10 April 2025
We haven’t thought of black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) for months however their life cycle continues and probably the most harmful time for Lyme illness is right here. It’s time for Spray Your Garments Day.
The following 6-8 weeks will witness an explosion of ticks on the panorama although they’ll be too tiny to see. Every engorged feminine that sipped on deer (and our) blood final fall spent the winter within the leaf litter and has or will quickly lay an egg mass of 1,500-2,000 eggs. Then she’ll die.
What does it seem like when these eggs hatch? They’re within the vial within the high photograph, held by Anita Colyer Graham. These larvae should not but contaminated with Lyme illness as a result of they haven’t sucked blood but, however they are going to in the event that they get out!
Anita describes how they bought there.
A few months in the past, I pulled an enormous, engorged tick off LGK [Little Gray Kitty] on our entrance porch. My husband took the fats tick and caught it in a plastic vial, put the vial atop a shelf within the rest room, and forgot about it. Yesterday, whereas searching for one thing, he picked the vial up, and he handed it to me. YUCK!
— Anita Colyer Graham’s weblog, There Should Be Magic: Welcome to Tickville, U.S.A.!!!!
Right here’s a better look by way of Anita’s magnifying glass. They’re all alive regardless of the dearth of water and the restricted oxygen within the vial. Yikes!
And right here’s their mom — or a mom identical to theirs.
Lyme illness is a debilitating sickness that has taken over the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern and Higher Midwest. Since you possibly can solely catch it from an contaminated black-legged tick, the blue shade is mainly a map of contaminated ticks. Be careful PA!
Learn extra in regards to the ticks within the vial and Lyme illness in Anita Colyer Graham‘s article: Welcome to Tickville, U.S.A.!!!!
And don’t neglect to Spray Your Garments! Right here’s what to do …
