Topic: How Long Can A Tick Hold Its Breath Underwater?
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
And which species can hold it the longest?
I have always said never flush a live tick down the toilet, especially if you have a septic tank (it could crawl out into the grass).
I knew ticks could survive under water from my kitchen table scientific experiments, but didn't know for how long. Now I do!
While reading this I was kind of laughing and asking myself WHY someone would care and do a study on this topic? Now I know that too!
(Reminder- Amblyomma americanum ticks are Lone Star Ticks. Amblyomma maculatum ticks are Gulf Coast Ticks, which are more prevelent in the south eastern USA, but their range does extend pretty far north.)
OptiMisTick
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 399
posted
When I first became acquainted with Lyme Disease (rue the day!) I saw a giant map of where most cases were - and thought they must travel by water.
Now I know they could survive the journey - and Hurricane Florence, too.
But it looks like the diseases follow the major flyways of birds.
I keep wondering why so much two-dimensional thinking in a three-dimensional world??
I am tired of the old, outdated deer-mouse-deer-mouse diagrams, round and around and around we go.
Where it all stops - nobody knows.
Enough of degraded land causing ticks to move to new places or magically appear where a bulldozer has been turning over earth.
It's a three dimensional world and enough articles have been written to justify a new diagram that includes the birds.....and the voles, rabbits, chipmunks, grey squirrels, opposoms, raccoons.
In other words, everything in my back yard.
The opposum showed up in my basement! Who knows how he got in and how he got out (I was running too fast the other way).
At any rate, my two cents. I want a new diagram, three dimensional parameters, birds prominent as in my book they are #1 at dispersing ticks, and I want lots of arrows in that diagram.
Any artists out there?
Posts: 1338 | From Above the Clouds | Registered: Nov 2000
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OptiMisTick
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 399
posted
HOW ABOUT "How long can a tick hold it's breath under Rocephin.
Answer: Long enough to remain infectious!!
Years ago folks passed along a story from a medical professional of an experiment of dropping a tick in a beaker full of Rocephin.
Not only did it not die, but it was still infectious after 30 days.
A BEAKER FULL OF ROCEPHIN!
I have no adequate punch line.....
Posts: 1338 | From Above the Clouds | Registered: Nov 2000
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
"Amblyomma americanum ticks survived the longest in freshwater (70 days),
followed by brackish water (64 d),
and the shortest survival was in sal****er (46 d),
while the longest any A. maculatum tick survived was 24 days in freshwater.
These findings demonstrate that any short-term flooding events, e.g., less than a week, would not likely eliminate these species of ticks in the flooded area."
I told hubby yesterday that I remember washing clothes and still seeing a flee on clean clothes, that looked dead.
But once the water dried, the flee was not only alive, it just jumped off and disappeared.
He laughed and said, this is impossible.
Well, if some ticks survive 70 days UNDERWATER!!!!, well, why can't a flee survive 2 hours in the washing machine?
Thanks for posting this very interesting information!!
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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