Summertime means being outside, and being outside means watching out for ticks. The bloodsucking parasites transmit illnesses like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Jorge Ribas gets tips on how to avoid them.
Department of Entomology, University of Maryland
Professor Mike Raupp’s Tick Tips:
1. Wear light colored clothing outdoors.
2. Tuck your pants into your socks.
3. Apply tick repellent to clothing.
4. Inspect yourself after going outside.
5. Use tweezers to remove ticks.
Ticks are blood-feeding parasites that are often found in tall grass where they will wait to attach to a passing host. A tick will attach itself to its host by inserting its chelicerae (cutting mandibles) and hypostome (feeding tube) into the skin. The hypostome is covered with recurved teeth and serves as a hammer. During feeding, the tick applies an anticoagulant so blood doesn’t clot and an analgesic so the host doesn’t feel the tick feeding.
The blacklegged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) is dependent on the white-tailed deer for reproduction. Larval and nymph stages (immature ticks that cannot reproduce) of the deer tick feed on birds and small mammals. The adult female tick needs a large 3 day blood meal from the deer before she can reproduce and lay her 2000 or more eggs. Deer are the primary host for the adult deer tick and are key to the reproductive success of the tick.
A 2006 study by Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics indicated that reducing the deer population in small areas may lead to higher tick densities, resulting in more tick-borne infections in rodents leading to a high prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis and creating a tick hot-spot.
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