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--Apple-Mail-5--320296884 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The tick you report (Dermocentor variabilis) is spread and encouraged =20= by dog ownership, sorry to say. You should learn to recognize it: =20 males and females look quite different. It is the commonest carrier of the dreaded Rocky Mountain Spotted =20 Fever, a rickettsial infection with a discouragingly high fatality =20 rate (roughly 5 to 30% in untreated cases). The disease is rare, and =20= I don't know whether it has been reported from Nova Scotia =97 but that =20= in itself makes it more dangerous should you contract it, because the =20= local doctors may be unfamiliar with the symptoms. Many doctors have =20= never seen a case, even in areas where it is relatively abundant (such =20= as eastern Massachusetts). Dog ticks will readily bite humans, but generally they crawl around a =20= bit, prospecting (as it were) before they dig in. Therefore, a good =20 practice is to strip down completely after being out in woods or =20 grasslands, and have someone inspect you thoroughly. (This is where =20 friendship counts!) The ticks can be killed simply by dropping them =20 into a jar of water with a small amount of wetting agent (soap or =20 detergent). The tick will fall to the bottom of the jar and drown =20 after a few hours. It is not necessary to use kerosene to kill the =20 ticks (which is an old country practice, but introduces its own =20 dangers). After handling ticks, wash your hands well, for the rickettsia can be =20= transmitted by contact, particularly contact with mangled ticks. The treatment for Rock Mountain Spotted Fever is very simple, cheap, =20 and effective. The problem is getting the physician to recognize the =20= symptoms in time. There should be no delay. There is a good Wikipedia article here: = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_spotted_fever The only inaccuracy in the article is its implication that treatment =20 had to await the discovery of some antibiotics in the 1940s. =20 Actually, the antibiotics were available long before anyone tried them =20= on the disease. The treatment discovery was made by a country doctor =20= who found a case, and not seeing any remedy listed in his reference =20 books, tried tetracycline as a shot-in-the-dark. It worked. No one =20 had realized that earlier, because rickettsial organisms could not be =20= cultured in the lab. =97 Paul On May 28, 2008, at 4:30 PM, David & Alison Webster wrote: > Hi Jim & Andrew, May 28, 2008 > Thanks for the advice. I took them in to Natural Resources and was =20= > assured that all were American Dog Tick. There turned out to be a =20 > third. After having searched myself twice last evening I found one =20 > on my leg this morning. > > A while back someone got upset by a fly in their bottled water. I =20= > wonder what the reaction to a cupfull of ticks in a sleeping bag =20 > would be ? > > While cutting westward down the bank to Brooklyn St., from the =20 > west side of the Hospital heliopad, I noticed a dozen or so Antlion =20= > cones, on the highway cut just under a lip of overhanging root/sod. > Yt, DW, Kentville > > Andrew Hebda wrote: > >> Here is a listing of Tick species we have confirmed in Nova Scotia =20= >> (14 species). There are a couple of exotics (probably brought in =20 >> by travelers) that have not become established. >> >> Ticks found in Nova Scotia based on Collection Records of the NSMNH >> (* denotes collected from a visitor/traveler - not considered =20 >> indigenous) >> >> Amblyomma americanum * Lone Star tick >> Dermacentor albipictus Moose or winter tick >> Dermacentor variabilis Wood or American Dog = tick >> Haemophysalis leporis-palustris Gregarious = Rabbit tick >> Ixodes angustus Squirrel tick = =09 >> Ixodes baergi Bird tick, Swallow tick >> Ixodes banksi =20 >> Beaver tick >> Ixodes brunneus* Hard-bodied = bird tick >> Ixodes cookei Groundhog tick >> Ixodes dentatus Rabbit tick >> Ixodes gregsoni Weasel tick >> Ixodes marxi Squirrel tick >> Ixodes muris Mouse Tick >> Ixodes pacificus* Western = Black-legged Tick >> Ixodes sculptus Weasel Tick >> Ixodes scapularis (a.k.a. I.dammini) Deer = tick, =20 >> Black-legged tick >> Ixodes uriae Murre Tick >> Rhipicephalus sanguineus * Brown Dog Tick >> =09 >> >> prepared by A Hebda 02 June 2006 >> >> As Jim said - bring your ticks with collection data (who, where, =20 >> when, etc) either to the nearest office of NSDNR or to the NS =20 >> Museum Nat Hist. >> >> Cheers >> >> Andrew >> A. Hebda >> Nova Scotia Museum >> >> >>>>> "James W. Wolford" <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> 5/28/2008 12:50 pm >>> >>>>> >> Dave, if your second, smaller tick is different from a dog/wood =20 >> tick, it should be turned in to DNR or the N.S. Museum of Nat. Hist. >> >> For everyone else, please remember that unidentified ticks should =20 >> be turned in if possible. Put them in a small pill bottle with a =20= >> bit of moist paper towel, or just Scotch-tape them to a piece of =20= >> paper. >> >> There are at least 10 kinds of ticks in Nova Scotia, and the =20 >> authorities are still interested in the distribution and abundance =20= >> particularly of the black-legged or deer tick which carries the =20 >> bacterium that causes Lyme disease. >> >> Cheers from Jim in Wolfville >> >> Begin forwarded message: >> >>> From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com> >>> Date: May 27, 2008 7:23:00 PM ADT >>> To: NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: [NatureNS] Buprestid, =20 >>> Goldthread & ticks >>> Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca >>> Dear All, May 27, 2008 >>> Today at North Alton a patch of Goldthread (Coptis trifolia), =20 >>> that has developed on a slate section of road that I leveled in =20 >>> 1984, was in full bloom today. Large toothed aspen (Populus =20 >>> grandidentata) buds were just barely showing leaves. In an open =20 >>> grassy roadway, a small Buprestid (Anthaxia inornata (Randall)) =20 >>> was locally common on Dandelion flowers and usually mating. >>> >>> When I got home I found a tick of the usual size and mottled =20 >>> coloration on my back and an hour or so after having decided =20 >>> there was only one I found a second but smaller (~2-mm wide) and =20= >>> dark. >>> Yt, DW, Kentville >>> >> >> >