Aussie Finch Forum

Does anybody know how long worm eggs can survive once passed in the faecal matter - droppings from wild birds.Can't find much info on the net.

There's pretty good information on this topic in this thread.

Thanks.

I believe if the floor is dry and in a sunny area they succumb very quickly but that is not the point. Insects are the carriers of worm eggs and when eaten by the bird they hatch in the bird and multiply by producing more eggs that are secreted to start the cycle again

This is my thought as well Craig52.I am tossing up as to whether have a fully roofed aviary or have open roofed sections.Contamination from wild birds is a concern,but if you feed termites and encourage other insects,then the contamination from wild birds doesn't seem to matter as much as you are possibly infecting your birds with the livefood.Not sure which way to jump with the roofing on my new aviaries as both have their good points and bad.

I may be wrong, and no doubt will be told so but I am pretty sure I read somewhere that ants can cause a problem in regards to transmission of worms.

Ken.

If you culture your own live foods they shouldn't get worms form them. Termites don't normally carry worm eggs and if they happen to pick any up, it would be rare that you feed those contaminated termites to the birds.

Wild birds are the biggest source of contamination and meat eating/ scavengers like crows and magpies, and water birds are the biggest carriers. But any bird can carry worms and if a contaminated bird poops in your cage, they can leave worm eggs in their poop.

Cats, dogs, rabbits and other mammals (including mice & rats) can all transmit worm eggs to your birds. The worm eggs end up on the animals fur and get rubbed off or blow off and float around until they land on something, like the dirt floor in your aviary. Keeping cats away from the aviary is a must for numerous reasons, but making sure other domestic pets in your backyard are dewormed regularly will help reduce the risk to the birds.

Worm eggs can last for 6 months or more in damp shady soil like that under a tree or on the floor of an aviary in winter. In hot dry weather, eggs that are not exposed to direct sunlight can last a month or so. If the worm eggs are in full sunlight on a concrete slab, they can die within a few hours if it gets hot enough, eg: 40C in the shade will be 50+ in the sun and worm eggs and other disease organisms like bacteria, viruses, etc, will die within minutes to an hour or so.

collector_and_buyer wrote: ↑22 Jun 2018, 20:27 Does anybody know how long worm eggs can survive once passed in the faecal matter

Work done in the poultry industry tells us that the eggs remain viable for anything between four and eight months.
The variation is due to the worm egg type and soil conditions. The viability of the eggs is effected by moisture, PH, temperature, and UV exposure. Apparently, treating the soil with quicklime will help to kill them.

When I went to submit this, I got the new "At least one new post has been made to this topic. You may wish to review your post in light of this ".....I went ahead as it supports Rod_L's post. When I attempted to resubmit, I lost the lot, so made do with an abbreviated version.

Walking from outside aviary to inside will convey worm eggs so I wouldn't be too concerned about fully roofing an aviary. ..

vettepilot_6 wrote: ↑23 Jun 2018, 07:40 Walking from outside aviary to inside will convey worm eggs so I wouldn't be too concerned about fully roofing an aviary. ..

This reminded me of a time when I was purchasing birds from a Sydney breeder..... he had a separate pair of slip-on shoes near the aviary door for inside use, and told me that he would never enter the aviary in his work boots.