Safety issue feeding earthworms

[mcspin]

My degree is in fisheries biology. I own and operate a large tropical fish hatchery. I've been researching parasitic infections for 42 years. I have developed treatment protocols that are used throughout the tropical fish industry. I have bred and raised many animals including chickens, rabbits, birds and turtles, and millions of fish from many species. I have set up a small lab in my business where I do the analysis.

Like I said before, give me an example of a parasite that I cannot find in an earthworm, if it's there. Encysted parasites generally get there as external parasites and they are the easiest to treat. Those that get there from the intestinal tract will continue to infect the intestinal tract. Once the parasite is identified, elimination is generally straight forward. Some can be difficult to kill, especially if the host is very weak, but I've yet to run into one that couldn't be dealt with. Your warnings are okay for someone who doesn't know how to analysis parasitic infections and treat them. I am not one of those.

[Albert Clark]

So getting back to my original question about the parasitic loads in nightcrawlers and earthworms. Is it safe to say that there is or isn't anything to worry about when feeding them to garters and supplementing with a limited varied diet? I understand Rush's points. But any other input?

[guidofatherof5]

I have been feeding night crawlers as a main food source for years and haven't seen any ill effects to my garters. They are all healthy and grow strong. This also goes for my wild population which is large. All the snakes are big and healthy on a main diet of night crawlers. Is there a risk? Yes but I feel it is small in comparison to other wild food sources. For example, I've never found a wild T. radix with subcutaneous worms but have found them in my captive snakes(3 cases). My guess is they came from pet store feeder guppies or gambusia.

[joeysgreen]

Steve Mcspin, I"m not going to get into a pissing match with you. I've offered a correction to the misconceptions I saw in the discussion and am prepared to leave it at that.

Albert, I"d say Steve guido's approach is sensible. I would add that doing regular examinations and fecal analysis on your snakes is a good way to stay on top of the parasitic concerns that lay with feeding any live prey. And as discussed in the above tangents, feeding a captive bred source will greatly decrease risks of parasitic burden.

[mcspin]

Steve Mcspin, I"m not going to get into a pissing match with you. I've offered a correction to the misconceptions I saw in the discussion and am prepared to leave it at that.

Albert, I"d say Steve guido's approach is sensible. I would add that doing regular examinations and fecal analysis on your snakes is a good way to stay on top of the parasitic concerns that lay with feeding any live prey. And as discussed in the above tangents, feeding a captive bred source will greatly decrease risks of parasitic burden.

Hey Dipwad, my name is not Steve McSpin. If you don't want to get into a pissing match then quit pissing on me. You flat out don't know what you're talking about.

[joeysgreen]

LOL, you sign Steve, and I need to differentiate you from the other Steve (who's name isn't really Steve guido) in this thread. I figured it was common sense, I guess I should apologize to the both of you, sorry.

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about... this is the internet. If it doesn't make sense, then ignore it.

[guidofatherof5]

How did I get pulled into this? I'm guidofatherof5 and my name is Steve.

[d_virginiana]

Geez, this went from informative to just plain pointless pretty quickly. I was actually interested in any accounts someone might have of parasites from earthworms being passed to garters. You guys don't have to 'out science' each other.

I've never personally heard of a case of even suspected transfer of parasites from Canadian nightcrawlers to garters, so I kind of run under the assumption that garters are probably not the intended final hosts for whatever they generally carry, and the risk is minimal. I'm always interested in hearing of potential problems with feeders and how to avoid them though.
One simple reason I don't use or even bother to research wigglers is that nothing I have wants them (I tried before I ever even heard anything bad about them). One of the frog species I keep is notorious for spitting them out and refusing them, and this is a species famous for eating things like cage decor.

Just a note on culturing nightcrawlers, my parents did it successfully for years (and they had some GIANTS... I was a kid at the time, so I may be exaggerating the memory but they consistently had like 6 inch worms). I think their trick was using a deep tupperware bin with pretty deep soil kept in a basement that stays at a pretty constant temp of 'quite chilly' year round. I just moved back to the same area as them... I should convince them to start doing that again so I have a good supply

[Taso]

I just moved back to the same area as them... I should convince them to start doing that again so I have a good supply

Let them know I'd be interested in buying some, lol.

[Rushthezeppelin]

I'm interested in how the successfully did it themselves...