Worms in deer meat?

northgeorgiasportsman

Moderator
Staff member
Got lucky enough to put two on the ground Saturday. One doe, one buck. Pulled all the good meat off and got it soaking. When I started processing, I noticed that both backstraps off the young buck had long, thin white worms in the meat. I check the hams and they were fine, but both backstraps got tossed out.:cry: Have you guys ever seen this?
 

Luke0927

Senior Member
abdominal worms are long thin white...but couldn't imagine what was in the meat...i wouldn't eat any of it.
 

SWbowhunter

Senior Member
in the meat or on the meat? They are probably ascerid worms, round worms, that started migrating from the stomachs as the deer cooled. Could just wash them off and it would be ok.
 

ClydeWigg3

Senior Member
I don't think I could ever eat that meat after having seen that. I'd look at you with a suspect eye at every covered dish supper.
 

northgeorgiasportsman

Moderator
Staff member
in the meat or on the meat? They are probably ascerid worms, round worms, that started migrating from the stomachs as the deer cooled. Could just wash them off and it would be ok.

Definitely IN the meat. You could grab one end and pull gently and could pull quite a bit more out of the meat. Pretty unappetizing.:(

Seems like if they were in the stomach, they would exit through the guts, instead of up through the backstrap.
 

merc123

Senior Member
My Dad used to tell me to wait until the first frost to start hunting deer because of this. He wouldn't go, even if it wasn't until december, if there wasn't a good hard frost.
 

germag

Gone But Not Forgotten
in the meat or on the meat? They are probably ascerid worms, round worms, that started migrating from the stomachs as the deer cooled. Could just wash them off and it would be ok.

Not ascarids....those would be found in the gut. The worms in question here are nematodes commonly called "muscle worms" (Parelaphostrongylus spp.) they are usually found in the loin meat near the spine. They do not affect humans.
 

rip18

Senior Member
Extra protein???

germag is spot on.

Definitely not appetizing, but not harmful.
 

northgeorgiasportsman

Moderator
Staff member
Most were only 3-4 inches long and extremely thin. If you looked closely, you could see segmentation.

Harmless or not, nobody in my family is going to eat wormy meat.

Thanks for the input guys, this is informative.
 

tyler1

Senior Member
I have been hunting a long time and killed a lot of deer but have never seen this. I would not have been able to eaten it either.
 

Chris Kalinski

Senior Member
I tossed a doe over the hill years ago after seeing the same thing!
I had never seen it before and never again, and I have been on the same tract for 25 years.
Chris
 

Killdee

Senior Member
My Dad used to tell me to wait until the first frost to start hunting deer because of this. He wouldn't go, even if it wasn't until december, if there wasn't a good hard frost.

No offence to your Dad, but a frost wouldnt effect worms inside a deers warm body would it?My Dad wouldnt hunt squrrels till cold weather cause of wolves or bot worm larvae.
BTW Ive never seen this in my 30+ years either, but I wouldnt eat the meat either safe for humans or not.
 

GT-40 GUY

Gone But Not Forgotten
A lot of ocean fish like large black drum and large red fish have what we called spiggetti worms in the meat in front of the tail. Looks just like pasta. Not supposed to be harmful to humans, but I never could eat them either.

Have never seen it in deer, but will look much closer.

gt40
 

bigkga69

Senior Member
A lot of ocean fish like large black drum and large red fish have what we called spiggetti worms in the meat in front of the tail. Looks just like pasta. Not supposed to be harmful to humans, but I never could eat them either.

Have never seen it in deer, but will look much closer.

gt40

I was gonna say the same thing, big Amberjacks are usually notorious for having worms....have any of yall ever seen a fly larvae come out of a deers nasal cavity, every deer we did a necropsy on in school had these larvae in their nasal cavity, they were about the size of your thumb, similar to a wolve but not from a bot fly if I remember right
 

dawg2

AWOL ADMINISTRATOR
OOOOOOH yes they do, this darn thread affected me.:hair:. I had no idea deer had those things.

weenie:bounce:

After you cook the meat they die. Fish have worms, I guarantee everyone on here has eaten worms in flesh at some point.
 
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