Bacteria

[uk23]

Thought I knew about this but say you have 2 examples, there is some bacteria, some is left on food, some is left on a surface - like a desk.

What is the difference? I always thought they were the same but the more I read (i know...) the more i get confused. Is it because bacteria are less likely to be able to grow on a dry surface like a desk?

How about in the summer when flies land on pub tables and stuff, why dont more people care about this?

edit: I always asumed that a fly has bacteria over its body, but is the reason its bad for food is becuase they eat it, and in order to do that they have to regurgitate it first onto the food?

[Thyme]

Hi

Not sure what your question is. There are millions and millions of different types of bacteria, most of them are harmless to us, in fact quite a large number are essential for our health.

Like all living things bacteria require water to live therefore a dry desk is not a nice place for them...bit like us in a desert.

Flies do regurgitate onto the food they are standing on as this is the way they digest food. The real problem comes from the fact that they will fly around and land on a pile of doggy doos, checking it out and then when they are finished there they will fly around a bit more and in through the open window of your kitchen and try out the lovely cupcakes you just made....contaminating the cupcakes with doggy doo...lovely!!! Flies don't do much at this time of year 'cos it is too cold...they are mostly still asleep.

Hope that helps.

[countrygirl]

It is very tempting for us with health anxiety to become compeltely obsessed with bacteria ( germs) and end up with really bad OCD. I could not eat a sandwich without cleaning my hands no mater how much someone paid me:) BUT we have to remember that every day we ingest huge numbers of bacteria and they do no harm.
Here is a freaky story - my neighbour was a farmer and I saw this with my own eyes- his hands were covered with cow muck and he had been lambing so had unidentifiable blood and sheep bits on his hands as well and he was sticking them into a bag of cheesy wotsits and eating them. He laughed like a drain at the expression on my face of completel horror but he was fine - he was constantly surrounded by nasty germs in his everyday life and become immune. i am not suggesting any of us try this as we would all be very ill but it just shows how you can become immune to germs ( bacteria) and the worst thing you can do is try and avoid them as you just make yourself more sensitive to them.

[uk23]

Thanks for the replies, the problem is I already have the OCD about that! Thats what changed everything really, Depression -> Bipolar -> OCD -> GAD -> Mixed PD (still no idea what that is tbh).