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Landlubber77 t1_je7w2xt wrote

As long as it's not Lupus. Which it never is.

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GimmeTacos2 t1_je7y1x4 wrote

And every case in America needs to be reported to the CDC because it's a potential biological weapon

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8i66ie5ma115 t1_je7zd69 wrote

There’s a book called Biohazard by Ken Alibek who used to head the Russian bio weapons program.

He tells a story of them transporting a giant 55 gallon drum of weaponized tularemia that they knocked over.

> Nazil was waiting for me inside Zone Two. As we walked together down the corridors, he told me what had happened. The air pressure in the pipeline feeding one of the tularemia rooms had begun to drop precipitously. A technician had been working there an hour or so before, but she had gone home. She may have forgotten to reset the valves. Nazil was anxious to get back to work before his shift ended. It was 11:00 P.M. He brought me to the room where the drop in pressure had been reported and hesitated at the door. "Don't worry," I said. "Go back to your lab. I'm sure I can han- dle this." Mollified, he set off down the corridor. I opened the door and took a few steps inside. It was pitch black. I reached back, groping in the darkness for the light switch. When I finally hit the switch and looked down, I found I was standing in a puddle of liquid tu- laremia. It was milky brown--the highest possible concentration. The puddle at my feet was only a few centimeters deep, but there was enough tularemia on the floor to infect the entire population of the Soviet Union. I called for Nazil, frozen in place, and heard him rustling toward me down the hall. I was only two feet or so from the doorway, but I was trapped. If I tried to back out I would bring the disease with me into the cor- ridor-and, potentially, into the rest of the zone. Keeping my voice as calm as possible, I told Nazil to bring dis- infectant quickly--anything he could find. I reached my gloved hand behind me and grabbed the bottle of hydrogen peroxide he handed through the partly open door. I poured the solution over my boots. He handed me more bot- tles as I moved backward, tiny step by tiny step, pouring all the time. By the time I was out of the room, three military scientists working in other parts of the zone had rushed to the scene, alerted by the commotion. The change in air pressure must have caused the culture to escape through the filter system. I closed the door and told them to disinfect everything I had touched, as well as the room itself. I went back through the sanitary passageway, eased off my boots and protective suit, took a disinfecting shower, and submit- ted myself to a quick checkup by the nurse. She assured me that I was fine. Silently, I congratulated myself on my good fortune. I tried to imagine what might have happened if I had lost my footing on the slippery floor. Although tularemia isn't usually deadly, we were working with a far more virulent strain than any I would ever have been exposed to in nature. When we regrouped in Zone One, I advised Nazil and the others to take the antibiotics we had on hand for emergencies. I went to my office and called Savva Yermoshin, chief of the KGB detachment at Omutninsk. Savva would later work with me at Biopreparat headquarters in Moscow. I had obviously pulled him from a deep slumber. "Savva, I'm sorry to wake you," I said. "I just wanted to let you know a small amount of tularemia was released inside Building 107 tonight." I didn't expect him to do anything, but regulations required us to inform the KGB about the slightest break in routine. "Anybody hurt?" he said in a voice fogged with sleep. "No, it's all under control," I continued cheerfully. "We've got it cleaned up. There's nothing for you to do." I looked at my watch after hanging up. It was almost 2 A.M.. It was pointless to call Moscow at that hour. I decided to wait until morning and went home, tired and relieved. "What was the emergency?" Lena asked me sleepily as I padded around in the dark of our bedroom. "Nothing important," I told her. "Go back to sleep."

The full book is located here free for download.

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woodkm t1_je809mg wrote

Interesting! And is "by" in brackets, because it was kinda the mower but also kinda the person? I have a pasture, and know a lot of people who do. It's hard to see things out there. Especially when Bush hogging.

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Matisaro t1_je80lhb wrote

Remember folks. Unsafe cunnolingus can get you an std so can messing with unsafe Oryctolagus cuniculus.

