Isle Royale Forums

head2north wrote:My understanding is that water only needs to come to boil and that is enough to destroy the micros in our Midwest Northern Lakes. I stop heating when bubbles begin to pop surface.

With over 200 nights in BWCA/Isle Royale/ + the last five years - No issues.
I do usually filter, but for morning coffee/oatmeal/tea etc. i just scoop and bubble.

I do not want to become a troll-like repeater of tapeworm hysteria but I think it is an important enough issue that I have this consistent need to set the record straight whenever I can.

As far as tapeworms are concerned, no symptoms is not necessarily good news. The ingested live tapeworm egg will form a cyst (or cysts) in a variety of organs (liver, lungs, brain, etc). It can take many years for symptoms to appear.

Here is some gruesome data from a doctor that specializes in it. It is focused mainly on infections from Latin America but the same thing is possible from Isle Royale.

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/03 ... the-brain/

Midwest Ed wrote:I do not want to become a troll-like repeater of tapeworm hysteria but I think it is an important enough issue that I have this consistent need to set the record straight whenever I can.

I was not attempting to invalidate your concerns about the tapeworm. I don't take worms invading my space lightly either, especially when there is potential for life threatening results. I suppose i should have mentioned I knocked on wood when I said No issues and 'Do no try this at home' as a disclaimer (Isle Royale)

The wolf is the causation of tapeworm egg distribution on the island (of course the moose is the intermediate host and required to perpetuate the cycle) The eggs are released from the adult tapeworm within the wolf intestines and released in their feces.
I am not a betting man when it comes to my life, but a human visitor would be more likely to be infected with this tapeworm by
poking wolf scat or eating a handful of thimbleberries than drinking from island water.

Be safe, boil your water for two minutes.

2nd on Sawyer gravity filter great filter had mine for 3 years now we filtered out of nasty stock pond with it even. If you did not get sick there you are not going to. Only thing if it is loaded with bugs and
nastys put a light cotton shirt over the filler hole saves your filter. The Katadyn nice but I think the filter not as good + you have to buy new filters. Where the Sawyer is back flush-able should never need another filter.

brford wrote:2nd on Sawyer gravity filter great filter had mine for 3 years now we filtered out of nasty stock pond with it even. If you did not get sick there you are not going to. Only thing if it is loaded with bugs and
nastys put a light cotton shirt over the filler hole saves your filter. The Katadyn nice but I think the filter not as good + you have to buy new filters. Where the Sawyer is back flush-able should never need another filter.

Thumbs up. I also have a Katadyn Base Camp that I used soloing. Nice, but the Sawyer setup smokes it for my money. Base camp still very nice to have but more for very primitive car camping now.

When I called, specifically to ask about my Steri-pen (my backup - I use a miniworks EX) the ranger I spoke to said he uses just the miniworks, and has for years. It has a 0.2 micron pore size, so it filters all but viruii, if those are a concern, gram some chemical treatment tabs.

FWIW, the Steri-pen has NOT been tested on tapeworm eggs, and CANNOT be trusted to destroy them.