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AudibleNod OP t1_j0ho07j wrote

It's a Better Homes & Gardens branded aromatherapy spray bottle sold mostly from Wal-Mart. It was tainted with bacteria that causes melioidosis.

The raccoon broke the bottle and walked through the liquid.

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WritingTheRongs t1_j0iih3t wrote

i..this.. what?

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LordofSandvich t1_j0j0l68 wrote

Bacteria love specific environments. Including bacteria that kill us. So if you put a bunch of weird oils in a bottle, and you’re not careful, you could accidentally ferment it into a lethal biohazard or poison.

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Koloblikin1982 t1_j0owz70 wrote

This is also why you shouldn’t use the olive oil with herbs mixed in sitting on the table 24/7. Anearobic bacteria (bacteria that don’t need oxygen to survive) absolutely thrive in that stuff.

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musical_shares t1_j0joynl wrote

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melioidosis

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Kiiaru t1_j0ka7cr wrote

Fuck. 50% fatal. That's the same as Ebola. I guess an illness doesn't get the same press when only one of them makes you puke blood violently

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ChalupaCabre t1_j0lefte wrote

Holy shit! Just clicked the link.

165,000 people a year get this thing I have definitely never heard of before… and yeah, half of them die from it. Guessing most of the other half get some life long complications from it.

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Judgementpumpkin t1_j0kg3fo wrote

Reading that reminds me why I’ve almost always lived in places where the air numbs my face (for good chunks of the year).

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angelcobra t1_j0lfkfr wrote

Holy hell. I never heard of this until just now and based on the methods of exposure I’m shocked more kids from the 70’s/80’s didn’t die from this.

This isn’t a generational piss take. I am legitimately surprised.

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BiBoFieTo t1_j0ht6a0 wrote

When animal control removed raccoons from inside my roof I asked about keeping them as pets. The guy said:

"There's a reason why raccoons aren't kept as pets. They're violent assholes that will destroy everything you love."

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GreenStrong t1_j0hufb6 wrote

What a bizarre coincidence, I had a technician form a private exterminator service say almost the exact same thing. "There's a reason why raccoons aren't kept as pets. They're violent assholes that will destroy everything you love. Everything! They'll crash your car, sleep with your wife, lie to your parents, max out credit cards in your name... Why Rocky? all I wanted to do was love you."

Did your guy say the second part too? We may have met the same pest control tech.

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thrashette t1_j0i3fcg wrote

Maybe it's part of general pest control training materials.

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Stuthebastard t1_j0i45hj wrote

That, or falling in love with raccoons is a serious workplace hazard for exterminators.

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JennJayBee t1_j0is83r wrote

Mine says he's coming to my home to bring death and destruction.

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BiBoFieTo t1_j0i8e86 wrote

If a raccoon sleeps with your wife, she must be trashy.

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DorisCrockford t1_j0io2ex wrote

I've also had an exterminator tell me that gophers will chew a cat's arm off. Just saying.

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CyberGrandma69 t1_j0ilg7g wrote

Raccoons are the monkeys of North America... meaning they're crafty assholes with burglar hands.

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Wompawompa1 t1_j0jou6l wrote

I love watching the monkeys come through our garden every few days. They usually hang out and eat from the Pecan tree. But fuck they’ve caught me off guard enough times that I know to keep windows closed, and an eye on the front door gate.

I can’t imagine having a raccoon pack roaming about.

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UncannyTarotSpread t1_j0ktw6c wrote

I have two raccoons that like to visit my yard just in case I put out peanuts for the jays.

They have shoulders broader than my pit mix’s. It’s truly impressive. And terrifying.

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alexxerth t1_j0i0f0m wrote

They're less violent if you get them neutered (or spayed i imagine, I'm not actually sure it effects females the same way) before puberty.

The problem is they are smart, they are curious, and they like to dig. So even with them being less violent, they will still destroy everything. They will dig into dry wall. They will get into all your cabinets. They view baby locks as a challenge and will get through them. There is no way to realistically secure all of your belongings in a way that isn't incredibly inconvenient for you.

If they grab something they don't recognize, they will try to wash it. It gives them better tactile feedback and they use their hands to identify things. This includes any electronics.

They are very hard to keep healthy. They are frequently overfed and it's hard to give them proper exercise.

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jigokubi t1_j0id2c4 wrote

>If they grab something they don't recognize, they will try to wash it.

I can't help but picture a raccoon trying to work the taps on a sink.

