Heh, at two my little brother used to turn logs over and eat whatever he found underneath - "buggies". Fortunately snakes were not an issue in Hawaii, centipedes move too fast and sowbugs, etc. are apparently an adequate protein supplement. Even more fortunately, while my daughter will occasionally handle bugs, she thinks they are yucky and prefers to stomp them and have salmon or chicken for lunch instead. As far as the USDA article, for as benign as H Illucens generally is, I was surprised to see it as a cause of myaisis at all much less in a USDA guide to human myaisis. Not having read the publication, my guess is the flies laid eggs at the edge of privy "drop holes" and the eggs were transferred to the user's hand while wiping, then to the mouth via unwashed hand. *grin* There are a couple even less pleasant routes, but I dont want to go there, it leads to flashbacks of old Star Trek movies.
Anyway, handwashing is never a misplaced virtue, not with a half dozen nurses in the family and a few social workers. I work with the public and have definitely been exposed to TB and Hepatitis C - everyone decides to tell me after an hour or so of casual-to-close contact with them and I was shown the diagnosis sheet in one case :-/ My sandwiches tend to taste a lot like hand sanitizer :P
Myasitic speculation aside, I do have a few questions.
I think I overloaded the worm bin with liquid and wet fruit, even with the added dry items. How dry do they like their environment? It's a bit pasty right now and drawing drosophila, etc. I'm eyeing some old rice pasta and corn meal at the moment, esp as I just cleaned out the fruit bins (but haven't added any yet). If a bin is at optimal moisture and I were to add a pint of liquid, what volume of coffee grounds/breadcrumbs/cereal etc. would maintain the proportion?
I think Ive gone from a backyard garbage disposal to scavenging at coffee shops and grocers :P
I'm seeing a few adult Illucens every time I lift the cover now. Unlike someone else's flies, mine do NOT hold still for the camera, they have an odd oscillating flight habit not conducive to autofocus firmware.
Also, I have some freshly stale saltines, do they tolerate salt well? If so, has anyone tried well soaked and rinsed seaweed in the bins?
I need to check local bait prices..$6 per HUNDRED? I could've picked out a thousand or so big ones while turning the compost heap this morning-- but i'd have been late for work
