Why is this in the Muzzleloader Hunting area of the forum?
Yesterday morning, as well as this morning, I saw the same squirrel..., and it was ill. It was jumping and darting for no apparent reason (at first I thought it was scrambling-about with a second squirrel that I just couldn't see), but no, it was alone. When it wasn't zipping around, it was walking, and while doing that it stumbled, jerked, and a couple of times it fell over on its side.
So I did some research and the most common reason for this behaviour is Racoon Roundworm in the squirrel's brain. The squirrels will sometimes dig through racoon skat going after seeds, and if the racoon has round worm (not fatal to racoons) the racoon skat has roundworm eggs. These hatch inside the squirrel and then sometimes make their way to the squirrel's brain. :shocked2:
Why is this important to us? Well first, if you eat squirrel brains (some think this is a delicacy) you should know the larve of the racoon roundworm is very durable. Poaching or baking may not kill them. Eating the larvae can cause serious or fatal problems for humans.
The larvae are so tenacious, that bleaching clothing exposed to the larve has been shown to be ineffective in some cases. Folks decontaminating a sandbox that has been used by a racoon as a latrine are urged to wear masks and to burn the clothing worn when done. [source: Toronto Star 6/12/12] The eggs themselves survive quite a while as well, perhaps as much as two years in the soil. So even if an area has been cleared of racoons, an area where racoons have used as a latrine (they apparently like to poop in one spot, and several individuals will use the same spot) will remain a problem for many months. [Source: CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Vol 9 No.12 Dec 2003]
So the reason why this is here on the forum.... if a squirrel has been going through racoon skat, the microscopic eggs may be on the squirrel's fur, and transferred to the hunter's hands or clothing when that squirrel is collected after harvesting.
The eggs can then be accidentally spread to other areas and ingested by the hunter or anybody handling the hunting clothes. The good news is that where the cross contamination happens often is away from areas where they allow folks to hunt squirrels.
Also, getting the worms is pretty rare, and the worms migrating to organs and to the brain is rarer than getting the worms themselves. The biggest problem is with small kids playing in uncovered sand boxes, (as well as their tendency to put everything in their mouths) :barf: . The problem appears to be amplified when you have a large population of racoons, which mostly happens in suburban and urban areas (where hunting often isn't allowed) where there is plenty of discarded human food, food left outside for pets, and even folks who think it cool to feed the cute racoons. :nono:
So when hunting squirrels, aka tree rats, aka limb bacon..., just be aware that if the squirrel is acting odd, stumbling around like it got into some booze, or jumping and dashing as though something scared it when nothing is around to do so...., think twice about harvesting that critter for the table. IF you are, perhaps, harvesting suburban squirrels with a modified rat trap in a suburban area, you might want to rethink adding them to your table since you didn't observe them before they were trapped???
If in the woods, you might want to put that odd "drunken" squirrel out of its misery, but handle it as toxic when you do, and don't leave it around for other critters to pick up the bugs.
I've heard of this in the past, but didn't pay it much attention, for while I love squirrel hunting, I don't do squirrel brains, and I'd never seen an afflicted squirrel until the past two days. So I posted this for what it's worth.
:idunno:
LD
Yesterday morning, as well as this morning, I saw the same squirrel..., and it was ill. It was jumping and darting for no apparent reason (at first I thought it was scrambling-about with a second squirrel that I just couldn't see), but no, it was alone. When it wasn't zipping around, it was walking, and while doing that it stumbled, jerked, and a couple of times it fell over on its side.
So I did some research and the most common reason for this behaviour is Racoon Roundworm in the squirrel's brain. The squirrels will sometimes dig through racoon skat going after seeds, and if the racoon has round worm (not fatal to racoons) the racoon skat has roundworm eggs. These hatch inside the squirrel and then sometimes make their way to the squirrel's brain. :shocked2:
Why is this important to us? Well first, if you eat squirrel brains (some think this is a delicacy) you should know the larve of the racoon roundworm is very durable. Poaching or baking may not kill them. Eating the larvae can cause serious or fatal problems for humans.
The larvae are so tenacious, that bleaching clothing exposed to the larve has been shown to be ineffective in some cases. Folks decontaminating a sandbox that has been used by a racoon as a latrine are urged to wear masks and to burn the clothing worn when done. [source: Toronto Star 6/12/12] The eggs themselves survive quite a while as well, perhaps as much as two years in the soil. So even if an area has been cleared of racoons, an area where racoons have used as a latrine (they apparently like to poop in one spot, and several individuals will use the same spot) will remain a problem for many months. [Source: CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Vol 9 No.12 Dec 2003]
So the reason why this is here on the forum.... if a squirrel has been going through racoon skat, the microscopic eggs may be on the squirrel's fur, and transferred to the hunter's hands or clothing when that squirrel is collected after harvesting.
The eggs can then be accidentally spread to other areas and ingested by the hunter or anybody handling the hunting clothes. The good news is that where the cross contamination happens often is away from areas where they allow folks to hunt squirrels. Also, getting the worms is pretty rare, and the worms migrating to organs and to the brain is rarer than getting the worms themselves. The biggest problem is with small kids playing in uncovered sand boxes, (as well as their tendency to put everything in their mouths) :barf: . The problem appears to be amplified when you have a large population of racoons, which mostly happens in suburban and urban areas (where hunting often isn't allowed) where there is plenty of discarded human food, food left outside for pets, and even folks who think it cool to feed the cute racoons. :nono:
So when hunting squirrels, aka tree rats, aka limb bacon..., just be aware that if the squirrel is acting odd, stumbling around like it got into some booze, or jumping and dashing as though something scared it when nothing is around to do so...., think twice about harvesting that critter for the table. IF you are, perhaps, harvesting suburban squirrels with a modified rat trap in a suburban area, you might want to rethink adding them to your table since you didn't observe them before they were trapped???
If in the woods, you might want to put that odd "drunken" squirrel out of its misery, but handle it as toxic when you do, and don't leave it around for other critters to pick up the bugs.
I've heard of this in the past, but didn't pay it much attention, for while I love squirrel hunting, I don't do squirrel brains, and I'd never seen an afflicted squirrel until the past two days. So I posted this for what it's worth.
:idunno:
LD