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RationalLies t1_j0kk5au wrote

There's a reason why so many languages call raccoons "wash bears".

In fact, most of the world actually has a name for raccoon that literally translates to "wash bear". English and French are more unique in that it doesn't reference that name.

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somefool t1_j0k9s74 wrote

Why use the sink when toilets are available?

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jigokubi t1_j0mrrfo wrote

Because the toilet is for the cat to drink out of.

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Blenderx06 t1_j0igznu wrote

Isn't it illegal to keep North American native species as pets to begin with?

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alexxerth t1_j0ihivg wrote

It's legal to have a pet raccoon in 14 states.

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shfiven t1_j0isdjm wrote

I don't really know why anyone would want to keep NA native species as a pets. To my knowledge there are no animals native to north America that have been domesticated, so by default you are keeping a wild animal. For example, I love my bunnies, and I think the little cottontails who live here are adorable, but they aren't the same. As a more drastic example, I also love my cat but can't imagine keeping a mountain lion as a "pet".

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hepakrese t1_j0itq9r wrote

When I was a child, one of my elementary school friend's parents had a bobcat cub as a pet. The arrangement didn't last long.

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Ok-Chart1485 t1_j0ilqlr wrote

Some states bar ownership of locally native animals, but many have more lax rules

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mokutou t1_j0je99i wrote

They also carry a nasty parasite that can make humans incredibly sick.

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73ld4 t1_j0joh0u wrote

The problem is people who want to keep wild animals as pets .

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Krewtan t1_j0in50s wrote

A friend's dad tried it once. As soon as it was nearing adulthood you could not tell it no. They have thumbs too, and they are very observant. Your pantry will get ripped to shreds, and they always seem to find their way back "home".

If you don't want to have to kill a "pet", don't adopt a racoon.

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UncannyTarotSpread t1_j0ktyta wrote

I sometimes wonder if we could breed them for domestication like we’ve done for foxes. Would they start showing brindle patterns and different ear shapes? It’s a fascinating process.

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FeliusSeptimus t1_j114dx6 wrote

I'm kind of surprised there aren't any racoon domestication breeding efforts. It seems like domesticated racoons bred for the purpose would make excellent service animals.

I suppose it would be many years before the animals reached a commercially viable state, but before then you could probably sell a lot of hats.

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queefaqueefer t1_j0iki8s wrote

one time, i stayed at a very small but adorable hotel. went out for some sight seeing, yet somehow, two raccoons broke into the room and proceeded to lock themselves in the bathroom. i came back to the room with a literal murder scene in the bathroom: there was blood everywhere and two mangled, dead raccoons strewn about the bathroom. never let two raccoons lock themselves inside a room, LOL.

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HardlyDecent t1_j0inmql wrote

One of the few (but too many) states where trash bandits can be kept as pets. They're adorable and curious and cuddly, but they are not nice critters, and they're rabies vectors (as most mammals can be).

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BloodBonesVoiceGhost t1_j0itk8m wrote

> "There's a reason why raccoons aren't kept as pets. They're violent assholes that will destroy everything you love."

And thus the pitch for Rocket Raccoon was born!!!

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squigster037 t1_j0juwh8 wrote

Also the rabies vaccine we have is formulated w/ dog blood. We haven't tested to see if it actually is effective on raccoons. So, you know, you can't be sure it doesn't have rabies.

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Hattix t1_j0i3bjs wrote

Show the doubters this when they say aromatherapy doesn't do anything.

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rains-blu t1_j0jbkf8 wrote

Essential oils and perfumes are known toxins to dogs, cats, birds etc.

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givemeabreak111 t1_j0lynm7 wrote

Breathing in anything laden with bacteria is a very bad idea .. it kind of reminds me of the people that die from Amoeba or parasites when they inhale brackish water after swimming in a filthy pond or river

.. had a friend almost die from mycoplasma after inhaling it at a water park

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diddlemeonthetobique t1_j0j4yf9 wrote

Well I hear Donnie Trump says 'Stickin a carrot up your ass' will protect you from most anything, gonna get me a carrot or two! /s

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its8up t1_j0jsmwa wrote

I dunno about the carrots, but imma post me a reply or three.

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diddlemeonthetobique t1_j0j514o wrote

Well I hear Donnie says 'Stickin a carrot up your ass' will protect you from most anything, gonna get me a carrot or two! /s

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its8up t1_j0jsn3j wrote

I dunno about the carrots, but imma post me a reply or three.

