The most accurate illustration I know of what these parasites really look like, and a photo of what a brood sac looks like when it leaves the snail - something that was once assumed to happen just by accident to injured snails, but now we know the sacs routinely wander off as entire false caterpillars :)
Huh, they look like a cluster of roots instead of a worm as I expected :o
They’re related to flatworms (which includes tapeworms) but are unusual in that they branch out from a central point, kind of a colonial worm blob or a many-headed hydra!
Someone got an amazing video where you can see at least four broodsacs pulsating in one snail:
This will hopefully never be a problem for most of you but after seeing a viral post in which someone picks up a tapeworm and photographs it in their bathroom I really need everyone to understand that tapeworm eggs are microscopic and the adult tapeworm constantly, constantly exudes millions of them from pores over its entire body. Is that not well known information?? That they just basically sweat infectious babies? It’s pretty critical information, including to all cat and dog owners. Tapeworms outside a host will even leave what looks like a white slime trail everywhere they go. That trail is 100% eggs. The eggs are the dangerous stage, too, because the first larval stage is the one that burrows into your muscle tissue or your brain or your kidneys. If that guy didn’t adequately sanitize his hands, his phone camera, every surface touched by the worm or his wormy from fingers he is going to be lacey swiss cheese
Okay, this brings up a history question: I remember reading somewhere / seeing old timey advertisements for capsuled tapeworm eggs sold as a diet-fad. Like, it was 1900s advertisements for women to “eat as much as you want without getting fat, here’s how!” Mail away to get a parasite to infect yourself with! The intention, of course, for the swallowed eggs to hatch in the gut and to keep you skinny by sharing your food.
Did this… have the muscle and brain effect on people? Obviously, this hokum isn’t sold today for dire health-risk reasons of… you know, INFECTING YOURSELF WITH A PARASITE to stay skinny, but… I never heard anything about people doing the fad diet and getting their brains eaten. Was it a different subspecies of wormy or did this totally happen? If so, how many died early from this bull or got crippled for life?
Or were the old ads I saw online just a history-trivia hoax?
Those actually weren’t eggs, but dormant larvae ready to become the more harmless adults!
I do exaggerate the danger a little bit, fresh hatched larvae are tiny enough that the tunneling itself does no real damage, and you may never even notice if you have a few in your muscle tissues but they CAN accidentally end up in your vital organs, causing all sorts of problems.
An egg exposed to stomach acid becomes the larva, tunnels a while, then goes dormant. Its goal is to some day be eaten by a carnivore.
When this dormant larva touches stomach acid a second time, it starts to grow into the adult, which can reach several yards in length but does not burrow or do any physical harm!
Anyone with an adult tapeworm, however, is eventually passing those eggs out with their waste. Tapeworm eggs from human wastewater are still a serious health hazard in poorer parts of the world : (
I think this is the biology thing I end up explaining the most often because it’s such overlooked health information crossing over with my invertebrate fixation. News articles never differentiate these life cycle stages or explain why some people get different types of infestation.
Giant pandas, the international symbol of conservation, are one of the most loved species in the world.
A group of parasitic round worms are one of the main causes of mortality of giant pandas in the wild, and collectively infect more than 50 animal species worldwide.
Infection can damage the intestines and if the infection reaches the brain and eyes: will often result in death.
Dr Russ Morphew at Aberystwyth University, along with researchers at IBERS and Mr Iain Valentine RZSS Edinburgh Zoo look to identify how this deadly parasite responds to anti-parasitic drugs. More specifically, whether drug resistance is the cause of repeat infections in captive giant panda populations.
They hope that their findings will not only help to inform conservation strategies in captivity and across China’s giant panda reserves, but also that they could lead to improved control strategies to deal with infection in the future.
It is fascinating to see how much parasites manipulate the behavior of their hosts. After the wasp larva has emerged from its body, having fed on its tissues, this seven-spotted ladybird, still alive, remains motionless on the cocoon, offering it protection while the adult parasite develops (May be the baconid wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae, on Coccinella septempunctata)
Not a single mite was found, dead or alive, for four weeks. I am so relieved. Here’s how I finally beat the curse known as recurring mites.
In this picture we have:
Dawn Pure Essentials: This dishwashing liquid is super gentle, with barely any color or fragrance.
Provent-a-Mite: A mite killing spray formulated for use on reptiles.
Frontline Spray: A flea/tick killing liquid formulated for use on dogs and cats.
Gloves: Used to apply the Frontline.
Not pictured but might be useful if you have a large infestation:
Betadine: An antiseptic, you mix with water and soak your animal. Do not let your animal ingest large amounts; be sure to give your animal the opportunity to drink fresh water before treating them with betadine.
I want to discuss the battle I’ve fought against these bloodsuckers. I have been fighting them off and on for the better part of…two years? I want to say. I will think they go away, but even with continuing treatment they kept coming back in super small numbers. Sometimes if I would have a depressive episode, they would come back in large numbers because I wasn’t maintaining the collection properly.
