Further to JustWalking. Hmmm... slugs and snails as food. Quite interesting really. On the face of it, they should be OK. They're just molluscs, after all. However... Warning number 1. The University of California Santa Cruz has the banana slug as their mascot. Among other things, licking banana slugs can be a bit hallucinogenic apparently. Trust Santa Cruz students to work that out. Maybe someone out there knows why, but I'm suspecting it's diet. The little blighters are detritivores, including fungi. Who knows what chemicals get into the flesh. Warning number 2. Helminth worms love freshwater snails. Schistosomiasis - considered by sources in Wikipedia as having economic effects second to malaria - loves snails. Galba snails are notorious for this Warning number 3. Nematode worms love snails such as Achatina, which actually looks quite yummy. Hello... some forms of meningitis and other nasties mediated by Angiostrongylus. I guess the first one can be dodged using a "don't eat anything colorful rule". The second ones by "If you're going to eat it - cook it really well", as JustWalking points out.
Those are just the ones I know of offhand. Any others? Shame this question had to arise. I kind of like escargot. In filo. With a white wine, butter, garlic, bechamel sauce.
I would only eat them as a survival food. I did do just a little investigating and it looks like they may be OK if thoroughly cooked. The problem seems to be what they have eaten. Poison mushrooms seem to be a concern.
I really did not intend to hijack this thread but it is interesting. I should have asked in the food section since I am interested in eating wild food while backpacking.
Ducks love to eat slugs. I don't think I would ever eat one though. Not even as a survival food. What kind of food turns itself inside out when you sprinkle salt on it?
I looked at the rynoskins website. They do not say what they are made of. I personally would not buy clothing without knowing what fibers they are made of.
Maybe a cheap pair of pantyhose would be as effective! And lighter weight.
I use knee high gaiters and put rubber bands over my long sleeved shirt cuffs and wear a head net. I still get ticks on me, so checking every night is really important.
Be sure to shake out your sleeping bag, or only take the sleeping bag out of the stuff sack just before bed.
Also, when squatting to pee or poo, ticks can jump up on your bare skin.
Luckily, only my coastal hiking areas have ticks. I rarely see a tick in the high mountains.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
In all the years and places I hiked in So Cal up to Sequoia NF I only found one tick on me. That was in the NF around Castiac Lake.
We have chiggers here too and I'll tell you walking into a nest of those little boogers is way worse than ticks. The bites itch worse and you can get dozens of them. They love getting you on the ankles when you wear socks and the waist band of clothes, and the worst is in between your fingers and toes. At my age I can barely see them without 2x reading glasses.
Clothes treated with permethrin are the only thing that work to keep them from biting you. Bug spray helps but it doesn't last long enough in the summer heat and humidity.
This year we bought a bag of diatomaceous earth and spread it around the walkways and berry bushes around the house and so far I've not seen any of them there yet. Last year they were vicious when I picked our black raspberries, but there were none this year. The blackberries should be ripe in about 2-3 weeks but I've not seen any there so far either.
I'll be using more of that next year for sure. I've read you have to dust with it in early spring just as things start leafing out for it to work, and you have to do it during a dry spell. I did that, and so far so good.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
While I lived in LA some frenchmen came there and realized all those snails they were poisoning in people's yards are the same ones they make escargot with. He started raising them and cooking them in butter and freezing them and shipping them to France. Probably still is.
somehow (touch wood) i never ended up bitten by a tick growing up in SC, running around the Blue Ridge in NC, nor ever in any of the outdoor/camp musicfests (looking at you Bonnaroo). That said.... not a hippie, but never cared for crazy sprays and whatnot. Actually, I had thought that DEET had practically been banned. It's quite popular in Thailand and Indonesia as it is thought to be one of the few things to fend off super mosquitos that may or may not carry Zika (some mild paranoia there).
So. What I've used with some great success is tea tree oil (mentioned earlier in the thread) as well as garlic tablets. Now...I don't know that garlic tablets actually work, but i was sans ticks several times during the thick of them when other fellow campers were picking them off left and right.
