Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings,

We have all read about the dangers of feeding our herps field collected insects that may have been exposed to pesticides/fertilizers, etc; not to mention possible parasite transmission. I was wondering if anyone has any experience to relate where this was an issue. Also if anyone knows of any published information about this topic I would be interested to know about it. I am especially interested in what parasites are known to be transmitted from insect food to reptiles. ??

Doug

>>Greetings,
>>
>>We have all read about the dangers of feeding our herps field collected insects that may have been exposed to pesticides/fertilizers, etc; not to mention possible parasite transmission. I was wondering if anyone has any experience to relate where this was an issue. Also if anyone knows of any published information about this topic I would be interested to know about it. I am especially interested in what parasites are known to be transmitted from insect food to reptiles. ??
>>
>>
>>Doug

One example is what happened to me:

In the early 90's (in MD) tiger salamanders of any Ambystoma tigrinum subspecies were banned (supposedly to help protect the native eastern). Prior to that you could pick up non-native subspecies from pet stores, bait shops, etc. I happened to have a group of 4 that I raised larvae from a batch I bought cheap at a bait shop ($1.75 per is better than $25 per at a petstore lol). Because I had them a couple years before that law went into effect they were grandfathered. Tigers are long-lived - I had pets that would be around for a good 15 years or so (which was nice considering after the law went into effect once they died I would not be able to replace them).

Now, I would typically feed them night crawlers when I could get them.. when I could not, I would supplement from earthworms I would find in a garden compost I had setup in the back yard. Well, one day I dug up a bunch of worms to feed my sallies. Two days later all 4 of the salamanders were dead and putrid beyond belief. I found out a few weeks later that the neighbor whose house borded the section of the back yard where I had the compost pile - he had decided to spray his yard for termites. The contaminated earthworms near the fence line had migrated into our yard to get away from the chemicals. There was nothing about the worms to indicate that they were 'bad' for the salamanders. I had no way of knowing they were going to kill my sallies.

Since then, all of our neighbors dang well know better tell me when they spray chemicals around their yard - pesticides or herbicides or fertilizers. Cause like the worms, I often find stuff from the yard such as dandelions and other edible weeds to feed as treats to some animals. As we discovered with another neighbor some herbicide sprays can travel on the air and settle far beyond the places they were intended to actually treat...thankfully weeds tend to curl up fairly fast so I could see the section of our front yard that had been contaminated and stayed away from collecting there for a long time.
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PHWyvern

I am sorry to hear about what happened to your tigers. That is a lesson to be learned by anyone who might read your post.

Doug