Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
I found these videos in another site, and had a good laugh.
Plus, it is very informative.
It helps me to recognize a male and female tick.
It made me understand that double-ticks (I found so many of double-deck ticks on some of my cats) were not ticks sucking one-another, but simply, a tiny male mating a big female.
the male uses the mouth to mate!
And I spent years thinking that ticks were cannibals...
It made me understand why some ticks drop fast while barely engorged (male), while others stay attached for very long until they can barely move (female!).
that also explains why people think they are bitten by ticks, who are wandering about, but they are not engorged but found in the bed, for example. But when they smash them, the ticks have blood. So it probably means, the tick DID bite you (as it was a male, it did not stay too long as it is looking for a female).
The videos are short and very funny too.
Cutting the grass short helps to avoid ticks not really because ticks won't have a short cut to the upper body (like reaching above your knee if the grass is tall),...
.... but more because it makes sunlight reach the soil faster, so ticks have to hide from the sun as they hate dry and hot weather.
Very instructive! I really liked them. --------------------
The Breathtaking Adventures of Ticks - Plain and Simple (Part 1)
I DID watch it and it was very informative!! We should all post this on our FB pages, for sure!
Waiting to see what Part 3 brings.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
Yeah! What was great was that it made me understand why ticks walk around without biting me.
They usually love me, but why some just walk around without biting me?
The male-female distinction in behavior is of VITAL importance for us, who live in tick land.
Finding a tick walking around with BLOOD but it is NOT engorged means that the tick BIT YOU or someone, but it's probably a male.
And if you have a lot of contact with ticks like I do, you can learn to distinguish sex just by looking at the back 'drop-like' design!
And that males do sex with their mouths, well, that was enlightening for me!
I really thought ticks were so disgusting because they suck each other to get their blood, like cannibals !!! So I thought!!!
Now the videos made me see them as more 'normal', less disgusting in a way...
I was waiting for video number 2, he just posted that recently.
Let's wait for number 3!!!
He has one video on toxoplasmosis that was also amazing: does toxo change human behaviour?
It was the BEST explanation about how statistics are used to answer that question. The guy doing these videos is smart!
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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I thought the tick could be crawling around on you even though it has NOT bitten you.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
Yep, definitively. the tick may be looking for a cozy place to bite (male or female), or deciding whether it will bite or not..
If male, it may just give a SHORT BITE, or many short bites, then stroll around looking for a female.
So it's always a good idea to smash the live tick on white tissue paper (even if it was just strolling on your arm or leg) and check for blood.
If there is any, there are chances it bit already.
That is what I will do from now on.
Males did find the female strolling on my old cat, before I gave it the homeopathic tick repellent.
I found dozens of double-ticks on it long ago, and really wondered what they were doing!
Now I use Bb nosodes as tick repellents, and this 'new' cat gets much less bitten, so I haven't found ticks in love any longer!
You do need to be infested with ticks, like my old poor cat, to find them, I suppose...
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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So I thought!!!
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