In other words, I guess John is saying, don't miss Buses By The
Bridge in Lake Havasu  in January just because of some little amoeba
scare story?

grin,

Tom B.-if you don't kill it there, you have to kill it at home?

On Sep 30, 2007, at 12:42 PM, John Rodgers wrote:

> Sam,
>
> My 88' GL doesn't swim either - but I do. So the question I have to
> ask
> every time I go out into wild waters - beyond my hot tub  or swimming
> pool - is what is in those waters that might want to eat me? It is a
> very fair question, since wild waters everywhere in the world support
> all kinds of wild life - from microbes to sharks - and in many cases
> neither are picky about what - or who - is for dinner!
>
> In Alaska waters you can get attacked by the larvae of a little
> critter
> whose life cycle includes snails and duck poop. And we got lots of
> both
> up there. The larvae get confused, think you are a snail and try to
> burrow into you  through the skin. Creates an awful itch - but I never
> heard of any one dying from it, but I wouldn't want to take the chance
> and be first.
>
> In waters in South America snails carry critters called liver flukes
> that burrow into you, find a home in your liver, and cause you to
> swell
> horribly.
>
> In Africa there is a little beastie called a cyclops that lives in the
> water of rivers and eats the eggs of certain parasitic worms. When
> someone drinks the water, the cyclops  is ingested, and in the
> digestive
> tract this little larvae comes crawling out of the now being digested
> cyclops, burrows through your gut and makes his way to the arms and
> legs
> just above the hands and feet. It makes a little hole  in the skin,
> and
> every time it senses water, it pokes it little tail out and squirts
> eggs
> into the water which the cyclops eats, and the cycle begins again.
> They
> treat this thing by teasing  it with water to stick it's tail out,
> then
> a string is tied to the tail and the other end of the string is
> tied to
> a stick. Each day, that stick is tightened just a fraction, keeping
> tension on the worm. Eventually he is pulled from the body.
>
> Another little water borne beastie enters the body and makes his
> way to
> the white of the eye. He can often be seen coiled up in the white
> of the
> eye next to the iris. Dunno what they do for him.
>
> In South America you can - in the water - get eaten by red bellied
> piranha or have your bodily orifices probed by spikey cannarou - very
> painful to remove as I understand.
>
> Lots of nasties live in the water. Remember the old movie
> advertisement
> "Don't Go Near the Water" - well, there are more reasons than one.
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
>
>
> Sam Conant wrote:
>> Whoops!  My 84 Westy doesn't swim.
>> SamC
>>
>> -------------- Original message --------------
>> From: Mike Riley <mkriley@FUSE.NET>
>>
>>
>>> this article was full of sensationalism and wrong facts.
>>>
>>> My mother did a lot of the early work on this at the epa,
>>> it is called parasitic encephalitis, the ameoba just reproduces
>>> untill it
>>> physicially
>>> blocks the blood flow. It can be cured with antibiotics if it is
>>> properly
>>> diagnosed in time.
>>> mike
>>>
>>
>>
>>