43
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to kill parasitic worms by intoxicating oneself?
In summary, there is no convincing evidence to say that alcohol intoxication helps to treat or prevent parasites in humans.
1) The evidence from in vivo human studies does not support the idea that ...
- 8,124
8
votes
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What are these bladder snail parasites?
I have finally figured out what these are, and it turns out I greatly misunderstood their relationship with snails.
These worms are annelids of the genus Chaetogaster, specifically Chaetogaster ...
- 473
7
votes
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Ticks hitching a ride on a fly?
Without a close up examination of the subjects, which would require microscope images or a decent macro image it is impossible to identify these creatures with any certainty to the level of species. ...
- 13.9k
7
votes
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Refuge impact on growth rate
The answer to this depends a lot on what kind of question you're asking. Adding more context/clarifying your question might help you get more useful answers.
If you run a short-term experiment ...
- 5,589
5
votes
Accepted
What could be a refuge in host-parasitoid models
The most typical situation is a size refuge, i.e. prey/hosts that are too large or too small to attack (or possibly too small to be useful) are not attacked, or are attacked less, than hosts that are ...
- 5,589
5
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Is it possible to kill parasitic worms by intoxicating oneself?
Although the previous answers give a resounding "No" for the case of human hosts and parasitic worms, a 2012 research paper (Alcohol Consumption As Self-Medication Against Blood-Borne Parasites In The ...
- 696
5
votes
Brood Parasitism - Parasitism/Ammensalism/Commensalism?
The cuckoo chick hatches earlier and instinctively pushes the host eggs out of the nest. If you view this from the genetic perspective of the crow, it becomes the foster parent of offspring that does ...
- 945
4
votes
Are there any plants that parasitize on animals?
Yes
Acrochaetium spiculiphilum is an marine endozoic parasite on sponges.
It is a Biliphyte algae and thus a plant.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-marine-biological-association-...
- 15.4k
4
votes
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Help identify parasitic plant on oak seedling
I think these are galls produced by a wasp in the genus Andricus.
Here are some produced by A. polyceras:
However, there are many species in this genus so more detail would be needed to narrow it ...
- 2,937
3
votes
Do any known viruses contain "junk" or parasitic genomic information?
I'm curious if any known viruses can contain parasitic genetic information "along for the ride"
Analogous to the parasitic transposons mentioned in the paper linked by canadianer, phage-...
- 8,336
3
votes
Accepted
The emergence of Phengaris butterflies from ant nests
I've been emailing some of the various researchers who worked on the papers I've cited. Jeremy Thomas and Judith Wardlaw both took time out of their (probably very busy!) schedules to reply, and they ...
- 696
3
votes
Are there complexity requirements on potential hosts to be susceptible to parasites?
"Complexity" is a difficult term to operate with in biology; most people that use it don't have an idea of how they'd like to operationally define it, and without an operational definition ...
- 47.2k
3
votes
Brood Parasitism - Parasitism/Ammensalism/Commensalism?
Various aspects of this question suggest that OP is not asking about cuckoo/host interactions in general, but about research published in 2014 which appeared to show carrion crows (Corvus corone ...
- 696
3
votes
Is it possible to kill parasitic worms by intoxicating oneself?
The answer to your question depends on the kind of parasites you're focusing on.
Looking at bacteria and gastro-intestinal infections, I found three articles (one based on a model stomach, a second ...
- 131
3
votes
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Will meat rot in alcohol below freezing?
A chemist's perspective:
Ethanol and water are miscible, meaning they are perfectly soluble in one another in all proportions. So given enough time, the alcohol will likely seep into the tissues and ...
- 708
2
votes
Can galls be formed from mutualistic relationships?
Yes, pollinating fig wasps are gall inducing and mutualistic at the same time, and actually essential for the pollination of figs (see e.g Martinson et al., 2015). During the very intricate mutualism, ...
- 16.8k
2
votes
Accepted
What is happening to this spider?
It is hard to say for certain, but the insect hanging from the spider looks like it may be a member of the family Elateridae, commonly known as a "click beetle". As far as I know, they're harmless and ...
- 370
2
votes
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Difference between "biotroph" and "parasitic"
I think the Wiktionary definition of biotrophic is enlightening (emphasis mine):
Describing a parasite or symbiont that needs its host in order to stay alive.
So, all non-necrotrophic obligate ...
- 8,336
2
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If a "parasite" is growing on a dead part of the host or on a completely dead host, does it still count as a parasite?
In parasitic interactions, one species (the parasite) benefits from the interaction while the other (the host) is harmed. So, whether an interaction is parasitic or not really depends on whether on ...
- 4,832
2
votes
Is it possible to kill parasitic worms by intoxicating oneself?
From the first principles:
The most sensitive to alcohol part of the human body is it's nervous system. Worms have much simpler (in both biochemistry and organization) nervous system, so they will ...
- 277
1
vote
Accepted
What is the difference between ‘classical’ and ‘non-classical’ pathogen resistance genes in plants?
I edited to reflect that the reference is to classic genes rather than to classic immunity.
Note that this is not a formal definition but rather an informal way of talking about the state of the ...
- 10.8k
1
vote
Accepted
Are there parasitoids of mosquitoes ? (other than nematodes)
It happens I just found an answer to my question in a recent review book by George Heimpel and Nicolas Mills. It appears that for now we do not know any parasitoid of mosquitoes.
Quoting chapter 1 :
...
- 476
1
vote
Why are there no endoparasitic mammals or reptiles or birds?
Short answer size.
endo/ectoparasites need to be small to go unnoticed, and be hard to eliminate. The smallest mammals and birds are still much larger than a flea, fluke or other endoparasite. That'...
- 15.4k
1
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Debug Fresno; why are the released mosquitos said to be sterile?
Males are effective sterilization vectors
You can think of male mosquitos as fertile only in theory. Any mating of these mosquitos will generate no offspring whatsoever, so they are effective sterile ...
- 186
1
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Question about *Cryptosporidium hominis*
This page seems to indicate that it adheres to the epithelium of different internal organs. They write:
The sporozoites are released and parasitize epithelial cells (b, c) of the gastrointestinal ...
- 10.8k
1
vote
What is the difference between a predator and a parasite?
Previous answers to the question seem to originate from one misunderstanding. Of course, the large-small distinction between predators and parasites is easily observed by anyone, like the fact that ...
- 11
1
vote
Can galls be formed from mutualistic relationships?
I do not believe that galls are categorically non-mutualistic. However, as noted above, ant domatia (of acacia at least) are not galls, the trees produce them in the absence of ants. However, the size ...
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