Hello (again!)... and some advice please?

B

BugGirl

Member
This is more of a re-introduction for me, as I have used the forum previously, many moons ago!

I'm a keeper in the Bug House at World Museum in Liverpool and also help out in the Aquarium when needed.

I have had a problem over the last 10 days or so with what seems to be an allergy to our bug house lab :-/

It started with severe bouts of coughing and sneezing only while I was in the lab, but later developed (or coincided with?) a full blown cold - much more severe than I am used to. I had five days off sick, and came back when I was over the worst of it.

Or so I thought! After a full day of very little coughing or sneezing, back in the lab for only 15 minutes I was coughing and sneezing continuously (I couldn't go 30s sneeze free, and coughed so hard I was sick) Also felt like I was coming up in a rash across my neck and chest, although there were no spots. I just felt really warm and itchy and my eyes were streaming. This carried on for three hours, til I left the room for lunch, and started again when I came back.

I had thought that maybe the 27 degrees was worsening my already high temperature and setting me off and that it might settle once my cold had cleared up, but after reading about allergy symptoms I tried wearing one of the paper dust masks we use in the workshop for woodwork. Coughing and sneezing stopped almost instantly!

I am wracking my brains trying to think if there is anything new or different in the bug house recently and all I can come up with is our death's head hawk moths, but I have been sick since before any of them emerged from the pupae. All our animals are in tanks and I've never had any problems before, which make me think it is likely to be something airborne. Our air conditioning/heating system is the same as the rest of the museum, and only this room gives me problems.

Has anyone else working with bugs developed allergies to their animals over time, and if so did you find a way to work around it without giving up the animals? I have heard that allergies to locusts and moths/butterflies are not unheard of .

I guess the next step (apart from waiting to see if it all clears up with the end of my cold, fingers crossed!) is to start testing animals one by one out of the room and see what triggers it :-s

Any ideas or suggestions welcome!
 
Don't focus entirely on the animals. It could just as easily be a new cleaning product, the sawdust or shavings used as substrate or any other changed material.

In the meantime try antihistamine
 
epickoala123 said:
Has anyone else been sick before you? If so they could of set of a bug (pun-intended)
Click to expand...

We did have a visitor to the lab a fortnight ago who had a really severe coughing fit a few minutes after he came in, which was quite prolonged...

And around the rest of the museum, the majority of staff have colds and there has been a case of mumps and one of chicken pox too! I would expect symptoms of anything like that to be consistent, regardless of location. I think it's definitely something in the room.

In terms of cleaning products and substrates etc, I don't know of anything new but I am waiting to check with my manager on Wednesday as he could be using something I'm not aware of. I will try the antihistamines!

Come to think of it... the hawkmoth pupae were brought back into the lab around the time the reaction started, but it's hard to imagine they could trigger all this from inside a vivarium. It's a ventilated stick insect viv though :-? Being up close to the adults in a mesh hanging enclosure doesn't seem to trigger it.
 
A number of years ago a friend of my had a large lizard-breeding project and to feed his animals started also large-scale breeding loctus.
Afther about one-and-a-half years he became the same problems as you and with al kinds of tests at the hospital it was found out that he had become allergic against the dust produced by the loctus-breeding.
In those day ( we are talking about the period 1985-1990 ) no cure was known and he gave up loctus-breeding and enlarged his cricket-culture, which caused no problems.
Again later he stopped lizard-breeding and started ( very succesfully ) snake-breeding so no insect-cultures were neccecery anymore.
I know this don't help you with your problem but maybe you can test yourself for allergies.
Wish you good luck that it is something that can be cured easy !
 
Well after some less than scientific tests in the bug house, the locusts are looking like the most likely candidates :-s The cough seems to be getting worse rather than improving, and that's at home as well as in work. We're still not sure if that's down to the cold virus or aggravation in the lab, but I have a GP appointment to get checked out this week and ask about allergy testing.

We're not in a position to get rid of our locusts, as they are the best food option for most of our tarantulas, mantids and ground beetles but worst case scenario at the moment is we would have to move the locust into another room that I don't work in. That's an inconvenience for all the husbandry staff, but a better option for me than giving up the animals I love working with!
 
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