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d0rito5 t1_j0hrqkg wrote

Burkholderia pseudomallei appears to be endemic to Gulf Coast soil now, too. We are in for a fun microbial century.

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UncannyTarotSpread t1_j0hv35w wrote

Just in time for the resistance shitstorm, yay!

Oh, and WHO says we’ve run out of cholera vaccines: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/global-stockpile-cholera-vaccines-empty-or-extremely-low-who-2022-12-16/?taid=639c9bdefbe2520001632e05

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barrinmw t1_j0i1e4e wrote

Isn't it amazing, lockdowns ended over a year ago and we are now running short on things we had in abundance before. Hell, we still haven't fixed the baby formula issue yet. I suspect some other type of fuckery is going on.

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ArrowheadDZ t1_j0istio wrote

Isn’t it possible that the “fuckery” is actually just society kicking a lot of really important cans down the road for decades, and the pandemic was simply a trigger event?

From climate to infrastructure to labor policy to classism to distribution of wealth, we have a number of deep structural issues. The current “way” was never sustainable and many have been warning of that unsustainability at the top of their lungs for decades… to skeptics that largely didn’t give two shits and deliberately discredited them.

Now, the things they have been warning of are coming to fruition, and they continue to be insulted and dismissed. The things they have been warning us about for years are still being dismissed as just “fuckery” being committed by bad actors… which just continues the denials that the problems are actually systemic.

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pegothejerk t1_j0i7gg3 wrote

It’s not suspicious, it was expected and warned about for decades. The cholera outbreak is a third larger than previous outbreaks, that easily explains the issue there.

Diseases were a known growing issue thanks to the warming of the planet, the resulting displacement of various animals and thawing/changing environments, leading to new infectious crossovers, which means more hosts and more chances for mutations, which means an increase in the number of endemic and pandemic issues. When that happens and effects the human population supply chains are disrupted, which can delay regular supplies for years beyond the end of the biological issue. With something as big as Covid we lost and will lose in future endemic and pandemic events a ton of experts and critical workers, and traditional forms of funding as those responsible for that work die or become severely ill.

China’s lockdowns are just starting to be eased, their economy has finally been taking a hit this year as production reduced, which disrupts everyone as China is a global primary manufacturer. We will see disruptions from that for a long time.

A pandemic or any globally impacting event being “over” in how it affects you personally doesn’t mean it’s over for everyone else and other underlying markets that service the global marketplace. Same with the environmental damage that’s been done so far, just somehow going neutral on the damage we deal out wouldn’t fix the runaway snowball problems we’ve already started.

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Miguel-odon t1_j0irfq1 wrote

Just wait until Yellow Fever and Malaria come back to the American South.

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UncannyTarotSpread t1_j0ku5yu wrote

Oh, it’s gonna be even more fun, because we’re gonna get all the “fun” tropical illnesses that were kept out by the cold.

Dengue fever time, baybeeeee

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barrinmw t1_j0i95qp wrote

Except it isn't just this vaccine. This month alone there has been a shortage of 110 medicines. https://www.ashp.org/drug-shortages/current-shortages/drug-shortages-list?page=CurrentShortages&sort=2

A big one is Amoxicillin.

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pegothejerk t1_j0id2co wrote

Yes, because almost every industry has been affected for years now. I just explained that.

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Rowan_cathad t1_j0ipcri wrote

I really don't know what point you're trying to make lmao, that there's shortages in just about every industry because of a global pandemic impacting every single aspect of life for 2 years, with 7 MILLION dead?

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barrinmw t1_j0uhgzx wrote

Okay? And businesses can't fix their supply lines in 2 years? Or are they milking it by purposefully creating shortages to drive up prices?

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Rowan_cathad t1_j0v2hw6 wrote

You can't suddenly unkill 7 million people buddy. It hasn't been just... 2 years of waiting to fix a single supply issue. There wasn't like, one single event. The pandemic is still raging in many places, especially China, where most of the supplies come from.

Shifting decades of entrenched industry and dealing with fallouts and ripple effects across every branch of industry is something that can't be fixed overnight, especially with a recession in action.

Good news is shipping prices have finally started coming back down, but that usually takes 8 months to trickle down to stores who already have a year's worth of inventory

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UncannyTarotSpread t1_j0kubs8 wrote

There’s no “fuckery”, just shortsighted greed and the inevitable results of refusing to stockpile necessities, and then the interruption of the supply chain by the deaths of millions and the disability of millions more

There is fuckery, but this ain’t it.

