Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Thanks for that article. It's great she is helping to educate people. However, there is concern with one of the quotes and I'm not sure the reporter got it right.
From the article: ". . . Fox has developed a presentation about how to recognize and avoid California's only Lyme carrier, the Western blacklegged tick . . . ." (end quote)
It would seem to me that the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus)is NOT the ONLY tick that can or does carry lyme or other infections.
There are 49 species of ticks in California, most of which never come in contact with people because they live in the nests of birds, bats, or wild mammals.
Ticks are divided into 2 groups "hard ticks" (Ixodid ticks) and "soft ticks" (Argasids).
Soft ticks are not familiar to most people in the Bay Area. Most are parasites of birds and live in their nests. A few species live in the burrows of squirrels or rabbits. . . .
. . . There are 28 species of hard ticks in California.
Twenty-one of these have either been recorded in San Mateo County or could occur here. Of these 21 species, only three are likely to be encountered by people or their pets.
The remaining 18 species feed on specific groups of animals (ie. birds, bats, rodents, rabbits, etc.) and are closely associated with the nests, burrows or bedding areas of these animals.
These ticks are almost never encountered by humans and can only be found by examining wild animals or their nests. . . . (end excerpts)
===============================
What it seems the authors above fail to consider is that birds leave their nests and fly about. Other critters also leave their nests and scurry about.
When doing so, ticks that might be attached for a while can then become loose and be left behind to encounter hikers, hitch a ride on other animals, etc.
' just sayin'. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic