Pushing the gross-out threshhold

[Otterwoman]

I recently bought a pound of blackworms that I'm keeping in the two bottom drawers of my fridge.
Of course I have the occasional escapees and the small spill as I take them in and out, and this is where I keep my food. But I'm dealing with it. A couple months ago I couldn't even cut up an earthworm and now I mince them and cut up slugs (and boy, do they squirt).
Yesterday I was checking my fruit fly cultures, and the pantyhose that I rubberband around the lid must have been too stretched or too used, and maggots had escaped out of four of the bottles and were all over the place. Now THAT really pushed the threshhold. I was thinking it might be an amusing discussion to learn what other people have learned to deal with and how well they learned, or whether you had to change practices because it was too much, or maybe your grossest experience.

 

[caudataman]

Hi Dawn,

Setting food stock containers in a steep sided pan of water can cut down on escapees. Them's that gets out drowns.

 

[John]

Actually, out of the things you mention, fruit flies are almost certainly the least likely vector for a disease that humans can get. Personally I would be more wary of the blackworms in my fridge if they can escape - a culture of their guts might frighten you.

I keep waxworms and smaller earthworms in the fridge.

 

[dane_zu]

nothing gets to me, cutting up earthworms is nothing, they do the same thing when you put them on a fishing hook

I do have to say that I havnt had fruitflys or black worms so I havnt been exposed to it all. yet.....

 

[Kaysie]

Blackworms kind of gross me out. They're so little and squiggly. And they stick to your skin so well. Ergh! But I manage. I keep mine in a tupperware with a lid on it, with holes in the lid. They don't seem to be able to get out of that, and they can survive, so it seems like a good system.

 

[chris_dishmon]

I keep mine in a tupperware with a lid on it, with holes in the lid. They don't seem to be able to get out of that, and they can survive, so it seems like a good system.

same system im using.

 

[niajetze]

I am vegetarian so have found the idea of live food desturbing (luckily unlike my friends i dont think you should force an animal to live by our morals many have vegetarian cats/dogs ok for th3e dog not healthy for the cat) I dont like cutting up the worms for the small FBN with the axies i have only ever had to dump them in the water (the first time I actually cried) .... they really sqirm when you cut them & one the other day ha red juice that looked like blood i have started to fridge them to 'knock them out' before feeding its the least I can do (needless to say I will never be feeding pinkies to any of my pets I really couldnt cope with that) I wouldnt say any of it is disgusting but I still wish I didnt have to do it

 

[Mark]

My “gross out threshold” has been tested on many occasions. I’ve had culture disasters that still to this day remain a taboo subject in my family. About a year after moving out of my parent’s house I discovered that they’d had to get Rentokil in to fumigate my old bedroom! There was a particularly rampant beetle culture that had escaped and taken up residence in the room.

I’ve used the wrong gauge mesh on a whole batch of D.melanogaster which resulted in thousands of fruit flies pupating in the house rather than in the culture pots. I’ve been on holiday only to return to a room with the walls crawling with wax worm larvae. I routinely find dried worms throughout the house and there are escaped crickets singing behind the fridge and in the loft. I don’t need thermometers; I can tell what the ambient temperature is just by the speed of the cricket calling.

I used to be a zoo keeper on an invertebrates section and have spent many a day on activities most would find disturbing. Highlights include; hours of picking beetle larvae out of mushrooms, catching cockroaches for wasps to subdue and lay their eggs on, hunting for a dead scorpion in an enclosure full of angry scorpions and trying to avoid being attacked by spiders, centipedes, assassin bugs and ants – to name a few (I’ve tried to forget about the 1ft long leeches).

 

[Ed]

Maybe I've been working with herps and animals too long but none of these push my gross out levels.. now my wife on the other hand...

The last time it was animal related was when I was restraining a mid sized crocodile monitor for the vets to look at (it had developed several tumors in different feet) and one of the tumors popped out through the skin and into my hand....

The other bad one was when the black worms got over heated on the way home from the store (now I always take a cooler with cold packs) and melted down in the fridge while we were away for a couple of days.

Ed

 

[Jennewt]

In addition to my hobbies with newts, worms and insects, I used to work in research labs, where I took care of everything from fruit flies to mice and rats. Nothing I have encountered grosses me out as much as mammals. Mammals in cages (even healthy ones) are far more disgusting than any amphibian, worm, or insect. I've seen dead and rotten cultures of insects and worms; they are gross, but I found dirty mouse cages to be far worse.

These days, the kinds of things that really gross me out are finding a dead mouse drowned in one of my tubs/buckets, or finding a seriously sick caudate.