−8

Electric_Evil t1_je80uhu wrote

As if i didn't have enough to worry about, now there's the chance of contacting a horrible disease after accidently slaughtering bunnies while mowing the grass. So thanks for that.

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henryjonesjr83 t1_je82si3 wrote

Ok this is nuts because I live on acreage and mow with a heavy zero turn.

Rabbits make nests in the damn grass where you cannot see them until you come back around.

I desperately try to check everywhere for bunny nests, but every damn spring I commit rabbit genocide. It's awful.

And now on top of feeling guilty, their bunny corpses can take their revenge on me.

Edit: where I live, if you don't mow regularly, the neighborhood will take action against you for lowering property values.

In the city where I used to live, if you don't mow, the city will come mow your yard for you and stick you with a big bill for it.

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keetojm t1_je86wuc wrote

Damn glad I never ran over a rabbit. Dead or alive.

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krisalyssa OP t1_je87slh wrote

Replying to woodkm (#2,469,812)

The actual phrasing in the Wikipedia article is “in a lawnmower” which, while technically correct, sounds a little stilted to me.

The oddest part for me is that apparently it’s happened more than once. I mean, sure, a brush hog doesn’t discriminate, but here in the burbs rabbits run from push mowers. I’d expect a tractor with a brush hog makes a lot more noise. Though I suppose it’s also faster.

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woodkm t1_je88ipm wrote

Replying to krisalyssa (#2,471,553)

Yea that is surprising to me, the disease part. Never even heard of it.

Bush hogs are definitely a lot louder. They also cover more area, faster. They'll scare away animals usually. But unfortunately what happens usually is if babies are nested down in thick brush. They won't always run. Snakes, rabbits, and I've even heard someone hitting a Fawn.

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fhost344 t1_je88peu wrote

Replying to Romarium (#2,468,970)

The classic parasite-host life cycle: Tick -> Bites Tuleremia Infected Human -> Infected Tick Drops Off, Molts -> Bites Rabbit -> Rabbit Developes Tuleremia -> Tuleremia Changes Rabbit's Behavior -> Rabbit Lays in Front of Power Mower -> Rabbit Atomised and Inhaled By Human

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kurrpy t1_je88upu wrote

I, too, listen to the Meat Eater podcast

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dissident46 t1_je89jzs wrote

...Are they trying to claim that DEATH BY LAWNMOWER has become part of a disease's life cycle, now?!?

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tealjag t1_je8a0d6 wrote

FUCKKKKKKK. I thought i was out of the woods. Shit

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bekahed979 t1_je8ap90 wrote

Replying to Asha_Brea (#2,471,675)

I was thinking of the episode where the woman was sleeping a lot and worked at a fancy pants restaurant as the meat cutter. As I think on it it wasn't tularemia in that episode either, she had a sleeping sickness because slept with her husband's best friend, IIRC

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memetunis t1_je8aq57 wrote

Replying to suspended247 (#2,470,631)

I had a cairn terrier that had no mercy for baby bunnies, I know they are all technically babies but they were always so small. Also mice, moles and frogs. Great gift to leave at the back door.

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krisalyssa OP t1_je8e2ze wrote

Replying to kurrpy (#2,471,763)

I don’t. We were watching an episode of Alone, where one of the contestants caught a porcupine but discovered upon cleaning it that it was infected with tularemia. I was curious if the meat would be safe if properly cooked, so I looked it up.

And that, kids, is how I met the phrase “the only place in the world where documented cases of tularemia resulted from lawn mowing”.

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FrankenWaifu t1_je8e8pr wrote

This is like an ultra specific case that could only happen in a show like House MD

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krisalyssa OP t1_je8f189 wrote

Replying to FrankenWaifu (#2,472,982)

If I had a nickel for every time someone has gotten tularemia from aerosolized rabbit, I’d have a small number of nickels, which isn’t much but it’s weird that it’s happened more than once.

