Do you eat fruits that animals have nibbled on?

[floridays]

So many mango's with a few bites out of them this summer.

Just wondering if anyone eats them anyway?

Someone once told me that if a rabid animal took some bites, the saliva would infect the fruit...I don't think that's true but it made me think twice. 

[Stan]

No. But I would eat something that fell off of the tree and looked worse then one nibbled. Just wash it off

[cmichael258]

I have eaten numerous mangoes that the squirrels had nibbled a small piece. While
not impossible, it's highly improbable for a squirrel to contract rabies.

[strkpr00]

dozens of times, but I use the 1 inch rule. Must have enough fruit to leave a generous slice in between.

[CGameProgrammer]

Some kind of worms or caterpillars or something clearly love my wax jambu and most fruits have little trails carved out of them, but no insects actually in them so I eat them. But luckily I do not have rodent problems, aside from a gopher that seems to have disappeared. I can see how mammal bites would be off-putting.

[cos]

Giant African snails graze the fins off my dragon fruit //  inside ok so is always eaten

[Grapebush]

I usually ate fruit that I found nibbled by animals (mostly birds), and the only care I take is to remove the bitten part with a margin of about 2cm.
Never had any issues with that. If I would eat only untouched fruits, in some years I would risk not eating a single mango, cherimoya, guava...

[Doug]

I can't imagine ANY problem eating second paw fruit. I have seen Costa Ricans eating fruit that had been half eaten by god knows what. I watched a bunch of kids here feasting on black zapotes that had been laying on the ground for an undetermined amount of time and in horrible condition. They eat guavas that have worms, too. We in the so-called developed part of the world have been infected by supermarket perfection syndrome. As for me, having a bunch of young fruit trees, I'll eat whatever condition that FIRST fruit is in that they produce. I wouldn't miss that for the world.

[Vernmented]

Do you eat fruits that animals have nibbled on?

Yes. ALL THE TIME!

[goosteen]

I usually do, unless it's rats... I think they carry some diseases we can catch.   

[zands]

I will eat them depending on the overall look of the fruit. The best way to clean them is to blast away at the bitten part with  the garden hose. Did that this morning to a nam doc mai mango.

[SocalKoop]

Yes, and if I lived in a cleaner part of the world, I'd eat the animals that nibbled on my fruit too.

[floridays]

i couldn't agree more with the sentiment that we live (I'm in the U.S.) in such a "sterile" food nation, and that most of the world eats things that we would have code violations for on a daily basis. 

I'm sure I've eaten my fair share of dirt, worms and bugs.

It was just the thought of saliva and rabies that kinda freaked me out...

[gnappi]

No, there's always more fruit than I need, and I don't need some saliva carried animal virus or bacteria  to cross over to the human realm as a real life lab experiment :-)

[Jani]

For me the only critters I have that do damage are birds so Im good with cutting away the areas they pecked. .I'd probably feel different eating fruit after rats or racoons took a chop, out of disease concerns  ...

[Don]

Yeah dont touch them here in Queensland as you cant tell if the possums or the flying foxes have got to them and flying foxes carry some pretty bad disease that can easily infect humans so I just leave them. I bag them if I know the flying foxes are fond of them, prevention better than getting sick suckin on second hand fruit!👍

[DeeMango]

Definitely. Just cut away the area the critter has nibbled on and eat the rest. Otherwise the little hairy fruit terrorists win.

[greenman62]

I can't imagine ANY problem eating second paw fruit. I have seen Costa Ricans eating fruit that had been half eaten by god knows what. I watched a bunch of kids here feasting on black zapotes that had been laying on the ground for an undetermined amount of time and in horrible condition. They eat guavas that have worms, too. We in the so-called developed part of the world have been infected by supermarket perfection syndrome. As for me, having a bunch of young fruit trees, I'll eat whatever condition that FIRST fruit is in that they produce. I wouldn't miss that for the world.

yeah, and i agree with that to some extent
as a society we throw away way too much food just because its not picture perfect,
 but parasites ARE a real threat.
My best friends wife is from Nicaragua. When she first came to the states,
 she had several types of parasites when she saw a Doc,
 it took her months of medicines to remove them all.

i have cut off bad bits of fruit in the past, and often still eat fruit that hit the ground
IF it looks like nothing bit into it,
 but recently i got some kind of skin problem that looks like a fever blister on my arm,
accompanied by a bad headache.
Still not sure what the heck it was, but, i am starting to wash fruit now,
 and leaving anything which was obviously bitten into.

FYI, a couple of links...

A rare parasite found in snails and rats that can cause serious health problems in humans and animals is more pervasive in South Florida than previously thought, a new study has found.
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-parasite-infecting-florida-snails-poses.html
"As long as food is cooked and you wash your produce, you will most likely never ingest it."


