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Leablas
Newbie
Registered: 08/07/04
Posts: 28
Loc: Florida, USA
Last seen: 18 years, 6 months
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Poison Shroom Question
#2979227 - 08/08/04 07:57 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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(Sorry about the amount of posts, Please tell me if I am doing something wrong)
I was wondering about poison mushrooms. The toxins they carry, how do they get transfered to a person? I am getting worried because of all the handling of mysterious mushrooms during hunting. Can one accidentally inhale/ingest poisonous spores, spreading fungus throughout the body...Or do I have it all wrong? I am aware of the fact that each mushroom carries millions of spores, whom upon the slightest touch get released into the air. Basically, is one in any danger from 'handling' potentially dangerous mushrooms? Or does one need to actually 'consume' the thing in order to get inflicted?
I get the idea that I shouldn't worry this much about it, but the fact that I don't know the answers yet send me flying to the sink after every touch of a mystery mushroom, with surgical-like precautions for breathing around them...It's a big mess, and I'm running out of latex gloves .
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GatorB
Stranger
Registered: 07/30/04
Posts: 233
Loc: Southeast Tennessee
Last seen: 17 years, 5 months
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Re: Poison Shroom Question [Re: Leablas]
#2979588 - 08/08/04 10:11 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Well considering that the worst poisoning you can get from mushrooms attacks your liver, I don't think you have to worry about inhaling or ingesting the spores. I also don't know about the spores themselves being poisonous, I doubt they are, as I have handled several poisonous species of mushrooms in my lifetime, and I have not been affected.
However, this is just one man's opinion. I'd wait till the experts answer.
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shroomydan
exshroomerite
Registered: 07/04/04
Posts: 4,126
Loc: In the woods
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Re: Poison Shroom Question [Re: Leablas]
#2979639 - 08/08/04 10:32 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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You don't feel the effects of active mushroom by touching them, nor can you be poisoned by handling poisonous mushroom. You can even taste poisonous mushrooms and spit them out with no ill effects(be sure to rinse your mouth).I think you probably can move spores through your body, but it won't hurt you unless you start snorting lines of them. It is exceedingly difficult for a mushroom spore to find a suitable place to begin a colony. Your body is especially inhospitable, not only because mushrooms have not adapted to eating human flesh, but also because your immune system immediately kills a spore if it starts to grow. You have no worries from your new found gnomish friends, until you eat them.
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Leablas
Newbie
Registered: 08/07/04
Posts: 28
Loc: Florida, USA
Last seen: 18 years, 6 months
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Re: Poison Shroom Question [Re: GatorB]
#2979650 - 08/08/04 10:35 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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No, it helps to hear that. I guess you could call it mycophobia or something but the thought of millions of poisonous, invisible spores floating around and getting discharged with every contact makes me want to cry. I felt like I had a tumor in my throat yesterday for like an hour(until I stopped thinking about it) because I was trying to smell the mystery shrooms for the I.D. and the thought of spores becoming shrooms inside my throat kept popping in my head! The paranoia could've been present for various reasons though. Edit:shroomydan, thats interesting...So I would assume after spore printing, drying, and preparing(cooking?) there would be virtually no danger anyways since most would be gone by then. So where do the psychoactive compounds reside? the gills? I always thought of the cap part as kind of a 'fruit' to protect the spore-carrying gills from weather and such...They're definitely strange things.
Edited by Leablas (08/08/04 10:41 PM)
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GatorB
Stranger
Registered: 07/30/04
Posts: 233
Loc: Southeast Tennessee
Last seen: 17 years, 5 months
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Re: Poison Shroom Question [Re: Leablas]
#2979678 - 08/08/04 10:43 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Hey, I hear ya.
My brother and I injested what we thought were P. Caerulipes. They looked EXACTLY like the damn things, to me at least, and as it turned out, they weren't. I figured this out after getting an ID here AFTER we ate the things.
I spent the next few weeks living my life in fear. I just knew I'd soon feel the pains of my liver/kidney decaying.
Of course, nothing happened. But it taught me a great deal about respecting mushrooms. I will never injest another mushroom that I am not completely certain of the identity, without getting the OK here.
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Leablas
Newbie
Registered: 08/07/04
Posts: 28
Loc: Florida, USA
Last seen: 18 years, 6 months
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Re: Poison Shroom Question [Re: GatorB]
#2979715 - 08/08/04 10:52 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Jeeze, I would probaly end up ironically dieing of heart attack if I found out I ate something that was going to decompose my internal organs *shiver*.
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shroomydan
exshroomerite
Registered: 07/04/04
Posts: 4,126
Loc: In the woods
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Re: Poison Shroom Question [Re: Leablas]
#2979740 - 08/08/04 10:59 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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The good stuff is present in almost every if not every cell in the mushroom. Cooking destroys the active alkaloids so must people who eat active mushrooms do not cook them. Other mushroom toxins can survive being cooked and still poison you. Still others have toxins which change into different toxins when the mushrooms are cooked. As for spores, your going to eat some, but who cares? Either they will be killed by your stomach or will end up in the toilet alive; they are doomed either way, and there's no harm to you. Yes, mushrooms are fruits. Yes in agaric mushrooms the caps protect the gills from rain. And yes, they are are str ange and beatiful creatures.
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