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

Creepy crawly: The Ixodes Outreach Project Lab mascots wish you a happy Halloween!

 We pulled some partially engorged female Ixodes scapularis ticks off our dog October 11th.  These gals are really active, climbing and cruising about the container.  I managed to get some close up video footage of their romps.  I thought these might be a good Halloween week feature:

 

Video by C. Fisher

New expectant mother

Our lab has captured another fully engorged female tick.  We are hoping she will lay eggs so we can get another batch of larvae from this specimen.  She was pulled off of a dog on Friday, September 25th and is still alive and kicking at this point.  Watch this video of her as she walks about her container:

 

She keeps flipping over on to her back, I assume she gets on her back when she tries to climb up the sides of her container and falls off.  Here I have a video of her lying on her back waving her legs:

 

Based on our other ticks, it takes around 2 weeks for eggs to be laid.  We will keep you posted!

Post and videos created by C. Fisher