 

[jewett]

Nothing much with my own pets really grosses me out, but I currently work in a vet clinic. Over the years I have seen some pretty disgusting things there - parvo diarrhea is truly gross, infections that have been festering for several days or owners who have waited too long to bring a pet in for a bandage change, but the maggot infested dogs are just about the only thing that still make me gag (however, I still handle maggot dogs better than most of the techs I work with!) And, because of my newt hobby, I have the hardest time not collecting some maggots to bring them home for my pets, but I guess that would be TRULY disgusting.
Heather

 

[tomthlee]

Bugs have never grossed me out. I don't use blackworms for my newt but I would imagine that they would be a pain in the butt (having to keep them alive in a fridge). I'd never picture them as gross, though. For my horned frog I deal with crickets a lot. They don't bother me. Then again I've dealt with crickets for a tree frog that lived to 8 years, so I've gotten used to them.

Some people just get really antsy around bugs. My friend wants a frog or a lizard so bad but can't get one because he's scared of bugs. Me, I'm scared of chickens and birds. Those beaks freak me out. I know some African bullfrog owners who feed frozen dead quail. I get a gag reflex whenever I see a dead bird. Birds are great when they're at a distance, but I freak out when they're up close.

Then again, budgies never bothered me. Their beaks are tiny and they don't have sharp claws on their feet, so I've never been that scared of them.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Today I was rearranging my patio area to accomadate a lurid pink wendy house for my daughter ( a donation from a neighbour!). We keep a covered ash tray for visitors to use and over the last few weeks the buts got soaked by rain water..the smell was foul. I carefully began to empty the water when one of the pesky cats decided to jump out on me..I leapt up knocking this foul concoction over me. What really freaked me out however was that it was full of the most horrible looking maggots that have ever existed they were approx 1cm long with a long thin tail a similar length...nasty nasty looking little things. The combination seen by any smoker would put them off the evil weed for life and i am amazed they could survive in such an evil concuction..I know I'll be having nightmares for some time!!



Have just discovered they were rat tail maggots, which then change into a drone fly..now I quite like the fly!!

 

[John]

I knew exactly what those were as I read the message. Glad you found out. They're perfectly harmless, very tough little things with regards to water chemistry, and they make perfectly good food for newts and salamanders (not sure I'd feed those particular ones to newts though...).

Today I was rearranging my patio area to accomadate a lurid pink wendy house for my daughter ( a donation from a neighbour!). We keep a covered ash tray for visitors to use and over the last few weeks the buts got soaked by rain water..the smell was foul. I carefully began to empty the water when one of the pesky cats decided to jump out on me..I leapt up knocking this foul concoction over me. What really freaked me out however was that it was full of the most horrible looking maggots that have ever existed they were approx 1cm long with a long thin tail a similar length...nasty nasty looking little things. The combination seen by any smoker would put them off the evil weed for life and i am amazed they could survive in such an evil concuction..I know I'll be having nightmares for some time!!



Have just discovered they were rat tail maggots, which then change into a drone fly..now I quite like the fly!!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I breifly thought the same, but I know that some gardeners soak fag ends in water then use as an effective insecticide, wasn't going to risk the axolotl's health!!

 

[coendeurloo]

The most gross thing I had recently, is a newspaper full of bloodworms that had died. You wouldn't believe the awful smell! And it was only 2 days old, the quality is horrible these days.

The Smell Of Death would be the correct name for that scent...

 

[Kaysie]

There are actually chemicals with names like 'putrecine' and the ilk. Perfume of death.

 

[mantighoul]

blackworms=grossest smell when a whole pound dies, especially when I have to clean it up due to to others errors.

Now I have to chop up many food things, live and frozen at work, and I have shadowed in food culture now and then, and of the grossest things were the cricket cultures. They just were disgusting. The least disgusting and most beautiful are algae cultures.

hmm, maybe you should tie something stronger with your Drosophila. I will check and see what we use to keep ours from escaping when I go in tomorrow, but it is better than old nylons. They can get pretty big holes and Drosophila hatchlings are very small.

*------------------------------------*

Well, here is what i plan to get when i have the $$$ a mini-fridge specifically for my monsters.

When I was growing up and living at the parents house, we had a specific fridge/freezer dedicated to foods for the monsters. Mom hated live foods being stored in the house, and even the frozen ones grossed her out. So blood worms and beefheart would sit in the "gross stuff" freezer next the dad's giant bag of salmon fishing eggs. In the fridge there were nightcrawlers for fish and turtles and dad's fishing trip. For some reason soda and beers was sometimes stored with the worms in the fridge section, its not like it was crammed full of live foods, those were in the drawers. Have to utilise the rest of the space somehow.

If one is worried about contanimationg peoples stuff with live and frozen monster food, the best way is to get a monster food ONLY fridge(mini or large) with freezer.

 

[Otterwoman]

I immediately switched to some thin old fabric I had laying around. No more stockings.

 

[mantighoul]

thin fabric/shirt shall do the trick. Goodluck. Hopfully no more escaped guys.