Rats will use almost anything for bedding. A lil Rat biology 101, rats have no control over thier urinary tract or intestinal tract. This us due to thier physical limitations and it also helps in spreading pheromones for future generations of rats. It allows the future generations know that the area is "realitively" safe, that thier anciestors had been there. It also serves as a beacon for pregnant unwed female rats, informing the female that again the area is "realitively" free of harm (snakes, cats, owls etc). It informs the future generations of rats that the area has abundant food and water or lack thereof.
Depending on your species of rat, which largely depends on where you live. Assuming its in the continintal US, rat borne bacteria, that is carried in the urine, fecal matter or the rat itself include:
Hantavirus
Leptospirosis
Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis
Murine Typhus
Plague
Salmonellosis
Eosinophilic Meningitis
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome
· Description: A viral disease that may be contracted through direct contact with, or inhalation of, aerosolized infected rodent urine, saliva, or droppings.
· Cause: Disease caused by a virus found in the saliva, urine and droppings of some species of wild rodents, especially deer mice.
· Incubation: period 1 to 5 weeks.
· Symptoms:
Fever, severe muscle aches, fatigue. After a few days, difficulty breathing, dizziness, chills, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain.
· Diagnosis: By physician.
· Treatment: Supportive care by a physician.
· Mode of Transmission:
Contact with mouse urine, droppings and nesting materials. Also by stirring up - or aerosolizing - mouse urine and droppings when cleaning contaminated areas.
Leptospirosis
· Description: A bacterial disease that may be contracted through contact with water or ingestion of food contaminated with the urine of infected rats and mice. Also known as Weil’s disease, Canicola Fever, Hemorrhagic Jaundice, Mud Fever, Swinehard’s Disease.
· Cause: Disease caused by a bacterial spirochete, Leptospira icterohaemorhagiae.
· Incubation: period 4 to 19 days.
· Symptoms:
Fever, headache, chills, severe malaise, vomiting. Occasionally meningitis, rash, jaundice, anemia. Clinical illness can last up to three weeks.
· Diagnosis: By physician although laboratory tests difficult and not always conclusive.
· Treatment: With antibiotics.
· Mode of Transmission:
Ingestion of contaminated food or water with the urine of rats and mice. Also contact with water, soil and vegetation contaminated with the urine of infected animals.
Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis
· Description: A viral disease also known as LCM, Benign or Serous Lymphocytic Meningitis.
· Cause: Disease caused by a virus.
· Incubation: period 8 to 21 days.
· Symptoms:
Sometimes begins with flu-like symptoms, sometimes begins with inflammation the brain (encephalitis) or both the brain and the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord (meningoencephalomyelitis).
· Diagnosis: By physician isolating virus from blood or cerebrospinal fluid.
· Treatment: Supportive care (fluids and management of fever). Most cases make a full recovery.
· Mode of Transmission:
From exposure to infected House Mouse urine, feces and saliva.
Murine Typhus
· Description: A bacterial disease caused by the bites of infected fleas. Also known as Flea-borne typhus, Endemic typhus fever, Shop typhus.
· Cause: Caused by the bacterium Rickettsia typhi.
· Incubation: period 1 to 2 weeks.
· Symptoms:
Headache, chills, fever, general pain; spots/rash appear on the fifth or sixth day on upper body and ultimately spread to all of body except face, palms of hands and soles of feet.
· Diagnosis: By physician with lab tests.
· Treatment: Antibiotics and supportive care.
· Mode of Transmission:
By fleas associated with rats. Rats are the reservoir for the bacterium. Fleas bite both rats and humans. Infection in rats is not apparent.
Salmonellosis
· Description: A bacterial food poisoning that may be transmitted when rodents contaminate food by contact with their own feces or urine.
· Cause: Disease caused by a Salmonella spp. bacteria, especially Salmonella typhimurium.
· Incubation: period 6 to 72 hours.
· Symptoms:
Sudden onset of headache, acute abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, sometimes vomiting, fever. Potential for dehydration especially in children.
