Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got to thinking about this and thought I'd ask my sister (biology teacher) and brother-in-law (zoology professor).
I wondered if the toxins in certain mushrooms that a turtle might be likely to eat would kill worms that might be in the gut of the turtle. Natural parasite control?
The reply was that, yes, it is quite conceivable.
She cited a story that came from one of their books on invertebrates about a man in No. Africa who was poisoned by a relative (nice family). The intended victim survived, but his tapeworm did not: the 10 ft. long worm was passed within a few days of the poisoning attempt.
So maybe turtles are able to worm themselves in the wild during mushroom season...

Food for thought.

Stephanie

The tapeworm was 10 METERS long!!!Now thats a tapeworm!

Bet he wondered why he couldn't gain weight...

I can see it now: Tapeworms! The NEW diet control! Eat whatever you want and STILL lose weight!

Sad thing is, some would actually consider it....

Katie, its funny you mention it... Do you remember the opera diva Maria Callas (Ari Onassis' mistress)? She had been somewhat overweight much of her life, then abruptly lost weight and kept it off, even though her diet hadn't changed. Turned out she had acquired a tapeworm after eating steak tartare...
Do you think thats the REAL secret behind Atkins high protein diet?
Think I'll just keep cycling...
Stephanie

There used to be a diet method that was two parts, first medicine infected you with a tapeworm, then when you lost enough weight, the second part was a deworming medicine.

this was some time ago, but it did exist

I can see it now...

NEW!! Ephedra Free Weight Loss! All Natural! Organic Ingredients!

Caveat Emptor

There was that special on cable called eaten alive. The story that grossed me out the most was the man who had a tapeworm hanging out his butt about 6 inches. When he tried to pull it out it wouldn't come and when he let go, it sucked back up inside him like someone slurping spaghetti. I hope no one was eating spaghetti while reading this.

was that the show with the penis fish and the guy who named the wasp larva in his abdomen?

I think it was.

about a month ago showed tapeworms that had infested people's BRAINS - AAACK! Also, eyeball worms and more nightmarish stuff.

Yeah parasites can be destructive critters, I am well aware of times past that they have used tapes for weight loss.

If you want to talk about gross, look up brain worm. Raccoons are common carriers of it. Not sure exactly of the actual name of the worm off hand, but its definitely nasty.

Steve

the atkins diet works if you modify it to reduce the fat by a smakk amount and up the protein ad water. its nothing strength training athletes haven't known for decades. not so for turtles

-rob

I did notice small white worms in my turtes water dish after i started to feed them wild mushrooms. There are tons of mushrooms of all differnt kinds groing in my backyard right now after like 3 weeks of rain. The turles are picky in what kind they eat. The ones they like have a redsih pink top and all white bottom. I looked it up in a mushroom book and the one IU think it is the books says they are not poisonous. However the book says do not eat them because there are other mushrooms that look very simlier and they are very posonous. I once read somewere that the american indian's did not eat box turtles because there flesh was poisonous form eating the wildmushrooms.
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Jack

I just got a new mushroom field guide, which notes that nearly all wild mushrooms are undigestible, the edible ones need to be properly cooked, even the edible ones can cause reactions in some people, some should not be consumed with alcohol, and so on and so forth. In other words, they can be extremely unpredictable: the one that caused no problems last week could make you sick next week.

Its interesting that you spotted the worms after the turtles ate mushrooms....maybe its a case of the mushrooms being unhealthy for the parasites and not people or turtles.

I'm just speculating, of course, but its not outside the realm of possibility.

Stephanie

hmm....i diced up some wild white mushrooms growing on my lawn with some veggies so my turtle wouldn't pick it out (she usually ignores them).

I dunno...as long as it doesn't hurt her, i think it'd be cool to have a toxic turtle...=P