Most likely these mites either were or became resistant to the PAM treatments. It’s incredibly important to complete a course of treatment or you will end up with resistant mites eventually.
The first line of defense against mites is appropriate quarantine procedures. Keep new animals separate from the collection for a few months, always handle their stuff last, and always change and shower if you’ve been around other reptiles (like a convention or another collection).
A typical treatment for mites is applying PAM to decor and substrate every three days until the mites have been gone for at least two weeks or more, depending on what makes you comfortable. You apply every three days because the mite reproductive cycle is three days long. The idea is that you kill any new hatches immediately thus breaking the cycle.
The typical treatment did not work for me. Here’s what I did:
PAM everything. PAM the hides, PAM the decor, PAM the substrate. It’s best to use paper, preferably white paper towels so you can see the mites easier. I usually do this the morning before I actually give them the paper. This makes it less likely they will react badly or somehow get water mixed in and ingest the PAM. The first night on treated paper they are not offered any water. Please remember to remove the water bowls, and be super careful none of these treatments get on the water bowls.
I used the Dawn and cleaned them with a gentle flow of water from my shower head. This removes any surface mites and can cause mites to start crawling along the body, making it easier to remove them. You can get the majority of the infestation off this way. The Dawn makes it a little harder for the mites to crawl on your animal, but it’s also a super gentle way to remove pee smell and blood.
Some animals had huge infestations so I offered them a betadine bath solution (a little bit of betadine in water). I didn’t leave them in the solution long; just enough to rub down their body a few times.
Be sure your animal is well hydrated before using betadine or Dawn! You don’t want them ingesting either of them.
I learned of the Frontline spray through another blood breeder who had really good success with the method. You spray the gloves with a single shot of the Frontline, coat your hands in the liquid, then rub from the neck down on the animal. Mites die from being in contact with your animal. This is not immediate. I have seen adults and babies crawling around on Jubilee after a treatment. The next day the mites were dead.
I want to make it clear that we don’t know the outcome for multiple or longer term use of the Frontline Spray. I used it three times (every 7 days), I recommend using it sparingly. Please be careful with this. Use it ONLY on animals that are of good size. Do not use on hatchlings, juveniles, or small yearlings. Do not apply on the head.
Other options are sprays like Natural Chemistry (which did absolutely nothing for me) and Nix mixed with water (please research proper mixing and concentration for Nix before using this method). Please research if your species of reptile can handle these treatments. Some are much more sensitive than others.
I am happy to say that I am finally done with the mites. I lost many battles but I have won this war. And my animals are all the better for it!
White clover (Trifolium repens). Native to Eurasia but introduced here (and lots of other places) as a pasture crop for livestock like cows and honeybees. The leaves are edible and taste like green beans. The flowers are sweeter. White clover doesn’t normally have the estrogenic effect that red clover and some other clovers have. . . . Medicinally, it is a safe and gentle antiparasitic that will aid the body in getting rid of tapeworms. They’re not much of an issue where i live now, but are in some places, and i’ve had occasion to use it for this purpose a few times. . . . In irish, clover is “seamair” and the diminutive “seamairóg” is where english gets the word “shamrock” . . . . #wildedibles #herbalmedicine #nature #plants #shamrock #seamair #clover #herbalism #primitiveskills #naturalliving #cestoda #parasites
As the police and army forces close in, Mayor Hirokawa makes a speech.
It’s worth noting here that the regular word for “parasite” in Japanese is 寄生虫 (kiseichuu), where that last part is “chuu” meaning “insect.” But the title of this manga series is 寄生獣 (kiseijuu), where that last part is “juu” meaning “beast” (it’s the same “juu” as in kaijuu). Hence, one reason the English uses the spelling “Parasyte” for the title.
Throughout the story, the “parasytes” refer to themselves as 寄生生物 (kisei seibutsu), parasites, or “parasitic living beings.”
It’s in his final speech where the Mayor highlights the issue. He says that humans are parasites (寄生虫) devouring the world. Then he corrects himself: いや。。。寄生獣か (iya, kiseijuu ka), “no, parasitic beasts (or “parasytes”).” And here, in case you hadn’t already caught on, we get the revelation that it’s the humans that are the “parasytes,” the parasitic beasts.
They’re small, blood-sucking parasites perhaps living in the corners and crevices of our beds, feeding off us while we sleep.
Bed bugs, for decades, existed as myths, part of a rhyme our parents told us before bed. Now they’ve made an unwelcome return and those who know the buggers best say it’s high time we start taking them seriously.
After all, getting a bed bug infestation “is a bit of a crap shoot,” conceded University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter, meaning all of us are at risk.
Bed bugs used to be “incredibly common” in the early 20th century, Potter said. Back then, people routinely checked for them and carried insecticide while traveling.
And species, and religions, and different worlds of origins, and different skeletal structures wether they be exo or not. Basically, as long as you are not trying to kill me then we should get along great. … Also, no curses. … Or soul devouring void parasites.
