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

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From YouTube: Tickology: Tick Biteology

Description

Part 8 of the Tickology video project.

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

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Extension and in this segment we're gonna talk about tick, biteology.

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Yes, how is it we interact with these beasts now, in my seven years here.

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Working on cape cod, one of the things I've discovered is everybody hates these.

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Things with a bloody passion biting things like mosquitos, noseeums, they're,.

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More more annoying but the prospect of getting a tick bite. Nobody enjoys that.

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Doesn't matter whether you're a young kid and I work a lot with adults that.

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Just some of them unravel fast and far the prospect of a tick bite. So let's.

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Look at how this process occurs. So if we look at our friend the deer, tick they're.

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An ambush predator, okay, they're blind, then they don't move around very far so.

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They basically wait for dinner to come to them, unlike things like a lone star.

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Tick that actually look at you and then start rolling your way. So they don't.

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Have this behavior called questing, so here's an adult female deer tick on top.

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Of this piece of vegetation and she's got her front legs stretched up in the.

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Air, like she's signaling in new england, patriots, touchdown, well, she's, not she's, sampling, her environment. Her nose is actually on her.

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Front legs and they have an acute sense of smell and one of the things they can.

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Smell is carbon dioxide, so if you're walking through an area and you're.

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Breathing regularly you're changing the concentration of carbon dioxide around.

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You and they can detect that they can detect changes in temperature, like body.

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Heat and vibration, so while they can't see you, they know exactly what's going.

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Around on around them, and with all this information flowing in that tick will.

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Orient towards those stimuli and hope for you to brush up against it, because.

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At the end of those legs, they have this beautiful little claw and all you have.

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To do is basically just touch it; it will attach and start climbing and looking.

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For a place maybe to settle down and have some dinner, so let's look at tick.

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Hardware, all right: here's a tick head under a microscope. These things on.

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Either side of the ticks head, those are called pelts. That's what the tick use is.

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It tastes you and see if you taste inch chrystine enough to dine upon. If you are.

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So chosen it'll take these things here. Call chalice ray these like little.

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Scalpel blades with hooks and what that tick does is. It makes an incision hooks.

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In and pulls, and so with each repeated motion kind of like doing the.

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Breaststroke, it's driving a speak of a mouth part down deeper and deeper into.

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Your skin and let's look at that under a microscope. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.

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Hardware, not only is it fairly long with respect to body size, but it's got those.

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Nice recurve barb's like little fish hooks. So if you were ever trying to.

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Remove a tick, and you felt a lot of resistance like you, might be, ripping out.

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Your flesh, it's because you are that thing is designed to stay there for a.

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While because I'm starting to finish that tick might be feeding on you for.

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Four, if not five days and when a tick attaches to which can take, you know.

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Relatively little time, less than a minute.

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It doesn't start sucking blood immediately. The first thing: a tick does.

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It in checks, you would tick spit and tick spit, is absolutely fascinating.

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Hundreds of biologically active chemicals and one of the things in tick.

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Spit is glue that thing will actually cement itself in place. It'll secrete.

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Things like anticoagulants keep your blood from clotting vasodilators. That.

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Will increase the floor blood to the point of attachment and things too dead.

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Near nerves, because that tick wants to remain undetected because it might be.

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Feeding four, if not five days and so it'll go through cycles of sucking blood.

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And spitting and sucking blood and spitting and when it's done it'll.

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Secrete, an enzyme to solve that glue and pack itself out and may have left you.

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With a few microbial presence, so in our habits it's important to.

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Consider and do daily tick checks, and I tell people that that using your sight.

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Might not be the most efficient way to do a tick check, because those nymph.

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Stage of the tick they're the size of a poppy seed, so your fingertips are.

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Probably a lot better way to find these things so a little bump where you didn't.

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Feel one before but certainly trying is, you know your eyesight.

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And where should you look for ticks? Well, certainly, wear clothing becomes.

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Restrictive, so, behind your knees, your pelvic area under your arms around your.

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Collar line, even in between your toes those are the places you want to focus.

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On so, but if you are going to rely upon vision and you should to a certain.

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Extent, just how big and small are these different stages of the tick? Well, I tell.

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People in adult stage, tic they're the size of a sesame seeds so fairly large.

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Fairly easy to see, but again those nymph stage ticks yeah the size of a poppy.

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Seed pretty hard to find, especially at my age, seeing something that tiny, proper.

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Removal tool well: well, it's not this okay, big fat, blunt tweezers, not a very.

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Efficient tool, you might just crush that tick now, unlike myths, that if you crush.

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The tick you might mainline bacteria that cause lyme disease right into your.

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Bloodstream doesn't happen, tick plumbing doesn't work that way, but you just might.

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Give yourself a nasty skin infection. The proper tool is really pointy. Tweezers.

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And that allows you to get up and just grab that tick by the head. It's close to.

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Your skin, as you can get, and just gently pull straight up, and that thing will.

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Eventually, pop now there are some other tools out there: okay, things like these.

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Tick keys and a lot of these things have these narrow, v-shaped, groove and I've.

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Seen video of these things you know being able to remove ticks adult stage.

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Ticks this product seems to be able to work on, but I've seen demonstrations.

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Where this is not very efficient on an imp stage of the tick- and there are some.

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Limitations with this type of product, you need a tick. That's attached to a.

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Fairly flat broad surface, so if these ticks are in an area that may not be a.

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Broad flat surface, because these ticks can get in some funny places this.

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Wouldn't be a very efficient tool to use, and you see variations on this v-shaped.

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Groove in other products, some are like a tick crowbar and again, I don't think.

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That's narrow enough to even remove a nymph stage, tick.

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There's a product it came on the market a few years ago, called tikkis and it.

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Seems it's a hybrid product, so, on one end you got this v-shaped groove and.

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It's at an angle so that actually has more flexibility of where you can remove.

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These ticks on your body and it's an it's easy to pop up. You know those adult.

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Stage ticks on the other end, it's pointy tweezers, so a good two in one product. So.

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I tell people record the date um and I think that's important, because something.

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Like lyme disease, the symptoms might show up in three days a week two weeks, a.

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Month, maybe more than a month, if you record the date and now you're not.

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Feeling so good, at least you have a reference point when you start talking.

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To your primary care giver, I tell people save the tick. That is.

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Evidence and what you can do with this tick is. You can send this to the.

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Laboratory of medical zoology at umass amherst's and have it tested to see what.

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Pathogens, you were potentially exposed to and we've got a separate segment.

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Dedicated just to tick testing, so here's my contact information.

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I'm always open for business. Look forward to chatting with you on the.

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Phone or exchanging emails, and we would like to keep you know, thank cape cod.

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Healthcare for their generous financial support for this project.