Handling maggots and feeling sick

[davebhoy]

I’m wondering how everyone gets on with handling maggots and other bait and then eating, or moistening knots.

I used some dead reds yesterday that had been previously defrosted and frozen again and was careful to wash my hands in the reservoir after and use antiseptic wipes, but by the end of the day I felt really sick and I’ve had a bad stomach since

Caused by the old maggots or just a coincidence?

 

[Philip]

Coincidence I would say.

 

[steve2]

A few years ago I ended up in hospital after a days fishing. They said the bug I had picked up was either from the water I was fishing or bait I was using. So by washing your hands I the water you could have picked up a bug.
Like you now always carry hand wipes and gel in my fishing first aid kit and use them before eating on the bank.

 

[john step]

It may not be a coincidence. You may have missed my post a week or so under the morning thread. I think its worth repeating the gist of it here.

WEILS/LEPTOSPIROSIS

I normally use hand sanitiser before eating sandwiches, handling my flask cup or even picking the bits of after lunch apple skin from my teeth!!

I use dead maggots which I put into a tub of lake water when fishing and use lake water to mix groundbait in.

You get it where rats have been as they drip infected urine. Water is a carrier. Those at risk are anglers, canoeists, sailors, dog walkers throwing sticks in the water etc.
You can ingest it from your hands or catch nit from a cut or scratch.
(Do you drink from a flask that has fallen over on the grass)

I forgot sanitisation on this occasion . It is a fishery where nearby pheasants are fed and this attracts rats,many rats.
I became ill after fishing. I have been fishing for a long while and have been aware of the symptoms of weils/leptospirosis
also because my line of work required care regarding it.

I was sufficiently concerned to go to the doctor who arranged a blood test. The test came back as normal liver function but I have received a letter from the doctor and I must contact him.

I am OK now but it was unpleasant at the time. If it was not weils it was some other water bourne bug.
I have now replenished my sanitiser and purchased an anti weils hand spray on line for about a fiver.

Symptoms include some of the following. Flu like feeling. Headache. Stiff muscles. Stomach ache. The runs.
It affects different people differently. Some get it mild. Some are very ill with it. There are fatalities each year in the UK with it.

A friend of mine almost died from it. His family were called to his hospital bedside but fortunately he pulled through. He is the farmer of the land I mentioned with the pheasants.

Worth bearing in mind I think.

 

[davebhoy]

Thanks very much for the replies

I was just saying to my mrs that I felt like I had manflu, I’ve got all those symptoms. If I start feeling any worse I’ll get on to the doctors

Edit to say that onset of symptoms comes at least 2 days after exposure to the contaminated source so it doesn’t sound like it could be that

 

[rich66]

I’m more careful using dead’s in cleaning my hands etc than live ones which do on occasion end up in my mouth or held in my lips.

Anything that’s been frozen and then thawed is suspect in my book .

 

[mikench]

This thread is worrying and I am clearly going to have to be more careful! I regularly find my flask has fallen over and eat a butty after handling maggots, fish or other bait. I've ordered some of the Weils spray as recommended. Should I have antiseptic wipes or spray as well?

 

[daniel121]

I've been doing what I should not do for about 60 years! However my friend caught Weil's disease twice, the Dr told him to pack fishing up! He didn't he just started taking clean water in a flask and antibacterials, I think I must be immune to it u must if eat tonnes of **** in my time while I've been fishing.

Horrible if I think about it but hey ho, I'll be doing it again soon - hopefully

 

[theartist]

I'd be doubtful if any of our bait was as dirty as some of the waters we fish, A special thanks must go to the morons who leave all the litter behind, the polluters and of course a doff of the hat the the rat - the cunning creatures who get all the blame despite thriving mainly off our detritus.

Weils disease is very serious as mentioned, take hand wash if you can, if a human has been there you can bet a rat has

 

[108831]

Definitely Rob,I was fishing yesterday,I'd seen a fat two or three times to my right,now several 6mm pellets had dropped from my catty,in the late afternoon I popped up to chat with another angler,stretch my legs etc,when I returned not one pellet remined,so who knows what's been around your bait bag and gear,a male blackbird had been pecking at my shoelaces several times,but he doesn't like hard pellet,oil maggot,e is a regular visitor throughout the winter and recognises my set up....

 

[theartist]

,a male blackbird had been packing at my shoelaces several times,but he doesn't like hard pellet,oil maggot,e is a regular visitor throughout the winter and recognises my set up....

You know the fishing is slow when the local wildlife starts chewing your footwear

 

[no-one in particular]

I think washing hands in any water your fishing a bad idea and putting your fingers anywhere near your mouth as well. I have just got onto antiseptic wipes and now take them fishing with me; they are dead cheap afterall but I have been told not to flush them down the loo. And dont wear dirty gloves, I knew a bloke who got a hook in his hand through dirty gloves and lost his hand.
First thing i always do when getting home before anything else is give my hands a good soapy scrub.

 

[john step]

This thread is worrying and I am clearly going to have to be more careful! I regularly find my flask has fallen over and eat a butty after handling maggots, fish or other bait. I've ordered some of the Weils spray as recommended. Should I have antiseptic wipes or spray as well?

On the weils spray I bought it says it kills everything else as well as weils.

I am not too worried about the maggot aspect but its the contact with contaminated water via groundbait etc or touching grass where the rats have been is the problem.

 

[108831]

I think we don't get enough dirt in our systems,making us extremely vulnerable to disease and infection,we are just a load of wussies...

 

[john step]

I think we don't get enough dirt in our systems,making us extremely vulnerable to disease and infection,we are just a load of wussies...

Until your liver packs up with weils! I do think though that one can get a certain amount of immunity from previous exposures. In 60+ years of angling I must have come in contact with it before. Perhaps why one can get a mild dose and not the fatality that some people get?

 

[108831]

I know what your saying John,thing is,you are never far from a rat,so you could catch Weils in you back garden,sad but true...

 

[theartist]

We had rats in our loft! They had climbed up the neighbours chimney breast chewing between the walls, Oh the joys of living down the Edgware Road with it's many money laundering/ I mean legitimate fruit and veg stalls, size of rabbits they were and bred like them too.

 

[steviebearuk]

I used to work with a fella that was brought up on a farm and he always said that rats don't have a bladder so are continually peeing everywhere. That's how you know if buildings have them you can see the trail.

 

[john step]

I had a phone call from the doctor re the previously mentioned illness and blood test. " Nothing too much to worry about but you need to have another blood test in a month"
Apparently I have a slight liver issue that showed up. Maybe it was a mild case of Weils?. I have to go back to the surgery next week for that blood test.. Fingers crossed.

 

[nottskev]

I think we do get a bit blase about handling bait, as we can about getting our hands in water - it seems so normal when we go fishing a lot, and we've long lost the "yeuk" reaction that most people have when they look at a couple of pints of maggots.

Try to imagine your reaction if the person behind the counter in a cafe dipped their hands in a tub of maggots then handed you your sandwich.

I don't usually have any skin problems or allergic reactions - but every once in a while I'll get a sore, itchy rash, usually on the back of the hand where the thumb joins, and the circumstances point to handling maggots as the cause. I use maggots umpteen times for every time this happens, though