The whole disease thing

[dtknow]

Here's to a random thought.

Almost everyone knows that you can get Salmonella from reptiles/amphibians. You can get certain diseases or a rash from an aquarium. The higher pets of course have their own problems too. (that being said risk is small and you've got lots of ways to reduce it). However, I haven't heard anything in regards to our crunchy critters. Is their anything any of the invert pets could transmit? I haven't heard anything mentioned despite the fact that people in general consider bugs as "dirty".

Excluding flys or anything not commonly kept of course. You'd have to take into consideration possibilities from bad hygiene.

Or perhaps we can claim inverts as the cleanest pets?

 

[AfterTheAsylum]

There has been a post about this. It was a few weeks ago. Try to search Mad Cow's Disease and Salmonella.

Cheers,
T.S.

 

[Ganoderma]

malaria, dengue fever, lime disease, encephalitis, yellow fever, mites, allergens.

I know your not counting mosquitos and flies but im sure other insects that are kept are capable. perhaps mayflies? peopel keep them as a food source for fish. roaches often carry allergens. many bugs carry mites/ticks which could possibly carry something else.

many things themselves are considered a "disease" even if they are not. fleas/ticks/leeches for example. people may nto keep many but there are people that keep leeches. im not sure what.

i know what your saying, but im ignorant to many bugs and thought id run my mouth

 

[Scythemantis]

I don't think anyone has ever considered leeches to be a "disease". They don't infest your body. They attach, suck some blood, and drop off.

I know your not counting mosquitos and flies but im sure other insects that are kept are capable. perhaps mayflies? peopel keep them as a food source for fish.

By flies he meant flies, like houseflies. The things covered in germs because they eat garbage and feces.

Mayflies aren't remotely similar or even related in any way whatsoever. They're aquatic larvae that live as winged adults for one day.

 

[Dark Raptor]

Tenebrio molitor can transmit Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) which can "infest" humans. Many darkling beetles (also Blaps that I keep in my house) transmit various parasites (Protozoa, Nematoda ect.). Achatina snails transmit Trematoda "worms".

I've check my roaches feces and found eggs of Enetrobius sp. (Nematoda). If you search more, you'll find that almost all insects have their own parasites (or are only their vectors) and some of them can attack humans.

 

[Ganoderma]

Used may flies as an example cause they are not flies they are kept by many as feeders for other animals, it seems widely known by aquarium folk that they can carry parasites that do infect fish.

i would think that fungal infections could be transmited by bugs too, no? can only take one spore.

 

[aggie08]

There are lots of nasty things. It hasn't been proven that roaches transmit disease, they just like to hang out in icky places like sewers and that's how they move gross stuff around. I don't know about scorpions and spiders though, that would be interesting research.

 

[Ganoderma]

ticks can trasmit disease to humans. are they ever found on other inverts (the ones that can affect humans)?

 

[Dark Raptor]

Very interesting article about allergies caused by insects (check literature for more sources).

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1398-9995.2005.00661.x