Re: [ECOLOG-L] field safety manual for mammal/herp/tick project -- breath as a repellent
Jim mentions how breathing or blowing on them can cause ticks to drop off your body. I have noticed this also works similarly with wasps and hornets. If they try to share my outdoor meal, a little puff in their direction seems to repel them more definitively than arm and hand waving. Maybe they associate my bad breath (or CO2) with a potential predator. Has anybody else noticed this? I haven't tried this with mosquitoes, but it probably would have the opposite effect -- they would associate CO2 with a breathing source of blood. Warren W. Aney Tigard, Oregon -Original Message- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of James J Roper Sent: Monday, 28 June, 2010 08:24 To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] field safety manual for mammal/herp/tick project The manual is good, but there are a few small errors. Tick rainthe manual says that ticks do not fall on passersby, but indeed they do. I have been "colonized" by ticks that way in both Panama and Paraguay. In Paraguay, when the truck I was riding on went under a tick infested branch of tree (actually, the preceding truck) the ticks apparently sense the CO2 and dropped, landing on the people in the back of the truck that followed. It happened more than once and was easily verified. In Panama, I was sitting in the understory waiting while looking up with binoculars. Every now and then, I felt "dust" on my face. I pulled out my compass with mirror and discovered that the dust was ticks. As I plucked them from my face, their numbers were growing, on my face and not by climbing to my face. Finally, I noticed that they were all over my body, so I moved. In the field, I have done the simple experiment. Tick walks up arm or leg or finger. If you merely fan the tick with your hand (passing an air current), they cling, but if you breathe or blow on it, the tick often drops, presumably from "smelling" CO2. Now I have not done this experiment with ticks everywhere, but everywhere I have done it, the ticks respond the same way. Cheers, Jim Diane S. Henshel wrote on 19-Jun-10 14:24: > Thanks for a great start on a manual many will use! > >
Re: [ECOLOG-L] field safety manual for mammal/herp/tick project
The manual is good, but there are a few small errors. Tick rainthe manual says that ticks do not fall on passersby, but indeed they do. I have been "colonized" by ticks that way in both Panama and Paraguay. In Paraguay, when the truck I was riding on went under a tick infested branch of tree (actually, the preceding truck) the ticks apparently sense the CO2 and dropped, landing on the people in the back of the truck that followed. It happened more than once and was easily verified. In Panama, I was sitting in the understory waiting while looking up with binoculars. Every now and then, I felt "dust" on my face. I pulled out my compass with mirror and discovered that the dust was ticks. As I plucked them from my face, their numbers were growing, on my face and not by climbing to my face. Finally, I noticed that they were all over my body, so I moved. In the field, I have done the simple experiment. Tick walks up arm or leg or finger. If you merely fan the tick with your hand (passing an air current), they cling, but if you breathe or blow on it, the tick often drops, presumably from "smelling" CO2. Now I have not done this experiment with ticks everywhere, but everywhere I have done it, the ticks respond the same way. Cheers, Jim Diane S. Henshel wrote on 19-Jun-10 14:24: > Thanks for a great start on a manual many will use! > >
Re: [ECOLOG-L] field safety manual for mammal/herp/tick project
Thanks for a great start on a manual many will use! I haven't been through everything, but a start with tick borne diseases: 1. Lyme disease, or something very similar to lyme with only partial overlap with the 5 antigen bands of the CT Lyme test, seems to be associated with other ticks too in other parts of the country (ie away from the NE and northern eastern seaboard, where classic Lyme is found). For example, in the mid-west the Lone Star Tick is also associated with the lyme like disease. (I've had whatever this is 3x, with classic bulls-eye rashes.) 2. In the early spring (region specific timing) the nymphs are out, and the nymphs are almost invisible. They do also transmit Lyme. Therefore, the symptoms (fluey - even without the rash) and being in the right habitat should be enough to send someone to the doctor. 3. My symptomology and timing is: feeling sort of fluey within 3 - 5 days, and rask starting within a week. The rash starts as a not raised almost solid round rash that grows in diameter at first, then clears in the middle. Middle clearing takes a few days from the first signs of the start of the rash. The bullseye, with treatment at least, clears up in about a week. Without treatment I believe it can last longer, but it will still clear on its own. 4. Untreated Lyme disease can lead to meningitis and other brain involvement (including hallucinations I gather) - these effects showed up about a year or so after exposure in a friend. 5. Not everyone gets or notices the bullseye rash, which is why the fluey symptoms combined with potential exposure should be enough to see a doctor. 6. The antibody test does NOT work diagnostically in your first round of being exposed or getting the disease. It takes time for your body to develop the antibody response. (Think of AIDS - you need to check for exposure [antibody development] for a minimum of 6 months after potential exposure). In my experience, many doctors are not aware of this and think that when the antibody test comes back negative during a first infection, that means that the patient does not have Lyme. In other parts of the country (away from the NE) the antibody responses may also be off because the strains may vary from the classic CT strain from which the universally used test was developed. Thanks again for a great manual! On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 10:56 AM, Russell L. Burke < russell.l.bu...@hofstra.edu> wrote: > Some of the more faithful readers of this list serve with memories for > minutia may recall that months ago I asked around for a on-line field safety > manual, because I am part of a North American team putting students and > others in the field in a variety of places in the Midwest and east, from FL > to RI. I found no such manual, so our team has constructed one that covers > a variety of topics from heat stroke to tick bites to poison ivy. Some of > us are especially experienced with vector-borne diseases, so this area is > fairly well covered. We would appreciate comments from other experienced > field folks on what they tell their students, and we encourage other people > to make use of this resource if they like. Please note that we make no > claims that our manual is appropriate for you or your situation, and only > one of us is a medical doctor, and hence we take no legal responsibility for > your use or misuse of the information we post. > > That said, here's the link to the manual: > http://wildlifehealth.tennessee.edu/lyme_gradient/safety.htm > > Let us know what else we should add! > Let us know if this is useful for you! > > Dr. Russell Burke > Department of Biology > Hofstra University > Hempstead NY 11549 > 516.463.5521 > -- Diane Henshel Indiana University 1315 E 10th #340 Bloomington, IN 47405 812 855-4556 P 812 855-7802 F dhens...@indiana.edu
[ECOLOG-L] field safety manual for mammal/herp/tick project
Some of the more faithful readers of this list serve with memories for minutia may recall that months ago I asked around for a on-line field safety manual, because I am part of a North American team putting students and others in the field in a variety of places in the Midwest and east, from FL to RI. I found no such manual, so our team has constructed one that covers a variety of topics from heat stroke to tick bites to poison ivy. Some of us are especially experienced with vector-borne diseases, so this area is fairly well covered. We would appreciate comments from other experienced field folks on what they tell their students, and we encourage other people to make use of this resource if they like. Please note that we make no claims that our manual is appropriate for you or your situation, and only one of us is a medical doctor, and hence we take no legal responsibility for your use or misuse of the information we post. That said, here's the link to the manual: http://wildlifehealth.tennessee.edu/lyme_gradient/safety.htm Let us know what else we should add! Let us know if this is useful for you! Dr. Russell Burke Department of Biology Hofstra University Hempstead NY 11549 516.463.5521