· Susceptibility: Children are the most susceptible to the virus.
· Diagnosis: By physician.
· Treatment: With antibiotics.
· Mode of Transmission:
By consumption of contaminated food or water or poorly cooked foods. Domestic pets and wild rodents (rats/mice) can also be carriers of this disease. Wild rodents transmit this disease by contaminating food and drink with their feces and urine
Plague
· Description: A bacterial disease caused by the bites of infected fleas. Can present itself as bubonic plague, pneumonic plague or septicemic plague.
· Cause: Disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
· Incubation: period 2 to 6 days.
· Symptoms:
Bubonic form: Swollen tender lymph nodes, especially in/near the groin area. Fever usually present.
Pneumonic form: involves above symptoms but disease has progressed and includes the lungs resulting in pneumonia. This form is highly contagious being passed from person to person through droplets of sputum when the infected individual coughs.
Septicemic Form: Plague in blood and being spread to all parts of the body.
· Diagnosis: By physician with lab tests.
· Treatment: Antibiotics and supportive care.
· Mode of Transmission:
From the bites of infected fleas. Various rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, rats, etc.) are the natural reservoir for the bacterium. Fleas of rodents bite humans when sufficient rodent hosts are no longer available.
Rat Bite Fever
· Description: A bacterial disease that can be contracted from the bite of a rat or mouse. Rat Bite Fever is also known as Streptobacillary Fever or Spirillary Fever.
· Cause: Streptobacillary fever is caused by the bacterium Streptobacillus moniliformis. Spirillary Fever caused by the bacterium Spirillum minor.
· Incubation: period 1 to 3 weeks for Spirillary Fever; 3 to 10 days, rarely longer, for Streptobacillary Fever, following a history of a rat or mouse bite, which has normally healed.
· Symptoms:
Abrupt onset of fever, chills, headache and muscle pain. Later followed by a rash which is most pronounced on the extremities. One or more large joints then become red, swollen and painful.
· Diagnosis: By physician and lab cultures using blood, lymph or joint fluid samples.
· Treatment: Antibiotics, without treatment fatality rate is 7 - 10%.
· Mode of Transmission:
Usually following a bite from an infected rat or mouse.
Also, Eosinophilic Meningitis: Eosinophilic meningitis is an infection of the brain occurring in association with an increase in the number of eosinophils, white blood cells that are associated with infection with worms that penetrate into the body. The organism most commonly causing eosinophilic meningitis is a rat lung worm called angiostrongylus cantonensis
To the original question, to smoke or not smoke. Someone suggested fire as destroying any pathogenes, as this may be true, one must still inhale, thus taking the risk of inhaling particulates that have yet to be burned. If you must take the risk, consider using a Steamer, like one for steaming rice or asparagus. Water boils and creates steam at 212 degree F. Now according to a THC Material Safety Data Sheet found here (
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/t ... heet.shtml ) THC has a boiling point of 392 F. The boiling point of THC is the point which it is released from the other alykoloids This gives a variance of 180 degrees F. Most hospital equipment is sterilized using an Autoclave or a Converter, which uses steam between 250-273 degree F. To acheve sterility a holding time of 15 minutes at 250 degree F or 3 minutes at 273 degree F. This is still far below the melting point of THC. So, if you steam your weed at 212 degree for 15-20 minutes on the stove with a steamer, or get an Autoclave at your local Hospital supply house. I think you would successfully destroy any pathogens without denegrating the THC in the bud itself. Allow the bud to dry for a week or so and it should be good as before, in terms of potency. I am not sure what the steaming process will fo for the flavor it once had.
One suggestion for future consideration would be to contain your weed in an old fashioned Mason Jar. This will hermedically seal the contents, keep it fresh and yummy. Also, I have yet to see any rats chew thru glass to get to a food/water source, or a bedding material.
I hope this helps you make an informed descion.
Much Healing
Much Peace
woof
