+- Punaweb Forum (http://punaweb.org/forum)
+-- Forum: Punaweb Forums (http://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Punatalk (http://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=10)
+--- Thread: Rat Lungworm (/showthread.php?tid=15484)
RE: Rat Lungworm - Kenney - 01-31-2015
Lodestone, we wash everything that comes from our yard or anybody else's. I often see slugs and snails ON the papayas and mulberrys, way up the tree. We just dump all fruit/vegis in one of the kitchen sinks or a bucket on the lanai. If it's still in the sink or bucket, it's (potentially) contaminated. If it's on the counter, fruit bowl or frig, it's already washed. There's a method to my madness...
Imwithstupid (love the handle!) Thanks for the advise about diatomaceous earth. Think I'll get some and surround my water tanks with it. I've also heard it's really good to put under your house. Discourages all sorts of bug activity. Good info here!
Haven't really seen a slug for months (so dry now) but I'd rather prevent than treat disease.
RE: Rat Lungworm - terracore - 01-31-2015
This is one of the things in Puna that can't be controlled, only managed. We do get the occasional slug but the chickens are unrelenting slug hunters. The rare slug that is spotted is quickly fought over, torn to pieces, and consumed. In the last few months the large snails have for the first time been showing up in our section of Orchidland. Unlike slugs, the chickens have to be trained to eat them. This is a process that we are just beginning. I'm not sure if turning the snails over or smashing them is the best way to present them to the chickens. Does anybody have any experience with this?
The rats are the real problem vector. We haven't had any luck with traps and since rats are only active at night the dogs get few of them. Poison is difficult to use because risk to non target species. We recently purchased one of the bait stations that hold the bait inside, but the rats so far have been avoiding them.
RE: Rat Lungworm - Lodestone - 01-31-2015
Thanks Kenney. Probably good practice to wash everything for a variety of reasons anyway. And I like your system.
RE: Rat Lungworm - terracore - 01-31-2015
Diatomaceous Earth doesn't work when it's wet, so it's not very effective outside in Puna. It supposedly does work again however, once it completely dries out, assuming it hasn't been rinsed away.
Copper is supposed to be an effective slug and snail barrier, apparently when they touch it, it gives them a mild electric shock. Slugs can however raise their bodies over it (in effect, stepping over it) and commercial copper strips for this purpose aren't wide enough for large slugs. Also, copper doesn't work when its tarnished (starts turning green) so it has to be cleaned/polished periodically.
RE: Rat Lungworm - Kenney - 01-31-2015
I'm sorry to hear that you have first hand knowledge of RLW PM2. It sounds as if you have a good immune system if you were able to fight off the disease. I wish you continued improving, good health.
I just spoke with Dr. Susan Jarvi from the UH School of Pharmacy. She has been working on RLW for 3 years, and is doing her best to make progress with slow/low funding. They have produced a curriculum for 2nd graders "RLW Activity Book" and has started a pilot program in Hilo, with hopes of getting the info into all schools here. (Puna) She told me that the infected slugs, especially the "slime slugs" (the ones with the hump on the back) are on an increase here, (again, I'm speaking of Puna) and RLW cases have increased dramatically with them.
She recommends 5 micron filters and UV light system. The slugs live in stomach acid, so vinegar doesn't work and and hydrogen peroxide also has not yielded good results in killing the larva which can live 20-30 days outside the host body, even if it's dead. They just "vacate" the body and live on. They have measured 15-20 thousand larva per slug. Bleach does kill the slugs and larva, but it is not yet known how much or how often it should be added to water tanks to do the job. There is no diagnostic test in the US for RLW but Susan has attended conferences at Faculty Medical School in Thailand and China, which do have a test for antibodies in the blood. Apparently Thailand is more interested and concerned with this disease than our CDC and DOH are, however, in their defense the DOH Epidemiologist I spoke with yesterday in Kona is very concerned and helpful in giving me info and referrals. A 15% solution of Hawaiian salt (1 1/8 cup to 1/2 gal. water) in a wide mouth jar can be used to kill any slugs you find, but designated tongs or chopsticks should be used to grab the little suckers.
RE: Rat Lungworm - allensylves - 01-31-2015
From what I have read, the diatomaceous earth sold for pool filters has been heat treated so that the sharp edges are rounded and do not work. You have to buy the more expensive 'food grade' or pest control type.
Any dry chemical fertilizer will also kill slugs and snails just like table salt and is not toxic to plants (in reasonable doses).
Allen
Finally in HPP
RE: Rat Lungworm - Kelena - 01-31-2015
Nothing works to stop the slugs. There is a video linked to somewhere on Punaweb that shows them blithely sliming their way across copper to get where they want to go. There isn't enough slug bait in Hilo to rid an acre of slugs. You think they aren't there. But put a black plastic tarp down and then lift it up after a few days.
They are there. Sadly, you cannot eat leafy greens grown on the Big Island. You just can't.
RE: Rat Lungworm - imwithstoopid - 02-01-2015
A quick question. If the chickens are great at eating the slugs / snails are they themselves (chickens) safe to eat. Assuming you get them to a required / proper cooking temperature. After killing them of course.
Don't be an sesquipedalian, Eschew Obfuscation.....
Sometimes, when I see the neighborhood children make small discoveries of their own, I wish I were a child.
With apologies to Dr. Seuss
RE: Rat Lungworm - lavalava - 02-01-2015
RLW, LFA, PGV, Coquis, Lava, Ciguetara(sp?), Albezia, Oh My!
Who says living in paradise is easy?
RE: Rat Lungworm - terracore - 02-01-2015
Yes, chickens are safe to eat after they eat slugs. As far as I know the only communicable disease that isn't killed by cooking is mad cow and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.