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

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From YouTube: Tickology: Tick Identification and Ecology

Description

Part 1 of the Tickology video project.

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

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In this segment, we're going to look at the basic identification characteristics.

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For the three principal ticks that you might encounter here on cape cod or for.

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Southeastern massachusetts in general, first of all, we have the good old.

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American dog tick and for people in baby boomer generation like myself, tick.

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Identification was easy, this was the tick we grew up with there.

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Were no other ticks, they we didn't, have deer ticks or lonestar or other things.

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So this is kind of easy to identify, even though there are other species so on the.

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Far right, that's an adult male and they have dark brown coloring, and these.

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Creamy beige lines: we don't worry so much about the male adult male ticks.

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Because they basically don't feed it's these female ticks. You don't female. So.

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Again, she has this creamy bright wide spot here, and that makes it pretty easy.

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To distinguish from other ticks, this is a new player on cape cod. This is the.

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Lone star tick and the adult male on the far left. That's pretty easy. It's makes.

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Basically, all black that adult female, very characteristic that bright white.

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Spot on the middle of her back, the other way to distinguish these ticks from.

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Other ticks is that relative speed, these guys can run so one like the ticks were.

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Used to encountering the kind of slow and lumber along these guys are like.

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Little racecars and this thing has been moving northward for some time now.

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A lot of ecologists, including myself, think this is a function of climate.

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

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And up until say, 2012, the northernmost points of detected populations was.

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Really on the islands of nausia and cuttyhunk martha's vineyard, nantucket.

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But not year 2012, I was called out to sandy neck beach park. That's a six mile.

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Long peninsula, it's basically a barrier each and they were seeing some different.

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Kind of tick and they weren't sure what was going on here. So I went out and.

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Looked and I found lone star tick from one end of that place to the other, so.

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They basically own that piece of real estate, and so that's just to me that.

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It's been on that peninsula for some time we don't know how long and in fall.

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Of 2017, I was called out to west falmouth, the shining sea bike trail.

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I found another established population out there, so this thing has been found.

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Now, in different parts of the cape, it basically is quite happy here and we.

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Have a separate segment on lone star tick, then we'll talk more about the.

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Ecological reasons for for their presence now here's the deer, tick, family.

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Portrait, the proper name or more accurate name for this tick is really.

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The black legged tick and we'll get to some reasons for that in a minute on the.

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Far right, that's an adult female. So basically the head area is basically.

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Shiny black and the very characteristic bright red abdomen again, the males are.

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Very dark: almost black and again we don't worry about the adult males. Now.

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The immature stages, the nymphs and the larvae they're kind of hard to identify.

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By the naked eye, if you have a very small tick on you during the summer.

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Months, just by virtue of population size of deer ticks versus other ticks. It's.

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Likely to be a deer tick, but the best way to do is send it in for me to put it.

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Under a microscope- and I can identify it in a couple seconds now- the relative.

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Size of these ticks is something we try and give people in an analogy using.

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Bagel toppings, just how large is an adult stage: deer tick! How large is a.

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Nymph stage tick! Well, that adult stage tick they're about the size of a sesame.

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Seed so they're fairly large readily seen, but that nymph stage tick is the.

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Size of a poppy seed so something the size of a poppy seed. What eight legs a.

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Bad attitude and can plant you on your behind for a long time now why the name.

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Deer tick is a misnomer. This thing has been documented to be associated with a.

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Hundred and twenty-five different ver great host, so it's not just about deer.

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It's not just about mice. This is a very complex ecosystem. There's a lot of.

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Moving parts: the rodents are very important here: the mice, the chipmunks.

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Squirrels, the rats they're, what we call competent hosts and what we mean by.

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Competency is that these animals have the ability to harbor the lyme disease.

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Bacteria and transmit it back into the tick population, so it's kind of like.

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Microbial ping-pong birds play a role in a couple different ways. We already.

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Talked about birds, as you know, being able to move ticks around great.

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Distances, but there are some birds that are reservoir hosts this lyme disease.

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Bacteria, including songbirds like our american robin and our good old friend,.

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The wild turkey, then we've got a bunch creatures, they're, incompetent hosts, okay,.

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The deer, the raccoons, the coyotes, they cannot infect a tick okay.

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That's that's a misunderstanding. Okay, it's just bad information, but what they.

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Can do is supply blood meal and keep that tick population rolling along the.

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Winters: okay: I get calls from people all the time, including the media larry. We.

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Had a harsh winter, what did that do to the tick population, and I tell them my.

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Answer is the same as last year in the air before it did absolutely nothing and.

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Winners here in cape cod, I really all that harsh now it's a matter of.

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Perspective when I worked in the cranberry industry, I spent 24 years.

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Traveling in wisconsin we rose known by the name: asia now wisconsin has real.

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Winters 25 below zero for extended periods of time is not all that unusual.

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And wisconsin deer ticks are very healthy and wisconsin's, quite endemic.

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For lyme disease and the reason for this is very fascinating, ticks synthesize, a.

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Chemical called glycerol: well, what the heck is cholesterol. Well, these things.

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Make antifreeze okay, so ticks have adapted over millions.

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Of years they've seen it all they've lived through the ice age and the way.

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This glycerol works is it prevents ice crystal formation and cell.

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So if you have an ice crystal form in a cell, it punctures the cell wall.

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Whatever's inside the cell leaks out of the cell. That's not good.

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And they also discovered that lyme disease bacteria feeds on the glycerol.

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As a source of energy for itself, so this is one perfectly engineered little.

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Package quite fascinating from a scientific standpoint: tick, habitat yeah.

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Tall grass, especially if it's under tree canopy, so shade higher humidity, lower.

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Temperatures that is absolutely perfect to kabat at, but also, if you look around.

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Your house, okay surveillance research at connected ag.

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Experiment station demonstrated that two-thirds of the people that sent ticks.

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Into them for identification and testing got them from outdoor yard activities, so.

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Things like ticks and gardening go hand in hand and so for deer ticks you're, not.

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Gonna find them out in an open, lawn, okay, short grass direct sunlight, higher.

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Temperatures, that's just a hostile environment for ticks, but you get to a.

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Transition zone so the edge of the yard that might be in partial shade and that.

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Transitions to bushes trees, leaf litter, lower temperatures, higher humidity.

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That's where you're gonna find the ticks, but if you think about that, what do you.

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Ornamental plantings around the sides of your house- that's tick habitat as well.

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So you have to be careful of that. So here's my contact information.

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I'm always open for business. Look forward to your calls or answering your.

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Emails and we would like to thank cape cod healthcare for their generous.

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Support of this project.