Moth scales

Wagner, David david.wagner at uconn.edu
Tue Jul 18 10:47:18 EDT 2006


I have been breathing moth scales for 40 years.  Every time I empty a
trap I am exposed to large numbers of scales from 100+ species.  99/100
times I have nary a symptom from my daily butterfly moth endeavors,
after significant exposure to my eyes and respiratory system to moth
scales.  I don't recall that any of my 30 plus undergraduate and
graduate students have had problems. 

However, on more than half dozen occasions I have had to close up shop
and head back into the main house because of what I believe was exposure
to moth scales that caused a mild allergenic reaction--have yet to
identify the culprit taxon.

Orley Taylor developed quite a severe reaction to moth scales...and had
to distance himself from moths.

So, like everything else, it depends.



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu]
On Behalf Of Rob Thorn
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 11:25 AM
To: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: dust in moths wings

Poisonous, no, but very allergenic.  I worked in a moth rearing facility
for a bit, and pretty much everyone there became allergic to the cuticle
and scales after only a few weeks.  Human immune systems go nuts over
insect cuticle proteins; it's one of the reasons why insects are not a
more common food item in different cultures.

Rob Thorn


> [Original Message]
> From: OscartheGrouch <Tondaleo at hotmail.com>
> To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
> Date: 7/17/2006 10:20:26 AM
> Subject: Re: dust in moths wings
>
>
> "Targ" <vacuous at voidacious.net> wrote in message 
> news:M5Lug.25501$IU2.5621 at newsfe2-win.ntli.net...
> >I remember being told as a child that if i got any of the dust from a
moth 
> >wings on my hands, i must wash throughly as it was very poisonous.
is 
> >there any truth in that?   what kind of dust would it be anyway?
thanks.
> >
>
> It's not dust, it's very small scales. And poisonous? No.
>
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co
.uk/
MICROSCALE1.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/micro3.ht
m&h=
311&w=313&sz=33&hl=en&start=19&tbnid=6QNB3PEmw-mZEM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=113&p
rev=
/images%3Fq%3Dmoth%2Bscales%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG 
>
>
>
>  
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