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Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

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Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#51

Post by DANmode »

SoftTalker wrote: post #29
mantas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ticks are a problem regardless. And they don’t like too much heat. So climate warming may even reduce their population in some parts. Or, more likely, move them up north. Giving relieve to some and headache to others… Lyme disease vaccine would help a ton though. I’ve had Lyme 3 times by now. Thankfully encephalitis stab is a thing.

So there's no natural immunity after having it once? How would a vaccine work then?

“Lyme” colloquially covers half a dozen to a dozen different bacterial infections.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#54

Post by nik282000 »

gramie wrote: post #27
mihular wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK there was a Lyme disease vaccine, but was discontinued, probably because it wasn't effective enough, I don't remember the details.

There has been a vaccine for dogs and cats for a while now, not sure why it hasn't been released for humans yet. Lyme can be really horrible. Some people we know have a 30-something son who was very active (camping, hiking, rock climbing, etc.) until he was bitten by a tick. Now he's quadriplegic.

Lots of drugs work for dogs and cats because they don't live longer than 25yrs. A human has 3-4x the lifespan during which side effects can be worse than the disease.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#55

Post by nik282000 »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #47
bethekidyouwant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe mice are the main host of tick populations

The black legged tick has a complicated lifecycle which includes both rodents and deer (or other large mammals I believe)

Clearly we should be banning all rodent/deer contact until the tick population is under control.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#56

Post by rescripting »

roshin wrote: post #52
pcmaffey wrote: post #50

A healthy wolf population is the proper (trophic cascading) solution to the tick epidemic.

I would much rather encounter a hungry tick on a recreational trail than a hungry wolf

A hungry tick is much more likely to make your life miserable because you’re significantly more likely to encounter one in ecosystems with both species.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#57

Post by tclancy »

kbaker wrote: post #24

We have (had?) some ticks in our backyard and I came across these which I thought was a clever attack angle: tick tubes. Permethrin-soaked cotton balls in a tube, mice find them and build nests out of the freely available cotton, ticks that the mice have gathered while walking around die when they come back to the nest.

Would want to be careful if you have cats. Also appears to not be readily available in the EU?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin - see other animals, I can never get anchor links to copy on mobile.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#58

Post by sojournerc »

matsemann wrote: post #48

No ticks at the altitude I reside. But with global warming it's slowly creeping up towards the towns further down. Same with Spanish slugs. Will soon be able to thrive here as well.

We have dog ticks at 8000 feet in Colorado, not sure how much altitude affects them.

Re: Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada

#59

Post by kadoban »

nik282000 wrote: post #54
gramie wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has been a vaccine for dogs and cats for a while now, not sure why it hasn't been released for humans yet. Lyme can be really horrible. Some people we know have a 30-something son who was very active (camping, hiking, rock climbing, etc.) until he was bitten by a tick. Now he's quadriplegic.

Lots of drugs work for dogs and cats because they don't live longer than 25yrs. A human has 3-4x the lifespan during which side effects can be worse than the disease.

Is that true? I don't know of really any medicine that has side effects 25 years down the line. Would we even know? We don't test new meds that long before release.

Isn't it more because meds are cheaper to test on animals and liability is much lower?

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