Making Homemade Slime To Detect Parasites - Part 1

Since having been diagnosed with the Horsehair Nematomorpha parasite, I have tried several times to talk to a local lab about finding, or looked into making my own petri dishes.

I figured if I could touch the dish after my hand was wet or do a water soak and condense it all down to one corner of the water and let it sit for awhile and then cut the tip and allow whatever is in the water onto the petri dish, maybe I could prove the nematode portion or whatever they would be called in the lymph morph. 

The local labs said they don't use them at all and send everything to larger labs. I remember making petri dishes in nursing school but with all the crazy last few years, it wasn't something I put my energy into. 

Last week sometime, a reader / viewer on my blog or channel suggested that when her daughter / grand-daughter would make homemade slime to play with, every time the viewer played with it, it would end up with burrow holes a few days later but not when her grand-daughter / daughter played with it.

She suggested that the slime acted as a petri dish for the parasite and suggested I look into that. 

A few days ago, I decided to make some slime and give it a try to see if it was a petri dish of sorts. 

I added equal parts of Elmers glue and Arm & Hammer liquid laundry detergent and mixed it up into a light blue slime. I played with it for about 20 minutes and then put it into a clear glass jar. I tapped it for about ten minutes to try and get any air bubbles that may be in the slime to come out as I didn't want there to be any false trails due to air bubbles. 

I left this mixture on the counter for a few days. Check back tomorrow for the results of this experiment. Even if you just want to make homemade slime for the kids, it was fun to play with, but it could be a great way to detect the parasites in a child if it works! 

Have a Blessed Day!