Barnstable County, MA Tickology Project - 2018, 20 Sep 2018

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From YouTube: Tickology: Lone Star Tick - The New Tick in Town

Description

Part 3 of the Tickology video project.

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Hi I'm larry dapsis, I'm the entomologist with cape cod, cooperative extension and in.

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This segment we're going to talk about lone star tick, the new tick in town here.

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On cape cod, it's taken up residence very happy, very different tick, and we want to.

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Share some of that information about that here is pictures of the adult.

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Female in the adult male, the adult male on the left, basically easy to identify.

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Basically, all black and we really don't care about adult male ticks because they.

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Don't suck blood all right, the adult female, very characteristic.

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White dot in the middle of her back the other way you can distinguish these guys.

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Is their behavior, unlike other ticks, that kind of just lumber along slowly.

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These guys can run they're like little racecars, pretty impressive stuff. Alright.

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This guy has been moving north for a number of years, number of ecologists,.

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Think this is a function of climate change, sure where's the earth is getting.

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Warmer we're seeing plants and animals where we never used to see them before.

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And up until about 2012, the northernmost established points of lone star tick,.

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That we were aware of we're on the islands of nausea and cuttyhunk and.

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Martha's vineyard and nantucket, but in 2012 I was called out the sandy neck.

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Beach park, the in the park staff and and cape cod mosquito control, employees.

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There racemes something very different: it didn't match up with either deer.

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Ticks or dog ticks so they called me out there and that's a six mile long.

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Peninsula and when I started sampling, I found lone star tick from one end of.

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That place to the other, they basically own, that piece of real estate, and so it.

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Suggests that they've been here for some time, it's just that we didn't really.

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Find them or look for them in fall of 2017. I was called out to the shining sea.

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Bike trail in west falmouth, we found another established population out there.

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So what I think has been happening is that migratory birds have introduced.

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This that sandy neck beach park, perfect flyway for migratory birds. So you can.

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Just imagine birds stop it on martha's vineyard, nantucket, picking.

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Up some, you know, loans to our ticks and then stopping off in sandy neck, and they.

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Drop off lay eggs and off we run and then, as its popping up in different.

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Parts of the cape. We suspect that once it's established that there are certain.

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Animals that are probably moving this thing around.

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Now, lone star tick, unlike deer, ticks they don't like small creatures like.

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Mice and voles and throughs they prefer more intermediate sized.

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Hosts so at the shining sea bike trail, I put out surveillance cameras to kind of.

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See all right, what are the types of creatures that might be moving along.

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That highway and potentially dropping off ticks and what we saw is wild.

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Turkeys, yeah, in fact, where you see that flock of turkeys, that's where we picked.

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Up a bunch of lone star tick, so they were very well established there and I.

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Would see this flock moving north on one damn morning and then a few days later,.

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They be coming south and you can imagine that lone star tick females might be.

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Falling off these laying their eggs and reestablishing the population now it's.

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Interesting to see the turkey finding, because when they were first describing.

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Or naming the lone star tick, they almost named it. The turkey tick.

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Because that's a preferred host other good host for lone star tick, yeah bunny.

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Rabbits and stuff there are a good host and can certainly move these things.

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Around coyotes sure they showed up on the picture easily think about them.

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Moving it along and a very dapper bigfoot out for a morning stroll so.

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That's why I became a scientist. You go out and look for data. You just don't.

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Know what you're gonna find all right? This thing is different in other.

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Respects it's an aggressive biter, so it can run and it will chase you these.

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Things that they see you're from 20 feet away, they're gonna come rolling at you, unlike other ticks that kind of wait around and.

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Wait for dinner dinner to bump into them, so the adult female, lone star tick like.

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Other adult female ticks she legs their eggs in a cluster and.

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That cluster might be four or five thousand eggs and when they.

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Hatch out in late summer, say august into september. You end up with these very.

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High concentrations of larvae and these things are only they're less than a.

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Millimeter long, so you can hardly hardly see them and with this great.

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Concentrated mass, if you're strolling along and you happen to bump into one.

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Generally, you meet most of the family in a few minutes and within a few minutes.

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You can have two or three hundred bites now: lone star tick, larvae, don't transmit.

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Pathogens that cause diseases, but these things will itch for a month to six.

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Weeks, even with cortisone, so while they don't transmit the pathogen to cause.

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It's lyme disease they've got their own unique set of diseases or licky osis and.

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Tularemia, which wouldn't both be quite serious and starry, a type of rash.

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Disease with flu-like symptoms pretty easy to treat now the other aspect of.

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This thing is quite interesting and, and a little scary is that we look at this.

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Carbohydrate galactose one three galactose alpha gall: this is a sugar.

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Carbohydrate, that's unique to red meats, and it is found now we're known now that.

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If a long star, tick, transmits that into your bloodstream.

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You're gonna, some people with sensitivities are gonna, build antibodies.

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To this, and you end up with an allergic reaction that can range from hives all.

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The way to anaphylactic shock, and so basically it's the red meat, allergy and.

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It's not just beef, but it's pork, lamb and even beef byproducts like beef.

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Derive gelatin and if you think about the processed foods we eat, beef derive.

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Gelatin is in a lot of different food products, including those marshmallows. We.

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Feed our kids on 4th of july now deer take habitat. We've gone through this.

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Before in another segment that you're not going to find deer ticks out in the.

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Middle and open lawn, okay, short grass direct sunlight high temperatures, that's.

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Just hostile deer ticks don't live out there, but lone star tick, habitat yeah.

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These guys, we find these out in open conditions, so.

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As we think about the spread of lone star tick, we have to start thinking.

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Forward about our yard protection strategy, instead of a perimeter yard.

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Spray for deer ticks we might have to be considering treating the entire lawn, but.

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We're not there yet so this is my contact information always open for.

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Business, I encourage people to contact me through phones or email and we'd like.

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To thank cape cod healthcare for their generous financial support for this.

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