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Teresa wrote: Unlike fuzzy-hair-man's experience, bats, crickets, and cavefish that I know of have been tracked between nearby caves, all by themselves. Not to mention the rest of the accidental and troglophile traffic going in and out of the cave.
To my knowledge some cave biota will not travel or spread between caves even if they are relatively close together.....
hewhocaves wrote:i suppose another question to ask is "what do you wash your cave clothes with?" i.e. what detergent? Because I'd be more worried about a detergent killing something in a cave than microbes carried across the state line.
Hazel wrote:The short answer is:
1. Yes, please wash your gear between trips - unless the trip is to the same cave. Research suggests that every cave has a unique microbial ecosystem
Cavemud wrote:Surely there's a cave biologist reading all of this? PLEASE enlighten me on cross contamination from cave gear. I gotta tell you it seems to me there would a MUCH greater chance of some sort of biological "thing" happening from our breath, hair, dead skin cells, saliva etc??? I feel the same way about seeing someone on a cave trip with shiny, clean gear as they feel about seeing me with dirty gear
ESPECIALLY where I cave! Come join us anytime...clean or dirty...when you're "done" , you'll be filthy, stinky, and completely wore out! But you'll feel real good about it all.
NZcaver wrote:Cavemud wrote:Surely there's a cave biologist reading all of this? PLEASE enlighten me on cross contamination from cave gear. I gotta tell you it seems to me there would a MUCH greater chance of some sort of biological "thing" happening from our breath, hair, dead skin cells, saliva etc??? I feel the same way about seeing someone on a cave trip with shiny, clean gear as they feel about seeing me with dirty gear
ESPECIALLY where I cave! Come join us anytime...clean or dirty...when you're "done" , you'll be filthy, stinky, and completely wore out! But you'll feel real good about it all.
FYI - a warning about decontaminating your caving gear between trips just came up in the Fungus serious threat to NE bats topic.
Cavemud wrote:NZcaver wrote:FYI - a warning about decontaminating your caving gear between trips just came up in the Fungus serious threat to NE bats topic.
Cavemud wrote:You wanna keep a cave pristine? NEVER enter it or go near it!
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