I guess I am not the only one who has experienced this. You guys who were
beekeepers and experienced stings like that.... I think I would have been
dead.
I have had this problem with bloodworms for years, tried doing some of the
stuff recommended, but still experienced slight allergic reactions, and
yesterday, while feeding some darters in an aquarium for a classroom, I
hardly touched even the freeze dried material and my eyes swelled up and
started itching furiously. It felt like it was pink eye, but then my hands
were itching and swelling as well. It was the worse reaction I ever had from
this.
I guess avoiding contact of any kind is the key, and I hope that I don't
have to simply avoid it completely, because it's a good food source for
darters.
With frozen cubes, I would simply place the frozen cube wedged partly under
rock, so that it would stay on the bottom, and then all the darters just
picked away-in-the cube. This way, they would get nice chunks to fill their
bellies and the food would not blow around too much and end up wasted.
Sometimes I would shut off the filter to prevent too much blowing around of
the food, but like to have a bit of movement.
Anyway, I still wonder what substance in the food is actually the culprit?
Aren't bloodworms some kind of mosquito larvae? If so, could it be the same
thing that makes a mosquito bite itch, that would cause this?
Also, now that the subject is up, when I operated a small aquarium store,
('96-'02) I used to carry a brand called MUREX, out of Canada, that was
among the cleanest brands of bloodworms I have ever seen...... Not all
water, no feathers and bits of glass or other debris, as I have experienced
with San Francisco Bay Brand, which seems to have cheapened it's product. In
addition, reactions seemed to be far less occurring. After walking away from
the store and taking a break from fish, I have lost contact with the
supplier.
Todd, I used to get this from someone in Toledo. It was some guy who had a
horribly messy and smelly house full of some kind of animal he raised. Jim
Mills, I think may have been the name......and another guy carried them
there, as well, but I forgot all about it. Do you know if this brand still
out there somewhere? Has anyone even heard of it? Last I heard, Murex merged
with another company.
Rob Carillio
Mahoning River Drainage,
Ohio-N.A.
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