Slug on the cutting board!

[dmbwest]

Um ericlp,

your doing it now.

[ericlp]

um... What ever I'm doing hopefully it's a good thing!

http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bit...sequence=1

I find it interesting that they say to wash banana's. I never do... I guess you would never know what was crawling over anything ... I sometimes go get avocado's from my neighbors tree that have fallen on the ground. I wash these just because who knows what might be infected on the ground. The point is ... you just don't know know where that fruit or vegetable has been when buying them at the stand or store. I guess one hand peeling a infected banana while grabbing the banana with infected fingers that just peeled it could possibly contaminate you... Just as slicing though an infected papaya ... infecting the knife and the inside of the fruit. Even then, I believe if you did everything by the book from the above link you are probably still at risk.

I also find the above link that they point out washing with (drinkable) water... Uh... OK... What about all the people on catchment? What do you think they are going to wash with? I just find it interesting a paper targeting the east side of the big island knowing that a large number of people are on catchment. That in of it self is kinda sad since you can become infected by the water itself (if the water is infected). You'd think they would have pointed that out more clearly.

"Therefore, people need to know how to
make raw fruits and vegetables safe to eat. Rinsing produce in drinkable water removes soil, surface microbes,
and some pesticides. Cleaning produce properly is especially important when it is for the young (under 5 years
old), whose immune systems are not fully developed, or
the sick, the elderly, and others with compromised immune systems. However, rinsing produce contaminated
with larvae of the parasitic nematode Angiostrongylus
cantonensis may not remove all the infectious larvae,
so it is best not to use produce that is suspected of being
contaminated. "

Oh well! I think I'm leaning more towards tossing the cutting board in the bushes!

[Midnight Rambler]

Good grief, the level of paranoia on this thread is nuts. Yes, rat lungworm is serious, but it's not indestructible or all-pervasive. It's not the freakin' bubonic plague. Just stick the board in the oven at 250 for an hour, or boil it if you have something big enough. Cooking kills it, even if you're eating snails themselves.

"A snail trail on my lanai as a mortal threat"? Do you regularly lick your lanai?

Also, we do not have banana slugs in Hawaii. The one causing the spread of rat lungworm is the semislug, Parmarion martensi, because the young ones are very small and can be missed in the folds of lettuce or other greens, and it secretes eggs of the nematodes in the slime.

[MarkP]

The cutting board is not more inherently prone to the problem than the fruit is, and the cutting board can tolerate much more agressive cleaning. If you eat local fruit, wash it first. If you are concerned about the cutting board, wash it with hot soapy water and maybe douse it with clorox, but don't worry more about the board than the fruit. If you think that Angiostrongylus cantonensis may be in your water then the issue is not whether washing a cutting board with that water will leave viable larvae on the board which might later contaminate food, but whether bathing or brushing your teeth is the risk. Address that risk then wash the board.

I am not sure how the risk of Angiostrongylus cantonensis compares to say salmonella or E. coli but I think they would be similar. Risk itself must be defined. Risk is a combination of how likely you are to catch something with how bad the consequences are if you do catch it. Rat lungworm can be bad, even fatal, but is not usually so. Probably many of us have gotten a headache or stiff neck that eventually went away. These symptoms may have been from rat lungworm and we never knew it. The same can be said about salmonella or E. coli. Both of those can be horrible in extreme cases.

Just a guess but I think it would be easier to wash off a multi-cellular organism like Angiostrongylus cantonensis than a single germ. Dunno. Just saying that the literature says that dosage of infectious agent makes a big difference. A little slug can carry thousands of worms. A slime trail that you washed off MIGHT leave one or two, maybe, and the literature makes it clear that most people would never know they got anything in those cases. Meanwhile that cutting board you are so worried about might indeed be a source of infection, of E. coli, if you don't wash it. You should have been concerned about the board before the slug crawled on it, and if you treat the board well enough to stave off Salmonella you will be pretty safe from lungworm.

[Kelena]

My lanai is delicious, but I don't lick it (I admit to not always being so pristine and prissy in that regard, but I don't lick my lanai). I do, however, have cuts on my feet a lot, so I don't want to step on a slimey slug trail. When I see a slug or a buffo, I have the same reaction that some people might have to seeing a rattlesnake. And before the real snakes get here, I think Hawaii should develop a similar phobia about the invasive species already here. A little extremism in defense of the ecoculture is probably a good thing.

I realize I am very conservative and perhaps a little bonkers in this regard (oh, no -- an eccentric guy on Hawaii Island? Can't have that now can we?!). I do rinse off bananas before I eat them. Sometimes.

I try not to let my hunger overwhelm my naturally cautious nature. Sometimes that cautious nature makes me refuse perfectly good produce. If I think it might be tainted, I just can't enjoy it.

I'd throw that board away quicker than you can say shave and a haircut.

[Wuzzerdad]

Microwave it after cleaning it with bleach.

I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick

[dmbwest]

I'm with ya Kelena !!!!

I had a much more fun post 99% written but messed up window ( losing track due to flipping over a slow cooked chicken breast that was about to kill me ) and it was forever gone. So now ............

I do not buy 'local' leafy greens and will state " I already ate a huge X " or say whatever to cordially get out of eating something local I am not sure of.

My little guy will point out and then take photos of sunrise glistening trails before school prior to me pressure washing them the hell out from under.

If you want a 'clean' salad or green enhanced sandwich or wrap, go to Millies across from ice pond. https://plus.google.com/116004846569085464487/about?gl=us&hl=en#116004846569085464487/about?gl=us&hl=en

aloha,
pog

[punafish]

I love this thread. Carry on!

[Midnight Rambler]

Unless you're dipping your water straight out of the tank, you're extremely unlikely to get lungworm from catchment water even if there are slugs in it. Worms are relatively big - the infective stage worms average 500 microns long (half a millimeter, big enough to be seen with the naked eye) and 25 microns wide. Most sediment filters are 5 or 1 micron. So for the water, worry more about the rats and their bacteria

Here's a picture: http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/html/imageli...is_il5.htm

Also, remember that unlike bacteria and viruses, the worms can't multiply in the human body. That's why picking up one or two from a slime trail isn't going to do much compared to 10,000 at once from accidentally eating an infected slug.