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Raccoons produce latrines , particular positioning that visit they repeatedly . While this practice may be healthful for the animals , man – particularly modest children prostrate to order foreign objects in their mouth – can undertake a deadly , parasitic roundworm when they find these animal privy .
However , late research may have struck upon a bar strategy . The work find that desexualize these latrines and leaving out medicated hook for the racoon – as is done to controlrabies – can shorten the mien of the parasite . [ Pitcher Plants doubly as Toilets ]
There are only 18 known cases when the louse , Baylisascaris procyonis , has infected humans , and all occurred in North America . However , contagion does n’t become obvious until the worm ’s larvae move into a victim ’s eyes or central nervous system , where they get blindness , lasting neurological legal injury , or death . As a result , it ’s potential cases have escaped detection , harmonise to Kristen Page , a disease ecologist at Wheaton College in Illinois and the hint author of a paper published in the January issue of the journal come out Infectious disease .
" I think it ’s important to not scare the great unwashed , but to instruct them how to clean up and check that they keep their play surface area safe . It ’s most dangerous for toddlers or kids who are pose thing in their mouths , " Page said .
There are multiple ideas as to whyraccoonscreate latrines , which multiple animals practice to defecate repeatedly , include as a means of communication or sanitation , she say .
In an earlier study , Page and her colleagues bump the sponge ’s bollock in 14 of 61 raccoon latrines place in 119 suburban Chicago properties near forest preserves . Raccoon stool have about the same diam as a thumb , and the researchers oftentimes found them on raised , compressed surfaces , such as deck , a tree home , level roof , landscaping rock music and concrete retaining rampart .
In the more late bailiwick , the investigator went to a rural area in the Upper Wabash Basin in north central Indiana and choose 16 patches , and in half of these ( called the intervention patches ) they murder and sterilized all the latrine they could regain . The researcher also distributed anti - roundworm medicine disguised in fishmeal and marshmallow come-on , and captivate mice to prove for the sponge .
Humans are an accidental host forB. procyonis . The louse spends the adultpart of its liveliness cyclereproducing within the raccoons , which defecate its eggs . If thing go harmonize to plan , another creature , like a mouse or bird , consumes the ballock , and the larvae hatch and form vesicle within these animals ' tissues . When a raccoon eats the smaller animal , it becomes infected with the larva , which become full-grown , bollock - laying worms .
Between March 2007 and November 2008 , the occurrence of the eggs in raccoon stool worsen by more than threefold . After about a year of baiting , the researcher also saw the occurrence of the larvae in mice decline from 38 pct in the mastery patches to 27 percent in the handling patches .
" carrying out of baiting strategies , in conjunction with traditional racoon management on public land , could boil down the risk for transmission on nearby private properties , " they wrote .
To remove a latrine , Page gives the follow instructions : Wear glove and carefully put the faecal matter in a garbage grip . If the latrine is prominent or appears old and dry , remove an column inch or two of the soil with the feces . Then , treat the area with heat , by pouring simmering water over it . chemical substance and cleanup agents do n’t work .
you’re able to follow LiveScience author Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry .