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Kangermu t1_je8fsbd wrote

I have a pit mix that is outside all the time and still managed to hit a rabbit nest year.. I feel bad hitting frogs/toads and rid shit always traumatizes me. Glad it hasn't killed me yet though I guess

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krisalyssa OP t1_je8j4lz wrote

Replying to TheEnforcer246 (#2,473,760)

At least twice, I’d guess, since there’s “initial encounter” and “subsequent encounter”.

Probably not very often, though, because there isn’t a code for “somebody tell this person to stay away from turtles”.

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idlebyte t1_je8jtcj wrote

It's one of the diseases that can be weaponized.

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areolegrande t1_je8k1wh wrote

Replying to 8i66ie5ma115 (#2,469,606)

>Although tularemia isn't usually deadly, we were working with a far more virulent strain than any I would ever have been exposed to in nature.

I can't express how enraged reading shit like this makes me, ugh... 🤦

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Herp2theDerp t1_je8lnxc wrote

This thread has somehow given me invaluable info. Thank you so much. I think I was in a Tularemia epidemic in postwar Kosovo as child.

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Asha_Brea t1_je8rvfe wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,475,811)

https://www.healthline.com/health/sleeping-sickness-symptoms

"Most people get African sleeping sickness after being bitten by an infected tsetse fly. In rare cases, the condition has been transmitted from mother to child, through sexual contact, or in a laboratory setting."

​

Don't forget that House treats the rarest of the rarest cases by design, and even then, the cases behave in an unusual manner.

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jawshoeaw t1_je8tymh wrote

True story had a patient get Tularemia from this exact scenario on a riding lawnmower . Infectious Disease specialist was so excited .

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Scooter122 t1_je8wifo wrote

My Dad got it in 1997 on a fishing trip when a horse fly bit him that had been feeding on a rabbit. The disease, or the the treatment, ruined his inner ear and balance. He’s still all fucked up.

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ArghNooo t1_je8ye6r wrote

Great. Now there's ANOTHER animal I can't render aerosol and spray in my face.

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sam_hammich t1_je908wx wrote

Replying to Girly_Shrieks (#2,477,088)

In several areas it's illegal (or otherwise against civil code or other applicable bylaws) to not mow your lawn, you know. There are any number of reasons a person, with acreage or not, would need to mow their lawn.

You should really lose the sanctimonious tone.

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Maxwe4 t1_je94u8a wrote

Would you avoid getting the disease if you say used a wood chipper to grind up your rabbits instead?

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leonieihavenoidea t1_je95apo wrote

I got that shit two years ago. It took four doctors to diagnose it and, but all of them pumped me full of antibiotics so much, that i now have a penicillin sensitivity.

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Gelnika1987 t1_je979uz wrote

it's not the only means obviously lol it just needs to be sufficiently aerosolized

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climbhigher420 t1_je98f12 wrote

Sounds terrible, keep your grass around 2” in Spring and walk around before mowing.

Obviously won’t work for large fields with tall growth, in which case you could use a scythe instead of mower, or wear a respirator if you might be mowing animals.

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tiredsleepyexhausted t1_je98u1u wrote

Replying to Girly_Shrieks (#2,477,088)

Fucking people and their plots of mutilated nature. Don't know how anyone enjoys having a lawn. I fucking hate it. I hate it when my boyfriend mows, I hate having a mowed lawn, I hate having short, ugly, mostly dead grass simply because of where we fucking live

I would agree with you 100% but this person is likely just following the law in their area and might not be able to afford to move anywhere else, like us.

Don't blame one individual for following the rules that a fucked up society has put in place. They aren't necessarily choosing to do anything.

−2

tiredsleepyexhausted t1_je99ak4 wrote

Replying to krisalyssa (#2,471,553)

Suddenly leaving a lawn that you've been napping or chomping grass in is one thing.

Suddenly leaving your home where you've dug your burrow and made your nest and had all of your babies isn't as quick or easy to do. They also likely expect their dens to keep them safe even when things go over them, but then once it gets over them the sound is so jarring...they try to escape at the last, most unfortunate moment 😞

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h08817 t1_je9fodr wrote

Replying to Romarium (#2,468,970)

It's due to its extreme infectivity, 1 bacterium is enough. Usually takes millions to get sick. Happened at Martha's vineyard from lawnmowers running over rabbits.

