> When the app matched his photos of the backyard mushrooms with an edible species, [...] it almost killed him.
Now there's an app that'd have to be designed very conscientiously.
A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
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Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#12It is fall and mushroom picking time! Here is my simple advice: The first mushrooms you should get to know in your area are the deadly ones. When you find a mushroom that looks like an edible one, temper your enthusiasm and be realistic. Mistakes are made when people really want to find an edible one. If it definitely doesn't look like a deadly one and might be the edible you identify, first try a small amount and se…
I read advice once that if you were lost in the woods and didn’t know what might be poisonous, rub it on your arm and wait. If no reaction after 15 minutes, rub it on the inside of your lips lightly. If no reaction after 15 minutes, eat a very small amount, and if no reaction within a number of hours, you’re good to go. No idea if this is accurate but it seems reasonable.
“No idea if this is accurate but it seems reasonable” has probably been the last words of a non-zero number of people.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#13> When the app matched his photos of the backyard mushrooms with an edible species, [...] it almost killed him. Now there's an app that'd have to be designed very conscientiously.
Wow. Who would take the liability of an app such as this? Regardless of how many disclaimers you'd have to agree to I could easily see a jury holding the creator of the app liable for a horrible death like that.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no wiggle room. You need to be 1000% certain of identification, if you decide to eat a mushroom. That's how I've been doing it for the last decade. I forage a lot of mushrooms, but don't consume anything I'm not sure of. Also, there are "beginner" mushrooms, that don't have any dangerous look-alikes, such as the famous "chicken of the woods" (laetiporus sulphureus). You can't really go wrong with mushroom lik…
My farmers' market has a mushroom guy that brings in things that I've never seen before. Some of them get expensive and a few I've found rather unpleasant. There is absolutely no way that I could find these things myself, so I would suggest a dealer like this if you are in an area large enough to support one. This is the dealer at my market: https://www.wildgrowthgourmetmushrooms.com/
I just wish I could find a morel, chanterelle, and porcini dealer.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#15It is fall and mushroom picking time! Here is my simple advice: The first mushrooms you should get to know in your area are the deadly ones. When you find a mushroom that looks like an edible one, temper your enthusiasm and be realistic. Mistakes are made when people really want to find an edible one. If it definitely doesn't look like a deadly one and might be the edible you identify, first try a small amount and se…
I read advice once that if you were lost in the woods and didn’t know what might be poisonous, rub it on your arm and wait. If no reaction after 15 minutes, rub it on the inside of your lips lightly. If no reaction after 15 minutes, eat a very small amount, and if no reaction within a number of hours, you’re good to go. No idea if this is accurate but it seems reasonable.
No it isn't, at least not for mushrooms. To be safe, you need to use a reliable mushroom guide and identify anything you pick down to the species. It's best to learn how to identify a few species that you like and to stick to them.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#16Why do people like eating mushrooms from the woods? How much of it is the potential risk? There are plenty of options at the grocery store.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#17Url changed from https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/ohio-foragers-are-ac... , which points to this. I've also changed the title to a representative phrase from the body of the (current) article. (Submitted title was "Fungi Foragers Freaked"; please don't post titles like that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html )
Ars link is better from the privacy persepctive as clevland.com integrates directly with accounts.google.com.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#18> When the app matched his photos of the backyard mushrooms with an edible species, [...] it almost killed him. Now there's an app that'd have to be designed very conscientiously.
Most plant ID apps have a disclaimer saying that you should never eat anything that you use the app to identify. Seek reminds you every time you open the camera.
They're mostly intended as entertainment, but some of them use the data to analyze where species are growing in realtime.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#19It is fall and mushroom picking time! Here is my simple advice: The first mushrooms you should get to know in your area are the deadly ones. When you find a mushroom that looks like an edible one, temper your enthusiasm and be realistic. Mistakes are made when people really want to find an edible one. If it definitely doesn't look like a deadly one and might be the edible you identify, first try a small amount and se…
I read advice once that if you were lost in the woods and didn’t know what might be poisonous, rub it on your arm and wait. If no reaction after 15 minutes, rub it on the inside of your lips lightly. If no reaction after 15 minutes, eat a very small amount, and if no reaction within a number of hours, you’re good to go. No idea if this is accurate but it seems reasonable.
That advice wouldn't seem to have helped for the mushroom described in the article, whose symptoms only surface 8 to 12 hours after eating it.
Re: A rash of nearly lethal mushroom poisonings in Ohio
#20It is fall and mushroom picking time! Here is my simple advice: The first mushrooms you should get to know in your area are the deadly ones. When you find a mushroom that looks like an edible one, temper your enthusiasm and be realistic. Mistakes are made when people really want to find an edible one. If it definitely doesn't look like a deadly one and might be the edible you identify, first try a small amount and se…
I read advice once that if you were lost in the woods and didn’t know what might be poisonous, rub it on your arm and wait. If no reaction after 15 minutes, rub it on the inside of your lips lightly. If no reaction after 15 minutes, eat a very small amount, and if no reaction within a number of hours, you’re good to go. No idea if this is accurate but it seems reasonable.
If you're lost in the woods, it's a bad idea to eat wild mushrooms. They're mostly water, and the small amount of calories they might provide are unlikely to be worth the risk, no matter how confident you are in identification. I'd go as far as to say that any foraging of wild food is a dangerous distraction from your more important task of escape.