“Conservation-induced extinction” is certainly a strange term. Isn’t the entire point of conservation to preventextinction?
Let’s start with the venerated conservation success story of the California condor. In 1987 there were only 22 California condors left in existence, and all 22 birds were brought into human care for the purpose of starting a captive breeding program that would eventually save the species from extinction.
As part of bringing the last California condors into human care, all 22 birds underwent anti-parasitic treatment. As a direct result, in the spring of 1987, Colpocephalum californici–a unique species of louse known to only host on the California condor–was driven to extinction.
It bears mentioning that this extinction was a result of negligence, not intentional destruction; it simply did not occur to the people running the California Condor Recovery Plan to account for parasite conservation. There is no evidence that the California condor louse was harmful to its host or that driving it to extinction was in any way helpful to the captive breeding program.
Now at this point you may be thinking, “Oh, well it was only a parasite, I don’t really care if they go extinct”. However, if you subscribe to the ecological notion that every scrap of biodiversity is precious, why is the California condor louse any less valuable than the California condor?
Beyond the intrinsic value of a species, parasites make up an inextricable part of a host species’ biology. Without them, part of the host’s ecological context is lost forever. For example, scientists estimate that less than half of the cells in a human body are actual human cells; the rest are part of our microbiome. To cleanse ourselves of those other organisms would be to remove half of what makes up the human organism–we would be killing off vital co-passengers that contribute to our immune systems, digestion, and other critical functions.
For thousands of years the louse and the condor–and their evolutionary predecessors before them–impacted each others’ evolutionary trajectories like comets caught in each others’ orbit. The California condor would not be the species it is today without the influence of its now extinct louse. Its future trajectory may be more wobbly and unstable as a result of the louse’s extinction.
Some scientists estimate that nearly half of all species on Earth could be parasites in at least one stage of their lives. Failing to conserve parasites would cost us a huge amount of biodiversity. We would also lose scientific knowledge on the evolutionary history of both parasite and host, we would have less healthy ecosystems, and we would see genetic diversity and fitness atrophy in host species (which is of particular relevance to critically endangered species).
Already, conservation-induced extinction has cost us at least four high profile species other than the California condor louse; these were host-specific parasites from the Guam rail, little spotted kiwi, scimitar horned oryx, and Iberian lynx. As more and more species require the help of captive breeding programs, this will only become a larger issue.
We may not like parasites–they may annoy us or make our skin crawl–but they are an important part of our ecosystems and a vital aspect of biodiversity. They deserve to be conserved alongside their hosts, both for their benefit and for the benefit of their hosts.
“The conservation of parasites might well be an essential part of the conservation of their hosts. Thus, if the goal of conservation is to maintain biodiversity, as well as the ecological and evolutionary processes that generate and sustain it, then parasites must also be conserved for their host’s sake.“ (Spencer, H., Zuk, M., 2016, For Host’s Sake: The Pluses of Parasite Preservation)
If we suppose that beneficial gut bacteria are safely transferred in and out of z-space during the morphing process, but that the rabies virus in Marco was not returned from z-space, then we can assume that only living matter can be processed in this way.
Therefore, it makes sense that Yeerks in a morph-capable host are also safely transported in and out of z-space.
By this logic, we can conclude that if Elfangor did not die before Visser Three demorphed, then he is still contained inside the morph, and if Visser Three were to morph that specific creature again there is a small chance that Elfangor could cut his way out like a wasp larva erupting from a caterpillar.
It’s a common topic in microbiology forums that the past century’s obsession with cleanliness has contributed to our increasing allergies and autoimmune disorders. Rises in nut allergies, celiac disease, and gastrointestinal diseases suggest that something has changed for the worse in our bodies.
Many scientists, such as gastroenterologist Joel Weinstock of Tufts, believe the removal of parasites in the digestive system is the problem. Weinstock believes that “re-parasitizing” can be the answer to diseases such as one patient’s ulcerative colitis. This inflammatory bowel disease has been on the rise in the U.S. since the early 20th century–coinciding with the elimination of parasites like whipworm from American society. Weinstock has had success inserting Trichuris suis, or pig whipworm, into those suffering from gastrointestinal disorders (he uses the pig variety to prevent spreading of the virus between human hosts). After 12 weeks, 43% of his patients saw improvement.
For one patient, Vik, the mild improvements he saw from the pig whipworm were not enough, and he acquired human whipworm eggs from a doctor in Thailand. After experimenting to activate the eggs at home, he began swallowing them regularly, and saw pretty immediate improvements. Vik’s success with the parasite was neither unprecedented nor unique. Whole communities of people, fed up with medicines unable to help them, turn to self-treatment or alternative treatment in parasites.
Though the results are mixed and mainstream doctors continue to advise against parasite treatment, the tone in these communities remains hopeful. Alex Loukas, a parasitologist at James Cook University in Australia who published a paper on parasites curing celiac disease, said “modern medicine has just failed” these people. For many, this seemingly drastic cure is the only option.
