A little humorous; A little educational

Happy Monday Ixodes Outreach readers! The YouTube channel zefrank1 recently posted a video about Ixodes ticks — that is, deer ticks. You know, the ticks that carry Lyme disease. Defintely a chance to laugh while you learn about the life cycle of the Ixodes tick!

 

All credit to zefrank1 and those that provided the excellent videos of ticks through their life cycle!

Post by: M. Bergquist

Pop Quiz: can you spot five ticks?

Ticks can be very small, which can make them hard to spot and remove before they have a chance to spread diseases.  In this Tweet from the CDC, re-posted on the Entomology Today website puts the size of ticks into perspective:

The ticks shown on this muffin are not even the smallest of ticks.  These are nymphal stage ticks, the "teenager" ticks, where as when ticks first hatch as larvae they are even smaller.  Ixodes scapularis ticks (the ones primarily studied in our lab and one of the species that spreads Lyme disease) can be less than a millimeter in size.

Read more about larvae ticks and their fascinating behaviors in this article.

Tick humor

A funny Instagram post we had to share! Thanks for the laughs, Zoe!

 

Meloy, Daniel [@danielmeloy]. (2020, January 20). Only 2 calories per mint!. [Instagram]. 

Available: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7j7bOJpInY/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet