5 ms·

I've got ticks a few times a year just running in the woods (the last one was Saturday). During holidays in the Pyrenees with my family, we had to scan our bo

by wazoox 7y ago

I've got ticks a few times a year just running in the woods (the last one was Saturday). During holidays in the Pyrenees with my family, we had to scan our bodies for ticks every day, and every day we found several -- up to a dozen -- on each of us. Now the article is very light on the main question: why did ticks multiply that much recently?

bubblewrap 7y ago
Could be global warming, or at least warm winters (whether due to global warming or not).
- iamthepieman 7y ago
  it probably is global warming but of course that actually means many many interacting effects. In no particular order 1. Different weather patterns caused by El Nino(warm pacific equatorial temperatures resulting in increased precipitation) along with similar weather patterns in other areas of the world. This is especially noticeable during the winter with increased snow fall providing denser snowpack and a more protected subnivean zone for one of ticks primary hosts, white footed and field mice. Warm weather in general also helps. Ticks are not greatly affected by cold weather but their hosts are and when there are more hosts, there are more ticks. 2. Increased temperatures has a complex affect on tick habitat. While a rise in temperature can increase forest biomass and increase growth rates of transitioning forest, it decreases biomass at the forest edge which is a place where low lying scrub grows the most and provides ideal "questing"[0] habitat for ticks. So that seems like wash but it's actually more complex even that that. 3. This one is more Anthropocene than specifically climate related. Many prime tick hosts have adapted well to human crowded space including deer, mice and small mammals. Their predators such as wolves, foxes, and birds of prey have not fared as well. 4. Related to 3 above, sprawl puts people in closer proximity to habitats once favored by tick hosts so there may be a factor where ticks are not increasing so much as human/tick interaction is. [0]https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html search for questing
HarryHirsch 7y ago
why did ticks multiply that much recently? It's because of warmer winters and an exploding deer population. People need to take up hunting again to reduce the numbers of those tick motherships.
- DennisP 7y ago
  That might not help much. From the article: > If the urban rat was the primary carrier of bubonic plague, the country mouse is it for Lyme disease.
- ethagnawl 7y ago
  > People need to take up hunting again to reduce the numbers of those tick motherships. ... or, as others have said elsewhere in the thread, restore a balance to the ecosystem by reintroducing and protecting natural predators (wolves, foxes, etc.).
  - HarryHirsch 7y ago
    You'd think that putting wolves and bears into suburbia would attract even more resistance than bowhunting from tree stands. Something must be done about the deer overpopulation, they raid peoples' gardens, they prevent forest regeneration, they are a pest. Maybe we could start by withdrawing from the suburbs.
asmithmd1 7y ago
My theory is the discontinuation of large scale DDT spraying. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in the northeast of the US I would see maybe 1 tick a summer and I never saw an eagle or a hawk. Now I see plenty of both. Maybe we could resume DDT spraying for a year or two and knock the ticks back
carapace 7y ago
Well, what eats ticks? "Bird populations in steep decline in North America, study finds" > North America has more than a billion fewer birds than it did 40 years ago https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/report-finds-north-american-skies-quieter-by-15-billion-fewer-birds/article31876053/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/report-fi...

by wazoox 7y ago

bubblewrap 7y ago

Could be global warming, or at least warm winters (whether due to global warming or not).

iamthepieman 7y ago
it probably is global warming but of course that actually means many many interacting effects. In no particular order 1. Different weather patterns caused by El Nino(warm pacific equatorial temperatures resulting in increased precipitation) along with similar weather patterns in other areas of the world. This is especially noticeable during the winter with increased snow fall providing denser snowpack and a more protected subnivean zone for one of ticks primary hosts, white footed and field mice. Warm weather in general also helps. Ticks are not greatly affected by cold weather but their hosts are and when there are more hosts, there are more ticks. 2. Increased temperatures has a complex affect on tick habitat. While a rise in temperature can increase forest biomass and increase growth rates of transitioning forest, it decreases biomass at the forest edge which is a place where low lying scrub grows the most and provides ideal "questing"[0] habitat for ticks. So that seems like wash but it's actually more complex even that that. 3. This one is more Anthropocene than specifically climate related. Many prime tick hosts have adapted well to human crowded space including deer, mice and small mammals. Their predators such as wolves, foxes, and birds of prey have not fared as well. 4. Related to 3 above, sprawl puts people in closer proximity to habitats once favored by tick hosts so there may be a factor where ticks are not increasing so much as human/tick interaction is. [0]https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html search for questing

HarryHirsch 7y ago

why did ticks multiply that much recently? It's because of warmer winters and an exploding deer population. People need to take up hunting again to reduce the numbers of those tick motherships.

DennisP 7y ago
That might not help much. From the article: > If the urban rat was the primary carrier of bubonic plague, the country mouse is it for Lyme disease.
ethagnawl 7y ago
> People need to take up hunting again to reduce the numbers of those tick motherships. ... or, as others have said elsewhere in the thread, restore a balance to the ecosystem by reintroducing and protecting natural predators (wolves, foxes, etc.).
- HarryHirsch 7y ago
  You'd think that putting wolves and bears into suburbia would attract even more resistance than bowhunting from tree stands. Something must be done about the deer overpopulation, they raid peoples' gardens, they prevent forest regeneration, they are a pest. Maybe we could start by withdrawing from the suburbs.

asmithmd1 7y ago

My theory is the discontinuation of large scale DDT spraying. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in the northeast of the US I would see maybe 1 tick a summer and I never saw an eagle or a hawk. Now I see plenty of both. Maybe we could resume DDT spraying for a year or two and knock the ticks back

carapace 7y ago

Well, what eats ticks? "Bird populations in steep decline in North America, study finds" > North America has more than a billion fewer birds than it did 40 years ago https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/report-finds-north-american-skies-quieter-by-15-billion-fewer-birds/article31876053/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/report-fi...