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GoGaslightYerself t1_je9fsq5 wrote

Replying to 8i66ie5ma115 (#2,469,606)

> There’s a book called Biohazard by Ken Alibek

I read about him in a New Yorker article by Richard Preston entitled "The Bioweaponeers" where Alibek described leading the Russian germ-warfare lab Biopreparat (with 32,000 scientists and staff), trying to create "chimera" viruses combining the traits of anthrax, smallpox, ebola, etc. "Ebolapox" (one of the viruses Alibek believed they were working on) sounds devastating. Pretty chilling stuff and worthwhile reading.

Excerpt from that (1998) article:

> More recently, Alibek claims, the Vector researchers may have created a recombinant Ebola-smallpox chimera. One could call it Ebolapox. Ebola virus uses the molecule RNA for its genetic code, whereas smallpox uses DNA. Alibek believes that the Russian researchers made a DNA copy of the disease-causing parts of Ebola, then grafted them into smallpox. Alibek said he thinks that the Ebolapox virus is stable -- that is, that it will replicate successfully in a test tube or in animals -- which means that, once created, Ebolapox will live forever in a laboratory, and will not uncreate itself. Thus a new form of life may have been brought into the world.

> "The Ebolapox could produce the form of smallpox called blackpox," Alibek says. Blackpox, sometimes known as hemorrhagic smallpox, is the most severe type of smallpox disease. In a blackpox infection, the skin does not develop blisters. Instead, the skin becomes dark all over. Blood vessels leak, resulting in severe internal hemorrhaging. Blackpox is invariably fatal. "As a weapon, the Ebolapox would give the hemorrhages and high mortality rate of Ebola virus, which would give you a blackpox, plus the very high contagiousness of smallpox," Alibek said.

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p777s t1_je9igvy wrote

Was this even on the television show, “House?” It seems like prime fodder for that show. It would seemingly take some time to diagnose and get a really good pre-illness activity timeline.

1

cjbman t1_je9jpfp wrote

Replying to climbhigher420 (#2,478,757)

This. Even if you have a big yard it's worth it trust me.

My father in law always told me a story about when he was young and went outside while his older brother was mowing the lawn. The lawnmower hit a rock and flew and hit my father in law in the face and knocked his eye out of his eye socket.

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RusselShakelford t1_je9ky7r wrote

So ... If I change my ways, and stop inhaling rabbits ground up from my lawnmower, and go back to hand grinding my rabbits for inhaling, then I should be alright? What a fucking pain in my petunia, I absolutely hate hand grinding my rabbits before I inhale them, it's really seems like an unnecessary and tedious step in this day and age of convenience and technology. That's why I bought a lawnmower in the first damn place!!! To grind rabbits to inhale, if I wanted to trim a lawn I wouldn't live in the desert! Hmmmm, maybe I can hire a guy in the morning outside of Home Depot to grind my rabbits for me, it's only a couple of hours work but I bet someone will do it. I hope I dont have tularemia. I think I might have tularemia. Does as anyone want to buy a lawnmower, cheap?

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mad0666 t1_je9mpl1 wrote

I ran over a next of baby bunnies when I was a teenager. Had headphones on and just kind of “felt” all the bones and matter disintegrate through the mower. Screamed and cried hysterically for at least a full hour, made my boyfriend leave band practice to console me. I was a wreck. Then my dad came to me holding one remaining live bunny, the top of his scalp and ears cut clean off. He was frozen in terror for the first two days I had him, but I bottle fed him and raised him and set him free in the yard. We saw him around the house for a good two years after that. Named him Toro after the mower that killed all of his siblings. It was really sad to see the mother rabbit out there inspecting the carnage that evening. Thanks for reading.

