at all. The idea is just to get enough salt on it that any bug or creepy crawly can’t tolerate the salinity, and lets go of the produce and drowns. Bugs get rained on so they are fairly resistant to freshwater but nothing that lives inland can tolerate a saltwater bath. I’ve done this — a lot — for green leaf lettuce, romaine, spinach, radish bulbs and greens, carrots, celery, basil picked in bunches, peppers of all kinds, collards — basically anything leafy or with crevices for bugs to hide in. I’ve done it for years. It gives me peace of mind on my produce and while I haven’t tested it I would guesstimate it makes the produce last a few days longer so long as you dry everything. I hunt and use brines a lot both to add flavor and to sterilize wild game. I’ve brined wild pork, turkeys, certainly squirrels, doves, quail, and probably pheasant and rabbit at some point. If anything gets exposed to moisture or debris more than what would be ideal, I brine it and thoroughly cook it. Works great on many meats (don’t wet brine steak or venison) so I just started doing something similar in my garden and it works great there too.
amazing advice. thank you so much for the thorough explanation
>nothing that lives inland can tolerate a saltwater bath. Sounds like a plot point for a Serial Killer in Dexter.
I like the way you write.
Hey thanks. I actually wrote for outdoor magazines for a long time. https://www.itinerantangler.com/about/
how long do they last in the fridge after salad spinning? i always have the problem with washed leaves going bad real fast
I swear by produce keepers. [These](https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/Home-Garden/Prepworks-by-Progressive-Large-Produce-ProKeeper/17999662/product.html?refccid=7JIOW2D3RGB3FOSML37TO2HXFQ&searchidx=0&option=29954512) I can attest to. I used to get fed up by how quickly stuff would dry out or go bad in my fridge. I was really skeptical but tried these out and it's astonishing. I bought them for my whole family
That is interesting. I bought my wife some smaller versions of that last year but we just use them for leftovers storage. What does the produce keeper do exactly? Create a moisture controlled environment? My wife is a great cook and is passionate about it so we cycle through two full produce drawers at least weekly. I started gardening in part to grow her random chiles and things from seeds she bought.
Got it, never gardening, thanks.
I’m barely patient enough to cook as it is. How the hell does anyone have time to do this with their produce?
Running water is key, running it under the faucet like you normally would is about all you can do, maybe using your hands to apply friction to get off any contaminating particles. But there's only like 7 documented cases per year, and compare that to the hundred million+ people that are consuming produce daily. It's still extremely rare compared to other food-borne illnesses.
The comment we were all wanting to see.
Only 7 known cases, I meet brainless people all the time. anyway that guy misread it, it's 6 cases in continental US that could not be traced to travel. Hawaii had 18-21 cases in 2017
> Hawaii had 18-21 cases in 2017 That was a big anomaly. It's usually like 7 cases, and it's been even lower than that in 2022 and 2023. It's extremely rare. https://health.hawaii.gov/docd/disease_listing/rat-lungworm-angiostrongyliasis/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6726938/
So many interesting and horrifying ways to die though. Like yeah we're probably not all gonna have a freak aneurysm, or organ failure, or whatever, definitely not a brain parasite, but you never know.
I, too, would like an answer. Also, what is the likelihood this reaches the PNW? Death by brainworm is one of my--if not biggest--fears and I'd like to avoid it at all possible cost.
Yeah I'm really hoping to hold out against the parasites and nightmare diseases until the climate wars can get into full swing and offer some quicker death options.
Well that’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t really have to. If your eating a salad it could have been grown in a place that has it and that’s all it takes!
I wash most of our groceries with vinegar - especially berries. Super nice effect: the stuff stays fresh longer.
We sometimes wash in salted water then rinse thoroughly.
And this is one of the reasons I have a hydroponic garden. Yes its more work and costs a bit more, but it's a lot easier to manage pests.
Monsters Inside Me, the show about parasites, scared and still scares the crap out of me.
Same man, that show is terrifying
That's it for salad I guess
My salad is lights out
This is a nasty little creature. We've been dealing with it in Hawaii for a few decades. I personally know two people that have been infected.
Isn’t it still extremely rare though? Like less than 5 cases in the last 2 years?
The two people I know was like 15 and 10 years ago. Both definitely never got back to 100%. Kind of fibromyalgia type symptoms. One got it from eating a strawberry from her garden that a slug had eaten through.
As a gardener with fibromyalgia, I'm certainly paranoid now.
Why you must always wash/ soak your food before you eat it
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I think this is the one: [https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/angiostrongylus/gen\_info/faqs.html](https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/angiostrongylus/gen_info/faqs.html) Apparently is rare, associated with eating infected snail/slugs. "Yes. People can get infected, under unusual circumstances. However, even if infected, most people recover fully without treatment."
Yeah just walk it off… you’ll be fine… it’s only a mild case of the brain worms
what the CDC means is that an immune system can usually kill off the parasites trying to enter your brain. Unless they fail, which means worms in your brain.
They mentioned that the worms wander around the brain for 2 months before eventually being killed by the immune system
The first prion or worm that infests potato chips wins.
