Expert: Roger Lederer - 8/12/2007

Question
I innocently picked up and later placed in a plastic bag a well-formed bird's
nest.  Thought it remarkable.  This was on Friday.  On Tuesday, I woke with
painless but rather ugly (like cigarette burns) cluster of 3 lesions (and one
satellite one) on my arm which was perfectly normal hours before.  No
itching, or other symptoms.  I was treated with antibiotics but the amount of
damage in so short a time seems odd.  I myself am a retired ER MD and have
spoken with several dermatologists about it.  The lesions seem to be healing,
but no one seems to know what the cause might be.  

One mentioned that the nest might have had mites or some other insects in it
(the bag remains sealed with no evidence of life) that might have bitten me
and then lead to a infection of sorts.

Any ideas about something in a nest (that looks devoid of any insect action in
the plastic bag) that might cause a skin lesion.

Thanks, Elizabeth

Answer
Birds' nests can become infected with mites or lice, but they are species-specific. That is, these parasites only infect certain species of birds and are not known to bite humans. However, some birds' nests can become infested with spiders, other mites, fleas, ticks, non-bird lice, etc. from the food and feces left by the parents or babies. Some birds' nests are very clean, some very dirty. But whatever got to you is probably not directly related to birds or the nest. The other possibilty is that the composition of the nest might have had some toxic plant material in it that caused an allergic reaction. These are just suppositions as I really don't know; first time I have heard of this.