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Warnings for ant-plant hunters.


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Furthermore avoid uncooked foods especially salads and ensure any fruits are well washed in sterilized water.   There are records of New Zealanders after visiting Fiji, becoming seriously ill with Eosinophilic meningitis that is mostly caused by ingesting the larvae of a nematode parasite named Angiostrongylus cantonensis, a species that can occur in raw or undercooked snails, slugs, freshwater prawns, frogs, fish or by eating fresh produce such as lettuce that a slug or snail carrying the parasite has crawled on.  Once ingested, the larvae make their way into blood vessels to eventually reach the spinal cord where they die. An eosinophilic reaction develops in response to the dying larvae, and spreads rapidly through spinal fluid.  It is prevalent mainly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiostrongylus_cantonensis

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In my early days visiting the Queensland tropics, incidentally, long before I had much ant-plant knowledge, while traveling with a friend who was also a keen herpetologist, we were shown a tiny pond that would hardly sustain a few British newts (salamanders to you Americans).  An experienced bushman with us, carefully stretched out to poke the plant covered water with a very long pole.  To my complete astonishment, a truly enormous pair of jaws erupted with a mighty SNAP from this really small body of water.  Until then we had spent some hours in bodies of water that we had considered quite safe.  It was a lesson I have never forgotten. 

  During a fairly recent visit, I was exploring for ant-plant habitats not far south of Cairns, and I disturbed a crocodile that swam across to the other side of a small tidal, mangrove lined, creek.  Yet about 20 meters away, some locals were mooring their fizzboat (an aluminium dingy with an outboard motor) while standing in the shallows, completely unaware there was at least one crocodile nearby.  It is the ignorant AND the complacent that die. 

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