// Neglected Parasitic Infections (NPIs) in the United States //
The neglected parasitic infections (NPIs) are a group of five parasitic diseases
 that have been targeted by the CDC as priorities for public health action
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/npi/index.html

[Doug]

QUOTE....
yeah, and i agree with that to some extent
as a society we throw away way too much food just because its not picture perfect,
 but parasites ARE a real threat.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Of course you're right.... I'm sure there could be problems with parasites, etc., but I think it's probably rare. But, I guess I'm concerned more about what humans add to the food we eat to make it look perfect than what Nature does. BTW, parasites and other "bugs" won't find happy homes for themselves to thrive in when the potential "host" has a relatively healthy and balanced body and mind. Works for me! Not even mosquitoes like my blood! Hahahaha

[ScottR]

I can't imagine ANY problem eating second paw fruit. I have seen Costa Ricans eating fruit that had been half eaten by god knows what. I watched a bunch of kids here feasting on black zapotes that had been laying on the ground for an undetermined amount of time and in horrible condition. They eat guavas that have worms, too. We in the so-called developed part of the world have been infected by supermarket perfection syndrome. As for me, having a bunch of young fruit trees, I'll eat whatever condition that FIRST fruit is in that they produce. I wouldn't miss that for the world.

yeah, and i agree with that to some extent
as a society we throw away way too much food just because its not picture perfect,
 but parasites ARE a real threat.
My best friends wife is from Nicaragua. When she first came to the states,
 she had several types of parasites when she saw a Doc,
 it took her months of medicines to remove them all.

i have cut off bad bits of fruit in the past, and often still eat fruit that hit the ground
IF it looks like nothing bit into it,
 but recently i got some kind of skin problem that looks like a fever blister on my arm,
accompanied by a bad headache.
Still not sure what the heck it was, but, i am starting to wash fruit now,
 and leaving anything which was obviously bitten into.

FYI, a couple of links...

A rare parasite found in snails and rats that can cause serious health problems in humans and animals is more pervasive in South Florida than previously thought, a new study has found.
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-parasite-infecting-florida-snails-poses.html
"As long as food is cooked and you wash your produce, you will most likely never ingest it."


// Neglected Parasitic Infections (NPIs) in the United States //
The neglected parasitic infections (NPIs) are a group of five parasitic diseases
 that have been targeted by the CDC as priorities for public health action
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/npi/index.html

Good link, that sounds like the one they have in Hawaii rat hole lung disease, snail infected and transformed to fruit laying on ground.Funny story on the Best of Both Worlds -CRFG & HTFG conference in 2013 we toured Hawaii Germ Plasm Repository, we were touring on Day US Govt. shut down so local H.T.F.G were touring us around huge grounds and people were picking up fruit and tasting about half way thru tour one of the guilds said that Hawaii has this 'Rat hole Lung disease" and infects fruit on ground. You never saw so many people spit out or throw away fruit so fast in your life!!! Be aware!   

[forumfool]

All the people who have gotten sick from it directly ate raw/undercooked snails. Not sure what the concern would be with fallen fruit (unless there was a snail on it and you ate the snail too, but I think most people look at the fruit they pick up and brush it off)

Regarding rabies, seems like it has a very short lifespan (like HIV) outside of the body:
http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2012/07/articles/animals/dogs/rabies-virus-survival/

I just cut the piece off that was directly bitten and eat the rest of the fruit.

[Guanabanus]

Some of us refer to bushey-tailed rats as "quality control", since they sample the best mangos, and leave the rest of each one for us to relish.   Of course even squeemish persons can cook such fruits.

[palmcity]

 If you read these cdc documents, you will be much more careful handling dogs, cats, visiting tropical climates, eating rare cooked meat, etc. Of course, I'm glad I finally got around to reading these from your previous posts.

Great information, thanks for mentioning above and will pass some of this information on to my friends and family. It is interesting how many of us are probably infected with some of these parasites now and totally unaware.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/npi/index.html


http://phys.org/news/2015-02-parasite-infecting-florida-snails-poses.html

[VirginiaHart]

My son ate yesterday an apple that was half-eaten by a squirrel. Should I bring him to see a doctor?

[CarolineMay]

I don't think you should take your son to see a doctor. Unless your son doesn't have any symptoms that he is sick or something. I remember when I was a kid and once our family's dog licked the apple I was eating. I just continued to eat that apple and nothing bad happened after that. I didn't get sick. I had the same situation last month. Some squirrels got into my house and made holes in the apples and oranges in the kitchen. My wife threw them all. We always have some trouble with squirrels so I contacted a squirrel removal service from this site https://tampa.aaacwildliferemoval.com/squirrel-removal. They helped me a lot. I should have called them earlier.