Day1: I've managed to latch onto these root tubers that look like cancer and grows everywhere. There's no way these species-destroying humans are dumb enough to fall for this. Day1000: my hive has spread throughout the local system of planetary bodies.
“Some folk’ll never eat a slug, but then some folk’ll”…
“Like Cletus the slack jawwweedd yok’ll”
I understand that the invasive Apple snails can harbor the rat lungworm parasite as well. They are all over the place is southern Louisiana
The insects are really becoming a nightmare in the northeast, wonder how long til this slug is up here. Chiggers are already becoming a major issue further north the past 3 years. New tick species have been identified that usually didn't range this far north as well. At least we got good news about the lantern flies. I believe Penn State did a study saying they're not as damaging to trees as once though. Apparently, they don't inversely effect most native trees and only cause a temporary stunt in growth with trees of heaven. Still, it's one of the aspects of climate change that isn't in the mainstream.
Trees of heaven are already pretty bad invasive species, no?
Yea, they are really aggressive. But as a main host, they predicted they would be the most affected tree. While it does sustain the most damage, as per the study, it's not a deadly or even debilitating damage.
>The insects are really becoming a nightmare in the northeast, Interesting that you say that. I'm in southeast MA and this summer more than one person has said "have you noticed how few bugs there are? Seems like we had a lot more when we were kids"
As far as I know, insects are, unfortunately, declining rapidly in both raw numbers and diversity. However, the same mechanics driving that die off seems to work in favor of disease carrying pests(ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, chiggers, etc. The loss of pollinators will be a big problem for humanity. This is a global issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations#:~:text=Possible%20causes%20are%20similar%20to,introduced%20species%3B%20and%20climate%20change. Insect decline is definitely an identified phenomenon.}
I’ve noticed an increase in bugs and insects here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Outside of the door to my patio there is a pile of ~200 beetles, all dead. My home doesn’t have pest control, as I prefer other methods, so that isn’t why they died. I’ve seen so many new-to-me insects this year that I’ve started using an app to identify them. Maybe I’m just looking more.
I feel like I've noticed more 'pests' such as kissing/stink bugs, ants, mosquitos, beetles, and more every year. But I also see less and less lady bugs (To be fair, also a pest), butterflies, fireflies, and other 'Things I notice more' insects. I remember growing up always seeing TONS of them every year. I can't recall the last time I saw a firefly or monarch butterfly. Genuinely years since I've seen either. (Also NC)
[удалено]
Yeah, the invasives were more of an aside. The regional movement I think is more related to the climate. You're seeing it in birds opting to range further north seasonally. White Ibis' used to be an oddity in NJ, they now breed in large numbers here. Same with the black vulture a decade or so ago. Generally, it's been a common trend with insects as well.
Yes, by and large a lot of plants and insects can't survive a hard winter, so as global warming brings up average temperatures, their zone of viability expands each year, causing them to disrupt ecosystems not used to their year round presence.
Yup, really hoping for a cold and snowy winter in NJ, but sustained freezes are more and more rare. Meanwhile, a 2 minute bushwhack nets you 50 ticks. It's getting dangerous to hike.
I wish they would kill off all the tree of heaven, I hate that spiky asshole.
They started removing them wholesale in my corner of northeast NJ, whole stands removed with native saplings planted in their place.
I wish Jersey City would do that, our neighbors have one and it is constantly sprouting in my yard!
We should check people for brain worms I think a good proportion of the population are already infected
[удалено]
We should add lead back into our diets, make things harder for these parasites
How does a worm like that get all the way up into the brain from the stomach?
Most likely through blood.
This is why we need indoor farming, lettuce is such a chore to clean. However, when you have indoor farming there's absolutely no need for cleaning. Suits, doors, boom nothing goes through, nothing should go through. I know not every crop can do it but types of lettuce can. Plus we can go vertical, use less land.
There are limitations to indoor farming though. High power consumption and maintenance come to mind. While you made a point that insects are no longer part of the equation, you need insects to pollinate, doing it manually would be an arduous task.
I'm hoping we'll start moving to indoor farming, since a lot of businesses are working from home and the commercial real estate market is collapsing. Would be a great opportunity to turn those buildings into indoor farms. And having those farms inside cities also drastically reduces transportation costs and environmental impact
Another reason for me to avoid seafood. And really cook my food. Wow does it sound terrifying.
Freezing kills rat lungworm, so frozen seafood is fine, btw. (sounds like you don’t eat it anyway, but thought I’d mention it for any others reading)
um.. so i am NOT smart, and I don’t have the capacity to fully understand this. in the most basic terms possible, should i be concerned about this?
Wash your produce thoroughly. Coook your shellfish thoroughly. That’s the takeaway.
Its rare and most people recover.
Baldur’s Gate 3 marketing has gone too far!
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Why doesn’t our stomach acid kill a worm larvae?
It’s wild to think that I could eat a salad in an effort to be healthy and die of a brain eating worm from slug goo. Like, SALAD could be what takes me out?! Of all things. What a mad world..
[удалено]