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Smogz_ t1_je9n0is wrote

Replying to EverydayVelociraptor (#2,470,185)

Rocket fuel is nasty stuff. My dad worked with rocket engines at Edwards in the 60s and worked on the Apollo 11 lunar module descent engine. His supervisor at Edwards said to avoid getting it on him and that when he gets older he’ll get constant itching. He has the itchies. His buddy that got more on him has it really bad.

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shliam t1_je9o42a wrote

Ohhhhh, that’s how I keep getting that…

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drunken_chinchilla t1_je9sjqb wrote

Sounds like a thinly veiled conspiracy theory funded by big environment aimed at further demonizing symbols of healthy capitalism, i.e manicured lawns, in an effort make Americans more pliable to the viles of Communism through ramped up environmental fear. The end result being that Americans are scared of bunnies killing them. Therefore, we will kill our lawnmowers, plant dandelions instead, eat avacado toast, part our hair on the side, put "live, laugh, love" signs all over our homes, and take millennial pauses.

F*ck bunnies. They've had it too good for too long.

Yeah, but I'm the crazy one. Sure.

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timtucker_com t1_je9sx6r wrote

Like many activities, it's hard to go wrong with a P100 respirator if you want to stay safe.

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OpeningTurnip8048 t1_je9uufk wrote

Replying to 8i66ie5ma115 (#2,469,606)

I got-ta start us-ing the word "mollified" in day to day con-versat-ions. And also ran-domly in-sert hyphens into words un-ness-acerily.

Edit: the fact that this was a joke apparently didnt come thru. Probably cause it wasnt a good one. Hey they all cant be gems right? So no need to tell me to read a book or anything. Unless thats your thing and it makes you happy. Then go for it i say.

0

huh_phd t1_je9v9a9 wrote

It's also incapacitating, a potential bioweapon and quite prevalent in nature.

Source: the lab next to mine works on F. tularensis

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guitarfury t1_je9vk31 wrote

I caught tularemia camping on a North Georgia lake around July 4th 2020. Peak Covid. It almost killed me and was so rare it took 6 weeks to diagnose. After I started to get better I was taken off antibiotics and then it returned in 3 days. I could barely breathe for around 8 to 9 weeks total, took over a year to fully recover. You do NOT want this.

Hospitalization for a week and my wife couldn’t visit due to Covid. While in the hospital no doctor had a clue what it was, luckily they prescribed the correct antibiotics anyways. Awful stuff.

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CesarMillan_Official t1_je9xr2m wrote

Oh no. I pulled the lawnmower out of the shed last year and did exactly that on the first pull.

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Ich_Liegen t1_je9zg52 wrote

Replying to Romarium (#2,468,970)

>Humans are most often infected by tick/deer fly bite or through handling an infected animal. Ingesting infected water, soil, or food can also cause infection. Hunters are at a higher risk for this disease because of the potential of inhaling the bacteria during the skinning process.

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TheRealGunn t1_je9zqiy wrote

Replying to sam_hammich (#2,477,358)

Aside from that, letting your yard grow rampant is bad for plenty of other reasons.

Anyone suggesting people shouldn't mow just because of rabbits must live in a concrete hell and have never actually had a yard.

If you don't keep the yard under control you'll have so many more problems. Bugs will be out of control, including ticks, meaning you can't let your kids play outside.

Rodents will run wild, and you eventually end up with mice and rats all over your house.

Guess what comes along with rodents (and bunnies for that matter). Snakes.

Not mowing a lawn is a huge safety and health hazard.

Which is exactly why mowing is required in most places.

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[deleted] t1_je9zu8p wrote

That is the most random way to contract a disease I've ever heard of.

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crispy_attic t1_jea526a wrote

Replying to GoGaslightYerself (#2,480,365)

>Blackpox, sometimes known as hemorrhagic smallpox, is the most severe type of smallpox disease. In a blackpox infection, the skin does not develop blisters. Instead, the skin becomes dark all over.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of racists suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

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GoGaslightYerself t1_jeacw16 wrote

Replying to ebolashuffle (#2,488,067)

Yep, Preston also wrote another riveting New Yorker article about what they thought was an outbreak of Ebola zaire at a research primate quarantine facility just outside Washington, D.C. in 1989.

