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Allergy to pests

Prune mites can cause severe rashes
Fig. 1. 2. Prune mites are considered – rightly or wrongly – to be the cause of a skin disease that makes the skin itch. A disease you can get by handling mite-infested prunes and other dried fruit.

Even though a person can be or become allergic to any insect acting as pests in food, it is only a small number of insect species that actually matters in relations to allergies. Those are the species that a person often comes into contact with, and their closest relatives with whom they share allergens. Allergies to food pests are almost exclusively tied to the dust particles that are inhaled when handling food. Allergic reactions include snoozing, watery eyes and sometimes even asthma. Allergic reactions appear immediately after coming into contact with dust from foods and are typically the result of remains of mites and sometimes also granary weevils or moths.

Heavy goods such as hay, straw, rape and animal feed potentially give off large amounts of dust from mites. If predisposed to allergies, one should avoid working with these goods. Many people suffer from allergic reactions to house dust mites and will therefore also react to any small amount of mites in dusty foods. The house dust mites that cause allergic reactions do not live in food, but they share the same allergens with the mites that do. It is those shared allergens that people react to.

As far as we know today, there is no particular allergen-risk by eating or drinking food containing pests. Allergic reactions to food are not always caused by the food, but can also be a reaction to the particles that occur when food is digested.

Skin disorder can occur in relation to contact allergies. An example of this is people, who work with prunes or cheeses that contain mites, getting rashes. Those rashes are said to be caused by mites, but it has never actually been proved. Many beetle larvae have barbed hairs. The hairs break easily and find its way to human skin where it can cause allergic reactions and inflammation.

Table of allergic reactions towards the flour mite
Fig. 1. 1. Most people do not get skin reactions when allergy tested with extracts of house dust mites and flour mites. Those who do, react either to one of the two mite species or to both of them. In this figure, each dot represent a person. The number of people who react to both types of mites is remarkable. (Korsgaard, Dahl & Hallas).
Food Pests
Introduction
An old problem
Competition for food
Pests can ruin stored goods
Why not just eat the insects
Some insects are unhealthy to eat
Allergy to pests
Transmission of infectious diseases
Where do pests come from?
Synanthrope species
(1) The house dust mite and the sugar mite
(2) The firebrat and the silverfish
(3) The German cockroach and the forest cockroach
(4) The rust-red flour beetle and the confused flour beetle
(5) The merchant grain beetle and the saw-toothed grain beetle
(6) The cigarette beetle and the drugstore beetle
(7) The rice weevil and the granary weevil
(8) The pharaoh ant and the common black ant
History of the dark flour beetle
Pests in bird’s nests
Mould fauna
The Look and Behaviour of pests
Insect appearance
Internal
Insect development
Insect senses
Behaviour
Water and Moisture
Temperature
What insects live off and live in
The Air
Mites
Bug Indentification
The various species
Mites
The flour mite
The sugar mite
The common house mite
The Lardoglyphus zacheri
The prune mite
The cheese mite
The house dust mite
The Cheyletus eruditus
Silverfish
The Silverfish
The firebrat
Cockroaches
The German cockroach
The Oriental cockroach
The brown-banded cockroach
The American cockroach
The extermination of cockroaches
Crickets
Earwigs
Booklice
Butterflies
The Mediterranean flour moth
The warehouse moth
Tropical warehouse moth
The brown house moth
The Indian meal moth
Grain beetles
The saw-toothed grain beetle
The merchant grain beetle
The rust-red grain beetle
Flour beetles
The yellow mealworm beetle
The lesser mealworm beetle
The dark flour beetle
The confused flour beetle
The rust-red flour beetle
The bolting cloth beetle
Furniture beetles
The drugstore beetle
The cigarette beetle
Bostrychidae
The lesser grain borer
True weevils snout beetles
The granary weevil
The rice weevil
The corn weevil
Bean weevils
The common bean weevil
The coffee bean weevil
Skin beetles
The bacon beetle
The dermestid beetle
The leather beetle
The khapra beetle
The reesa vespulae
Chequered beetles
The red-legged ham beetle
The red-breasted copra beetle
The black-legged ham beetle
Spider beetles
The Australian spider beetle
The white-marked spider beetle
The golden spider beetle
The smooth spider beetle
Plaster beetles
Flies
The common house fly
The lesser house fly
Blowflies
The grey flesh fly
The cheese skipper
Fruit flies
Hymenoptera
The common black ant
The pharaoh ant
Wasps
Birds
The domestic pigeon
The house sparrow
Prevention and control of birds
Rodents
The house mouse
The yellow-necked mouse
Mouse prevention
Mouse control
The brown rat
The black rat
Rat prevention
Rat control
Imaginary pests
Niches of food pests
A: The Waste Niche
B: The seed niche
C: The dead plant niche
D: The sugary excrement niche
E: The carrion niche
Prevention and Control, Integrated Control
A. Inspection of the company and its environment
The environment
The premises
Examination of raw materials and food on site
Sampling
Laboratory methods for detection of pests in food
B. Statement of the problem
C. Prevention and control
1. Proper organisation of the company
2. Proper operation
3. Exclusion, proofing buildings
4. Packaging
5. Non-chemical control measures
6. Chemical control
D: Effective monitoring and communication
Practical information
Index

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