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Rowan_cathad t1_j0i63hm wrote

lmao what other type of fuckery could you possibly be implying?

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petit_cochon t1_j0ijv47 wrote

Right. Like isn't climate change and manufacturers being shitty and political corruption and endless profiteering enough fuckery?

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InternationalCut2610 t1_j0izjxy wrote

We need to supplement our reliance on antibiotics with phage therapy. It's worked for decades in Russia and if we collaborated with them or at least funded more projects to build on existing research it could be a powerful tool to fight multidrug resistant bacteria.

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CatProgrammer t1_j0jftuw wrote

I don't think collaborating with Russia is high priority at the moment.

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InternationalCut2610 t1_j0jxvpm wrote

I guess I wasn't clear, collaborating academically, not politically or militarily.

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CatProgrammer t1_j0k0i20 wrote

I know, but given the current political situation and sanctions I'm not sure even an academic collaboration is on the table for most Western-aligned nations right now.

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InternationalCut2610 t1_j0k5k6j wrote

I understand that but this is just a continuation of politics stifling research. Now we have the internet and can share ideas more to a certain extent. I'm not saying we can discount the political climate entirely but it's extremely damaging to discount a technology because it was developed by an ideological(or existential) enemy. Nazi technology did take us to the moon after all, as despicable as their research practices were.

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Swineservant t1_j0jyg3m wrote

Is anything Russia says not a lie these days? Could Russian science ever be trusted?

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InternationalCut2610 t1_j0k7aiz wrote

I mean, science can be tested that's what makes it science. You don't need to source any materials from Russia to make isolate phages and create a therapy.

You just collect the bacteria you're targeting - which will in general have bacteriophages that have evolved to infect that bacteria - and isolate them.

Then culture a pure sample of the bacteria, add samples of the phages to petri dishes and look for plaques where it's killed the bacteria.

That's a very basic explanation and you need to do more testing to make sure it's safe to be used as a human therapy vs in vitro but, the science as far as the theory goes isn't fake and can be verified.

You can do it in your basement if you want, to target specific strains of bacteria that cause you acne for example. I wouldn't recommend that unless you're interested in learning about the mechanisms behind it and investing in equipment to create a safe and sterile environment.

That said - yes you can trust science from anywhere because the whole point of science is it's empirically verifiable.

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JennJayBee t1_j0hqaso wrote

This is so weird. I understand how it happened. I've just never heard of anything like this with what is essentially an air freshener.

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5zepp t1_j0iiphf wrote

Just a few years ago there was either scented candles or plug in scent that killed some people, same kind of thing. It was random deaths around the country and someone figured out it was a particular product sold, I believe, at Walmart. Actually it might have been candle-heated potpourri.

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babathejerk t1_j0ivbyp wrote

Dude. Spinach killed people due to a bacterial outbreak. Everything can kill you.

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JennJayBee t1_j0jpfe0 wrote

I remember that one, but I especially remember the romaine lettuce ones. I was robbed of more than one delicious Caesar salad during those dark days.

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RationalLies t1_j0kkd8z wrote

Well what doesn't kill you makes Popeye stronger

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babathejerk t1_j0ldtk4 wrote

I mean - I have had cholera. I'm pretty sure the fish I ate in Haiti just south of the UN camp where the outbreak started probably wouldn't do much for Popeye.

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BoozeIsFoods t1_j0lav2y wrote

I've never understood the desire of people spraying some cheap scents in their home to cover up the smells of their dirty home. If you just keep a clean home you don't need to constantly spray crap in the air so you don't notice the smell.

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SpaceTabs t1_j0lld86 wrote

"After identifying the bacteria in the aromatherapy product in 2021, the CDC advised anyone with the spray in their home to stop using it immediately and dispose of it by double bagging it in clear bags and a cardboard box and taking it to a Walmart location."

TF? I doubt that many were returned.

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todlee t1_j0jxy3d wrote

It can be years before somebody shows symptoms of melioidosis.

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TSL4me t1_j0m7u6t wrote

Everyone should also read about valley fever from the American southwest. Its a fungus that gets kicked up from moving soil, like every farmer does. My uncle died from it. Its getting exponentially worse from drought.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidioidomycosis

"It was reported in 2022 that valley fever had been increasing in California's Central Valley for years (1,000 cases in Kern county in 2014, 3,000 in 2021); experts said that cases could rise across the American west as the climate makes the landscape drier and hotter.[10]"

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enchiridonion t1_j0k87ah wrote

Seems… like an unnecessary detail?

0