Human allergy to reptiles/feeder insects and substrate?

[Glider]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone had heard or experienced an allergy to their reptiles, substrate or feeder insects?

Mum has been looking after some of my knobtail gecko collection for most of the year and by co-incidence has had a very bad year for bronchitis/respiratory difficulty for her.
Now it's probably not related but it is a coincidence so I thought I'd ask.

The geckos are kept on clean red sand, and fed petstore-bought crickets that come on vermiculite. Mum thinks perhaps she is allergic to vermiculite dust or cricket mess? I'm not sure, it seems to be a pretty inert mineral, but the stuff at the bottom of cricket containers is pretty gross and dusty. She's very careful with hygiene around the geckos and feeders.

There is no skin or eye irritation, only respiratory irritation (and not asthma).

So anyway, it's a long shot but I promised her I'd ask.




PS. and yes, she is under doctor supervision.

 

[Rocky]

I have always thought this, if one of my beardies scratches me, I get bumps, and it is very itchy. I remember the first day i got my beardie, every time I would open the container on the drive home, I would sneeze uncontrollably.

 

[cris]

I havnt ever used crickets enough to comment on them but i have found feeder roaches to be one of the nastiest critters around as far as this sort of thing goes. They cause problems such as sneezing and itching, its quite likely that crickets may do this to some ppl too.

Does anyone find that being exposed to large amounts of roaches doesnt cause any type of irritation?

 

[meshe1969]

I'm allergic to Cockroaches, I start itching severely all over even if the contact is miner. Apparently it is most likely their droppings and a expert told me I would be allergic to Cricket waste as well (I haven't tested that one).

 

[Kirby]

store baught crickets are IMO digusting and over priced.

at our store, i clean every cricket tub the moment we get them, give them layer pellets, and rabbit food, fresh carrot and a new peice of cardboard. they come in smelly... the vermilicule is gross, and poop ridden.

try pre ordering crickets, keep them clean on rabbit pellets, a week before you feed.. (so they are clean for you AND your animals)

 

[junglepython2]

PM Sdaji