Does anyone use Grapefruit seed extract as a prevention for threadworms?

[TsarChasm]

We have blitzed the little buggers - God I hope so at least. My hands are raw from bleaching eveything and damp dusting everywhere with bleachy cloths.

I wondered though if grapefruit seed extract could be used as a prevention used regularly, and if so is it effective (with all the usual hygiene factors in play as well of course)?

I don't know from experience, but there is someone...am racking brain but no use....who posts regularly on MN who has posted about this on other threadworm threads (no pun intended!).

I seem to recall her saying her kids hadn't been infested since - that any suspicion of the things, and she would put a few drops of grapefruit seed extract in their juice for a few days and no problems.

Do be aware of the strength of that stuff though, I know it interracts with various medicines and makes them stronger, for one. (My uncle has been warned not to touch grapefruit or gf seed as he's on BP meds, for insteance).

I've also read on a TW website somewhere that bleach/dettol wipes/hand disinfectant stuff doens't work with TW eggs - damp dusing does, but you can use wet toilet paper or cloth just as effectively! This after I did mean things to my hands with Dettol wipes for weeks on end....

Thanks Elibean. V helpful post.

I have searched on mn and whilst I can see people have used it to get rid of them, I'd be willing to drink the stuff daily or weekly or whatever (neat from the bottle ) if it helped prevent them. I didn't know about it interacting with other meds though, so it seems I'll need to be careful.

God my hands are dried out though and everywhere is bleached to the hilt. Makes you paranoid and the worst thing I did was google about them. TMI is an understatement re our wormy friends

Any others please?

I think the paranoia is worse than the worms, myself. I thought dd had them when I was pg and I was utterly nuts as a result

Not sure she did at all, tbh, but she's had them since once that I'm sure of. These days I twitch and itch at the mere thought.

Paranoia is the word! I said I shouldn't have googled, but what I don't understand is given how easily they are apparantly spread, why we don't all have them permanently .

Thankfully this is the first time in all my years on the planet that they've been on the radar. How did we escape for so long I wonder? I ,ean I am a fuss old thing about hygiene but apparantly you can breathe them in fgs. (ugh!)