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6800
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Considering the diseases carried by ticks (Lyme is not paranoia, it's serious stuff that can do horrible things to you, as happened to a former member of this forum), I'd want to see some scientific evidence that these alternatives work before relying on them. There's a big difference between anecdotes and data.
I don't use DEET for ticks, but rely on continuous clothing from the feet up (including low gaiters, easier to keep the creepies from getting inside pant legs than tucking pants into socks) to keep the ticks off. That being said, I use permethrin-sprayed clothing in the spring when the little critters are at their worst.
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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
I ate a ton of garlic but the ticks didn't seem to mind at all.
Old timers here say that a freezing cold winter slows them down, but if there's snow or ice on the ground they'll live through that because it insulates them from the colder air temps. We only had a few cold days this past winter but we didn't have any snow or ice, and this year ticks have not been too bad. I'm not sure that means much though.
I know the non-deet "Off" with Picaridin works great. It seems to last as long as Deet. I was Florida in early Spring canoeing on a spring fed river and in several places where we stopped a cloud of mosquitoes appeared almost instantly. I got a spray bottle of that out and pumped a few shots into the swarm and they vanished and didn't come back while we were there. We all put some on too, so I'm sure that helped, but we weren't bothered.
Like Deet, it works great for keeping ticks from biting you, but no so well at keeping them off of you and you can still drag them in the house on your clothing where they'll chase you down and bite you still.
Registered: 05/19/14
Posts: 182
Loc: Central Illinois near Springfi...
I've been wearing my Insect Shield socks every day this year and have had two chigger bites and no ticks. These are the factory treated socks that are supposed to last through 70 washings. I have three pairs that I wear and one pair seems to be losing it's strength. I got both chigger bites weeks apart wearing the same pair of socks. Overall, I'm quite happy with the performance of these socks, but I'm going to retire one pair and open a new pair.
Actually, I had thought that DEET had practically been banned.
I know here in Canada, products can only contain a certain percentage of deet. Not sure on the US, but I think you can get stronger concentrations there. I know it is nasty stuff. I had a bottle from when I was in the military, which was over 99% deet, and I had it on my face when I took a phone call. It ate the numbers off the phone and the phone stuck to my ear where the deet had dissolved into the plastic (picture a wall phone from early 90's, not a current cell phone).
Most products I see now are something like 5% deet. Used to be able to get 40-60% products.
In Australia you can get 20% and 80% DEET under the Bushman brand (http://www.bushman-repellent.com). Note to moderator - this is not a plug! I don't work for bushman! DEET is recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), particularly relevant given the zika problem, and some of the 'anti' sentiment is likely to be hype. I'm not sure what the concentration of army issue repellent is, but like Zuuk we had to be careful with the stuff in the army. Yes, it eats plastic. I think they had to modify rifle butt materials. I'm guessing it was close to 100%. On the bright side, some rubbed on your neck kept you toasty warm when it was cold on picket duty. Anything less than 80% was ineffective against tropical mosquitos. It also prevented leeches and ticks climbing up your cuffs.
I looked at the rynoskins website. They do not say what they are made of. I personally would not buy clothing without knowing what fibers they are made of.
I agree, I wouldn't either. I did look at the tag on my suit (found it rummaging through a drawer this morning) and it's made of 86% nylon and 14% lycra spandex.
I live in a place with the triple threat of chiggers, skeeters, and ticks. It's usually a bad idea to do much backpacking during the summer because each of the three are terrible on their own. I use OFF Deep Woods, which if I remember right is 25% DEET. I'd love to find an alternative, though, because I don't like the smell and I don't like the melted plastic. I generally just spray my clothing down and avoid getting it on my skin if possible.
At the summer camp I work at every summer, chiggers are the big threat. We use unscented dryer sheets in our shoes and beds to keep them off. Works like a charm, and helps with skeeters and chiggers, too -- though not as much as DEET. You need a fresh one each day, and if you sweat all over it, you need a fresh one sooner. So the weight could get to be too much for backpacking. Still, it's an idea. Application is to rub down your legs with the sheet and then tie it into your shoe laces, or if going into your bed, put it between the mattress and fitted sheet. I like to put one on each side of my pillow, under the case, as well.
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"Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls."
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