Stories tagged ticks
Tick, tick, tick....how to ground an airplane for six hours without involving terrorists
Things keep getting crazier in the airlline industry these days. I saw the headline of this news item thinking it was about "sounds" of ticks on an airplane. But no, it was grounded due to a different kind of tick. Click and read to learn more.
Tags : The rise of the spread of the deer ticks are back on the road. Over the pass year, 2005, a total of 918 Lymes disease cases were reported at the the Minnesota Department of Health. Deer ticks are also known as black-legged tick. They carry a bacteria that causes the Lyme disease, which is an illness that can cause debilitating arthritis, for example. The deer tick also carry a bacteria that causes human anaplasmosis, which is a serious illness that usually begins with a high fever. So when you are going outdoors remember to wear protective clothings, such as wearing long sleeve shirts and pants, tucking in your pant legs into your socks. Frequently check to see if there are any ticks clinging on to your clothing or skin. Try to stay away from woody areas and bushy places. Or use tick repelling spray.
Kemperman says,
“People who live in or near the edge of woods may be at risk of deer tick bites where their yard meets the woods. Reducing the amount of brush in their yard and forming a wood-chip boundary between their yard and the woods will help minimize their risk.”
“Anyone spending time in woods or brushy areas in Minnesota's high risk seasons (mid-May to mid-July and the fall) should wear insect repellent and perform frequent tick checks.”
Minnesota Department of Health on preventing tick borne diseases
Lyme disease’s re-emergence is partially due to human development of forested land. Much of the forest near people's homes consists of fragmented pieces of land between developed urban and suburban environments.
[Caption:]
Melissa Kemperman is a Vector-borne Disease Epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health.
Talk Bubble:
"Deer ticks often seek hosts for their blood-meals at the edge between hardwood forests and grassy areas. Host animals such as mice or deer like to forage in this edge habitat, which also provides thick vegetation that protects the deer ticks.”
Fragmented forests create an opportunity for tick hosts
Mice and chipmunks are good reservoirs of Lyme disease bacteria. They are also generalists, and can adapt to changing environments while other animals have a harder time.
Some fragmented forests have fewer small mammals that are poor reservoirs for Lyme disease bacteria. A decrease in small mammal biodiversity can create opportunities for mice and chipmunks. It can also increase the likelihood that ticks will feed on good reservoirs.
Though deer don't transmit Lyme disease bacteria to ticks, deer play an important part in the tick’s life cycle. Deer feed on edge habitat. Smaller forests have more edge and often have more deer.
Fragmented forests are usually in developed urban and suburban environments. Their proximity to people increases the chance of people coming into contact with ticks.
While fragmentation can create an opportunity for ticks and tick hosts, this does not always correspond to an increase in infection rate. Increased infection depends on the ticks, on good reservoirs (like mice and chipmunks), and on people coming into contact with ticks.
I like ticks! Image courtesy CDC.
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I've had some too-close encounters with wood ticks lately. (None were feasting, however. Thank goodness!) And not while hiking around in brushy places, either. Some of them were right out in the open.
Tick2: aka wood tick, or American dog tick. Yuck.
I wondered if this meant that Minnesota was experiencing a tick population boom? And if there was a corresponding increase in tick-borne disease?
So I asked around. David Neitzel, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health's Acute Disease Investigation and Control Division, told me:
"This is the time of year that wood ticks are really abundant in Minnesota. They can be found in a wide variety of habitats from wooded areas to grassy areas, and sometimes very open areas (i.e., lawns). Wood ticks don't transmit disease in Minnesota, but deer ticks (also called blacklegged ticks) transmit Lyme disease and a couple other diseases. Deer ticks are only found in wooded or brushy areas.
Please check out our website and click on 'diseases and conditions' then 'Lyme disease' for more information."
Science Buzz also did a feature on ticks and tick-borne disease. We want to hear your gross tick stories!
Ick. Just thinking about it makes me feel all itchy, like one is crawling on me.
aka wood tick, or American dog tick. Yuck.
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aka American dog tick. (Photo courtesy Scragz)
Please contact us if you have questions about the rights on this image.
Been bitten by a tick this summer? That sucks. Well, now is a good time to check yourself for early symptoms of Lyme Disease. A good indicator is a large, bullseye-shaped rash in the area you were bitten.
How do you get Lyme Disease?
Deer ticks are the primary vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi—the bacteria pathogen that causes Lyme Disease—which they mainly obtain from feeding on the blood of deer and white-footed deer mice, and then transfer to us when feeding on our blood.
People infected with Lyme Disease experience dizziness, joint soreness, and in severe cases, death. That can tick some people off!
Ticks are big in the world of disease.
Ticks in general are the main carriers for the majority of vector-born diseases in the world, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Ehrlichiosis, and relapsing fever. As parasites, ticks spend their lives feeding on the blood of other animals and consequently can be detrimental to the fitness of individual organisms and can help keep populations of some animals in check.
Can you think of anything that ticks are good for?
- What about from a pathogen's perspective?
- From an ecosystem perspective?
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