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Horrible Terrible Bloodworm Allergies

allegoriest

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Okay. This sucked. Like, alot. Absolutely horrible.

I was going to feed my fishies one night, really late, everyone else asleep, I was slightly out of it. (Wearing white too, to add insult to injury...) I had melted some frozen bloodworms to distribute between all of my tanks, and was about to pour them from a little plastic cup.

I lost my footing or something, and split worms everywhere. All over my clothes and carpet. And at first, I was like AUGH, STAINS AND WORMS IN CARPET. I started to blot them out and find the vacuum, until, I felt it.

Everywhere they had splashed on me felt like FIRE. (I mean, this happened in SECONDS.) It was burning and itching and it spread FAST. My skin was red and swollen, and then I started getting hives. It was BAD.

Fortunately, I was in my bathroom, and I'm like, sorta allergic to the sun. (I'm kinda diseased, don't ask.) And I rubbed on every topical thing I had hoping I didn't need to epipen or anything, cause, I didn't have one on me, and it was really late. (Like, 3 or 4 AM.)

At first, I assumed maybe it was just me, cause, I do have alot of allergies and thought nothing of it. A while later, I ran into a post on another forum, and apparently, there are a number of people who have this, and have gone into anaphylactic shock, and that it can be to the allergy level of bee stings and peanuts. (But apparently, that's mostly when they breathe particles of freezedried, and, most of us probably aren't using that.)

If you just google bloodworm allergies, it leads to alot of people's accounts.

I've HEARD its one of those things that gets worse over time, which I have no idea if its true, but it makes sense. I used to be just fine with them, which I know, because I HATED the smell of the freeze dried ones a few years ago, and everytime I opened them, the powder would get everywhere. Recently, it would make my fingers tingle and itch, but I nearly paralyzed one of my hands and injured the other, so I assumed it was just my hands being weird.

So, yeah, watch out for that. It was REALLY horrible and I'm deathly afraid of them now. (Too bad I still have like... a pound and a half someone bought for me when I was sick, with my money, that I can't return X___x ) Seriously, if you start expecting it, avoid them or get checked out. Cause, it is NOT fun.
 

michael

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I use bloodworms and am allergic to them also. They make my skin itch, my nose run, and my eyes swell if I get my fingers close to my eyes after handling them. I try not to touch the bloodworms at all but have had a few interesting incidents with them.
 

allegoriest

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Well, that's something I've never heard of before.
Hope you're none the worse for wear.


I'd never heard about it either, until much later. The scary part was, I wasn't allergic to them before, then after a few years, I had severe allergies from NOWHERE.


So yes. Let it be known that they are out to kill you. Slowly at first, then suddenly they attack.
I have heard that after you're around them so much, then allergies to them develop. I have no idea how true that is, and it makes no sense to me, but I'm a designer, not a doctor, so, I can't really argue that.
 

SludgeMunkey

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One more reason everyone should read CaudataCulture. This subject is discussed there. Also a reason to read packaging. Most Brand name bloodworms have a warning on the lable.

I would like to add here this warning pertains to dogs, cats and most other mammals. My pug puppy El Guapo was nearly killed by a severe reaction to chironimid larvae last Saturday after stealing an empty package from the trash. I don't know which is worse- seeing my little buddy struggling to breathe or the 600 USD I shilled out for a night at the doggy emergency hospital ICU. It took four days of drug therapy and many belly rubs to pull the little dude through. I had to do fecal exams on his poo to prove this was the issue. Nothing like playing with dog poop to set you straight.

I now incinerate all bloodworm related packaging with a torch as a result.
 
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