University of Cincinnati biologists discover the parasite’s metabolism speeds up after months of fasting so it can pursue a meal.
https://www.agdaily.com/lifestyle/hungrier-tick-harder-works-find/
From Seabird McKeon:
Hi Naturalists! If you are participating in the #citynaturechallenge2018, we would love a field report to include in the naturalist podcast (naturalistpodcast.com). We have set up a voicemail box so you can leave a message of your adventures (under 1 minute please!). The voicemail number is (407) 965-5789. There is no dedicated message, so please leave a name, rough location (park, etc) and city team as basic info. After that, we’d love to hear about the local biodiversity that you saw/heard/experienced. If anyone wants to sent photos or video, please address those to naturalistpodcast@gmail.com.
Last Friday, the news came: Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks had indeed overwintered and were found on the property once again in mid-April. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (NJDFW) announced that ticks collected from the property this month were confirmed to be Haemaphysalis longicornis by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory.
https://entomologytoday.org/2018/04/24/invasive-tick-persists-new-jersey/
University of New Hampshire scientists on Monday announced they have discovered a previously undiagnosed parasite transmitted by ticks as well as a virus in the medium-sized cat known for its long ears. The virus is similar to the Epstein-Barr virus that causes mononucleosis in humans and is related to a virus that infects domestic cats.
Ticks have long been problematic vectors of various diseases that affect humans and animals. Controlling their growth and spread has also been a challenge to public health officials. A new study shows that understanding the effect of geographical terrain on tick populations may help in controlling them.
From @kestrel
Hi everyone,
It's back! The City Nature Challenge is on again, this year from April 27-30. It started off in 2016 as San Francisco vs. Los Angeles, last year it was between 16 cities in the US, and this year there are over 50 cities around the world competing! You can see who's participating this year & read more about the challenge at the City Nature Challenge website.
The timeline for the City Nature Challenge is:
April 27-30: Making observations. The project won't accept any observations made before 12:00am on April 27 or made after 11:59pm on April 30.
May 1-3: Getting everything uploaded and identified! As long as the observations were made in the April 27-30 time frame, you can still upload them afterward. Also, the more observations we get identified to species, the higher our species count will be!
May 4: Results announced!
The "big 3" stats that we look at for the City Nature Challenge are (1) number of observations, (2) number of species, and (3) number of people who participated. This year we'll also be putting more emphasis on those numbers with verifiable (not captive/cultivated, and has media) observations.
http://citynaturechallenge.org
http://www.sdnhm.org/calendar/the-2018-city-nature-challenge/
You’d be forgiven if you thought we already had enough ticks to worry about here in North America. The blacklegged tick, the lone star tick, the dog tick, the Rocky Mountain wood tick, et cetera, et cetera.
Unfortunately, these masterful ancient parasites and the whims of global trade and travel have little sympathy for our concerns. Case in point: The discovery last year of an infestation of the tick species Haemaphysalis longicornis on a rural property in western New Jersey, USA.
https://entomologytoday.org/2018/02/21/native-asia-found-new-jersey-curious-case-invasive-tick/
The bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the United States, are transmitted to humans primarily by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick), which is abundant in the eastern United States. Often presumed guilty by association is the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), a southern tick species that has spread northward in recent decades. However, a new review of three decades’ worth of research concludes the latter should be exonerated: While lone star ticks are guilty of transmitting bacteria that cause several human illnesses, the scientific evidence says Lyme disease is not one of them.
https://entomologytoday.org/2018/01/31/lone-star-ticks-not-guilty-spread-lyme-disease/
Machtinger: The mission of my lab is to investigate the ecological relationships between vertebrates and their ectoparasites, to facilitate the development of control methods and integrated pest management strategies. This involves working directly with both the invertebrate pests and vertebrate hosts.
https://entomologytoday.org/2018/01/17/why-one-entomologist-had-to-become-a-coordination-gladiator/
For Swei, California’s lower prevalence of Lyme is an opportunity to probe how the bacteria that causes the disease spreads differently on the West Coast. One leading explanation has to do with the different hosts that Lyme-carrying ticks prefer. In the Northeast, young ticks like to feed on the blood of small mammals like mice and chipmunks. In California, however, they have another favorite: western fence lizards. These lizards have unique blood that actually kills off the Lyme bacteria present in ticks, essentially un-infecting them.
http://news.sfsu.edu/news-story/biologists-sf-state-dig-ticks-and-lyme-disease