US Army doctors had to sneak into the facility in spacesuits, under the cover of darkness (so as not to panic residents), to euthanize hundreds of Ebola-infected monkeys (without panicking the monkeys and without getting bitten), bag up their corpses in biocontainment Level 4 bags, and then hermetically seal and slag the entire building with formaldehyde gas. After it was all over, it turned out that >!the macaques had a type of Ebola that didn't harm humans...the virus was eventually named Ebola reston after the town by the same name in Virginia...but talk about major pucker factor while it was all underway...!<

Preston was often an incredibly lyrical writer IMHO. At the end of the article about the Reston events, he recounts visiting the Primate Quarantine Unit some years after the crisis was over. Here he is:

>I walked along the back wall of the former monkey house until I came to a window. Inside the building, climbing vines had rioted, and had pressed themselves against the inside of the glass. The vine was Tartarian honeysuckle, a weed that grows in waste places and abandoned ground. I couldn’t see through the leaves into the former hot zone. I walked around to the side of the building, and found another glass door, beribboned with tape. I pressed my nose against the glass and cupped my hands around my eyes, and saw a bucket smeared with a dry brown crust. It looked like monkey excrement. I guessed that it had been stirred with Clorox. A spider had strung a web between a wall and the bucket of shit, and had dropped husks of flies and yellow jackets on the floor. Ebola had risen in these rooms, flashed its colors, replicated, and subsided into the forest.

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OpeningTurnip8048 t1_jeaeoy7 wrote

Replying to W3remaid (#2,487,119)

Yes i know. It was a joke. Someone else more rudely then you brought this to my attention as well. I got it. Thanks for breaking down how books and copied text works. Very informative. Have a great day

−1

Marlfox70 t1_jealusk wrote

Bringing up traumatic memories. I killed a few baby bunnies with the lawn mower once q_q felt awful

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steemboat t1_jeaqd5o wrote

Can also be picked up by eating an infected rabbit. Yellow spots on the liver is the dead giveaway for that one.

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zenspeed t1_jear2t0 wrote

I’d make a joke about heroin, but according to Pulp Fiction, you’re not supposed to inhale that.

1

Kasspa t1_jeattp3 wrote

Replying to Neolithique (#2,475,109)

Another really fucked up read that is all true is The Hot Zone, if you haven't read that one yet I highly recommend it. It's about the Ebola virus and how completely moronic scientists and government officials essentially released Ebola out to the masses in the U.S. literally a couple miles away from Washington D.C. The only reason the U.S. didn't get completely fucked is because it was miraculously some new mutation of Ebola that wasn't as deadly (they didn't know this though at the time). There is a show too, but it's no where near as good as the book imo.

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eaglescout1984 t1_jeawpz2 wrote

I wouldn't worry about grinding one up in a lawnmower, the tick will probably bite you first.

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workaccount77234 t1_jeaxpk6 wrote

Replying to GoGaslightYerself (#2,480,365)

Well, hopefully they learned from the covid experience that once a virus is out in the world it invariably spreads to every country. There is no way to keep it contained these days, so they would end up infecting themselves and their own country too, thus making it pointless as a weapon

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cmks210 t1_jeb7sat wrote

I have come very close to running over rabbits with a lawn mower. Terrible feeling.

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MinorTransgression t1_jecy2p3 wrote

I’m not one to wear a tin foil hat, but this sounds strongly like PETA propaganda.

1

Orbeef t1_jedj095 wrote

Replying to Romarium (#2,468,970)

We used to pay a local company to mow our rather small yard, and one day, they left behind part of a rabbit, so this was actually, surprisingly, relevant to me.

We were horrified, but the dog found it first and I think it was the best day of her life (the rabbits always made her crazy). Thankfully, she didn't contract any diseases.

2