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HB474 authorizing funding to study how to battle RLD was passed by two Legislative committees only to be deferred in a subsequent hearing on Feb. 14. That's often due to lack of testimony. Puna has been fighting this terrible illness for about 10, 15 years now and it's becoming more prolific and not because people aren't properly washing their veggies. The slugs that carry it are being found in peoples' homes, their greenhouses, etc.
It would be a good topic to bring up to Sen. Ruderman and Rep. Joy Sanbuenaventura at their townhall meeting tomorrow (Monday, 2/27) from 6-8 PM at the Pahoa Community Center. They'll probably have the latest legislative scoop on it....
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quote:
Originally posted by Lee M-S
I first heard about rat lungworm around 2003; there was an article in the (now defunct) Hawaii Island Journal.
So it's been a known problem in Puna for at least 14 years, and nothing's been done. Perhaps it's spreading to other islands.
I believe it's been in the state since at least the 1960s, and is recorded from all the islands. But it didn't become a real problem until the semislug, Parmarion martensi, got introduced. Before that it was primarily in giant African snails, and you had to eat the snail raw to catch it (which is why people don't eat them). The semislug sheds far more parasites in its slime, and the babies are small enough that you can easily accidentally eat one that's hidden in the fold of a piece of lettuce.
One thing to keep in mind is that unlike a bacterial or viral infection, the worms don't multiply once they're inside you. So the amount of damage they do is directly related to how many you get. If you only ingest one or two that manage to slip through a water system or from African snail slime on a fruit, probably very little will happen. If you ingest a small semislug with several hundred, it's a very different story.
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quote:
Originally posted by MarkP
What does water catchment have to do with rat lungworm? There is very little overlap.
Because rats are the hosts and rats go on roofs, and catchment comes from roofs. Direct correlation.
The other vector, of course, are the snails. They eat the rat poop and then they are carriers as well. The snails with the tiny shells (so-called "semislugs" - the ones w/the tiny shells about the size of a human fingernail) are most dangerous, says this article ( http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...m-parasite) bc they travel faster than the other snails. i.e., they have contact with more rat poop and travel farther, spreading the disease farther.
The group studying the vector animals would like samples from Puna residents: "If the semi-slug appears on your property and you would be willing to allow researchers to collect specimens for a scientific study, contact Robert Hollingsworth at 959-4349 or robert.hollingsworth@ars.usda.gov."
I have acquaintance who has the disease. He cannot even have a sheet across him at night bc of the pain.
Here's a good concise article on the disease: http://www.malamaopuna.org/ratlung/needtoknow.php
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I was at Makuu market today. A vendor offered me some seedling greens to try, fresh cut from a flat of dirt. Unwashed produce from Puna? You gotta be kidding!
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You have to eat the organism. Aside from a few drifting loose in water, you would have to eat either the rat or the slug. A whole rat is not going to make it through anybodies water system. A slug isn't for that matter either. In fact I am not even sure if the stage that would be infectious to people can be transmitted directly from rat to human. A reasonably clean roof would be like Death Valley to a slug. Alternately too hot and dry, then too cold, with nothing to eat. Not saying they couldn't make it up to your roof, just that there are not going to be large numbers of them. Slugs will likely end up on the bottom before the worms jump ship. Anything entering my catchment tank first has to get past the first flush system, then enters at the bottom of the tank through a screened inlet. Barring an outright failure of my system even mosquitoes can't get into my tank. I did find one of the damned semi-slugs crawling across the shade cloth that is stretched across the top. I doused him with Clorox (that's why I was up there to begin with, to add Clorox to the tank). Even without any filters the worms, which I have never heard anybody say can swim, are not going to make it uphill against gravity and through several feet of water to my floating intake. Then there's the first filter that is part of the floating intake. It's 30 to 50 microns depending on what was cheap at Walmart, then the 0.1 micron filter, and the head is less than 5 feet, being gravity flow to a smaller sealed tank. The pump sucks water from the small tank through a 5 micron carbon block filter. Viruses are the only thing that might get through and that is why I try to maintain 1 ppm of chlorine or so.
A lot of people don't have a system like mine but they could and should and if they don't they are probably likely to get lepto or some other bacterial infection before they get RLW.
RLW is very serious but it is important to properly prioritize the various risk factors. You are probably 1000 times more likely to get lepto from rats pissing on your roof than them dying and somehow the worms getting out of them and into you.
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Each time this topic arises, there is a flood of misinformation and anecdotes and folk wisdom. It is starting again in this thread. Here are some facts:
Rat lungworm disease is caused by a parasitic nematode (worm) with lives in snails, slugs and rats. The microscopic parasite can grow up to one inch long in the human body. Ingesting a 1 mm long baby slug can allow many parasites into your body. Once inside, the crawl throughout the body as they grow. They have an affinity for the spinal column and brain tissue.
As this is a parasite, antibiotic cures do nothing to help rid the body of the threat.
Cleaning produce with hydrogen peroxide, distilled water, vinegar water, bleach water and salt water do NOT eliminate the threat. All of those rinses may kill the immature, small slug or snail that you may miss with a visual inspection, but the nematode can live on inside the dead host.
Copper on garden bed legs does not prohibit all snails and slugs from crossing it. And it works best as a deterrent only when it is bright and shiny, not corroded. This research was done by Bob Hollingsworth at UH Hilo.
The nematodes can live freely in a catchment tank for about a week. They tend to settle to the bottom. They can not pass a 20 micron filter. This research was done at UH Hilo by Kay Howe, the mother of a Hawaii rat lungworm victim. Slugs and snails routinely enter catchment tanks under the shade cloth covers.
The rat lungworm nematode, requires both the rat and snail or slug to complete its life cycle. If you remove the rats from your property, you lower the risk that the slugs/snails will be carriers.
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Hotinhawaii,
How about snail bait? Would a regular routine get rid of the slugs?
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To add to what hotinhawaii said - you can't get it directly from rats, even by eating them. The form of the worm that infects snails and the one that infects rats (and people) is different, and behaves differently. By eating a rat you would pick up the one intended for a snail (and probably not even an infective one of those, which are shed through the gut and pooped out).
Punatic: it's difficult to completely eliminate the slugs, especially since they spend a lot of time in trees where the bait can't reach. One of the problems with most of the baits is that they dissolve and become ineffective in the rain or heavy dew, which is most of the time in Puna. There's supposed to be a new one available, Ferrox, that stays good when it gets wet, but I don't know if it's available here yet.
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Thanks Rambler, good to know.
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quote:
Originally posted by hotinhawaii
[If you remove the rats from your property, you lower the risk that the slugs/snails will be carriers.
An impossibility at my place, without a major military offensive.
Actually, even the Marines might not be successful. Rats are like terrorists, you know-they'll just keep sneaking in to take their niche.
Lots of helpful information in this thread, thanks all.
I've never seen a semi slug, and never hope to see one....
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