WEBVTT - Ticks, Mites and Mysterious Lone Star Illnesses 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.239 Works dot com. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.079 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.799 And Robert. You know well that on this show we 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.959 do our best not to demonize any inhabitant of the 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.080 animal kingdom. But I've got to ask your opinion on 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.960 one specific branch that is maybe maybe the most twisted 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.879 branch in existence. How do you feel about ticks? Uh? 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:39.280 Ticks are awful? Yes, Ticks. Ticks and mosquitoes are the 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.280 only specific animals that I tell my five year old 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.920 that it's it's okay to to hate on, to to 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.320 actively kill or be killed with. I'm hoping later in 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.879 this episode we can do a little guided meditation to 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.560 take anybody out there who's got hatred of spiders, fear 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.920 or hatred for for your little uh, for the good arachnids, 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:05.399 and to move that over onto the only animals that 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.760 really might deserve it, which are ticks. Yeah. I agree, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.679 And for instance, I look back on my own life 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.320 and having like a revulsion at times too slugs garden slugs, 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.959 which is completely ridiculous given that garden slugs yes, are gross, 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.560 but pretty harmless. They're No, you're not gonna get hurt 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:25.440 by a garden slug. I mean unless you you know, 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.680 you're freaked out and your trip over something, etcetera, and 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.600 there you know there's some sort of crazy scenario that 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:34.319 you build up that enables the slug to kill you. 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.039 For the most part, slug doesn't care about you, and 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.280 it's not gonna hurt you. But but but mosquitoes, other 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.240 parasites such as ticks, these are these are major threats. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:50.400 They are actively hunting us. They're actively trying to feed 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.640 on our blood and in doing so, putting us at 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.000 risk for a whole host of terrifying diseases. Now, yet again, 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.240 I know we're gonna hear from some tick lovers there. 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.040 Maybe you're a I doubt you're Maybe you're a tick 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.160 scientist and you're saying, hey, I study these things for 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:07.720 a living. You know you got to give them a 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.040 fair shake. Okay, okay, I want to give them as 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.000 fair as shake as I can. They are animals. They 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.840 exist in an ecology and a web of life, like 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.560 all animals. We try not to demonize anything here. I'm 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.799 just saying, if you have to demonize something. If you've 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.160 got that hate in your heart, the ticks are a 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.560 good place to put it. Yes, now, I will definitely 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.600 say that ticks are fascinating. I mean, we're doing the 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.000 whole episode here about ticks and tickborn illness, so yes, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:39.679 it's a wonderful topic. They're fascinating organisms. Uh maybe even 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:43.959 a perfect organism. And I'll also say that, uh that 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.920 certainly we see cases where organisms like ticks and mosquitoes 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:54.959 their their their nuisance factor can be intensified by by 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.040 by what humans have done to the environment, putting things 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:02.640 out of balance, making things, introducing the threat into new areas, 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.840 and making the threat greater than it would normally be. 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.080 It's like taking a normally rowdy and annoying child and 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.679 giving that child a super soaker full of urine. But 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.639 but I still have to come back to the fact 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:21.400 that having grown up in in tick haunted wildernesses uh, 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:27.359 I mean, namely Tennessee, I associate ticks and also chiggers, 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.200 which are a type of MT closely related to ticks, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.040 as we'll discuss. I associate these creatures with just a 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.360 dread of the outdoors. These are creatures that make going 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.720 out outside and enjoying nature difficult. Yeah. I love hiking 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.240 around in the woods, but whenever I mostly do it 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.160 by putting ticks out of my mind. And when they 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.400 come into my mind, that normally nice feeling of brushing 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.080 through the leaves, of feeling them rub across your skin 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.280 as you move through the trees, it turns into a 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.360 creepy nightmare tickle of disease. And hey, eight yeah like it. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.000 It's really has has gotten to the point. Lucky, luckily, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.920 I have never experienced, to my knowledge, any tick or 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.440 ugger born illnesses, or or mosquito born illnesses, you know, 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.280 knock on wood. But I now when I drive, especially 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.560 in the height of summer, when I drive, you know, 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.800 on the interstate, and I'm going through a portion of 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.360 say North Georgia or a portion of Tennessee, and I 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.279 look out into the into the wilderness, I just think 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.480 of all the parasites. I think that those those are 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.080 just tick and chigger haunted woods, just waiting to eat 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.880 me alive. Okay, So today we're gonna be talking about 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:42.520 ticks in biology, ticks in history, some zoonotic diseases, some 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.360 particularly interesting diseases and syndromes, that have been associated with 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.120 the lone star tick recently. And then I think we're 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.480 also going to end with a few practical tips on 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:55.960 what to do to protect yourself from the tick menace. 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.560 But first you had some notes about how a hatred 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.600 is not a recent phenomenon, right, Oh no, Um, ticks 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:08.839 and sugars are are worldwide creatures. Uh. Ticks and mites 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.240 as well discussed there are a lot of them, They're everywhere, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.760 and annoyance hatred of them goes back quite a long ways. 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.880 In fact, we have writings about ticks from first century 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.719 Roman author and natural philosopher Plenty of the Elder. Yeah, 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.520 he probably familiar with Plenty. He described many a strange 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.920 and bizarre creature in his book The Natural History Now 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.480 full of many hilarious and accuracies. Yes, many many, uh 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.480 and and and some of them were pretty fabulous, right, 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.880 he talked about it was sometimes it was just a 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.440 weird echo of natural world creatures from a distant land. 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.039 You know, they were exaggerated through second and third hand accounts. 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.240 But he also talked about monstrous humanoid races like the 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:59.159 mouthless hairy humanoid as stoney and the belly mouth to blemmyes. 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:00.760 They were always one of my favorite. You know, they 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.159 have no head, but they have a face and on 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.120 their chest and a mouth where their belly is. Now, 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.000 you just gotta wonder did people read that in first 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.200 century Rome and say, yeah, yeah, that's true, or did 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.200 they back then read that and say, I don't know 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.800 about this. Well, I mean it's very similar to the 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.840 sea monsters, right. I mean again, you're you're not dealing 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.200 with with firsthand account. Someone like Plenty is not necessarily 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.240 going out and exploring the world and taking notes. I 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.839 just feel like I have a hard time modeling the 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.000 appropriate level of skepticism to pretend to be someone of 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.679 the ancient world. Yeah, well this would this would actually 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.320 be an interesting one to to discuss the nature of 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:49.040 exotic beasts represented in natural tones and to what extent 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.839 people back home took them seriously. Now, of course, he 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.960 couldn't have dreamed up anything as exotic as the real 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.040 arachnids of the animal kingdom, right, that's right. And he 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.039 really hated ticks. He called them quote the foulest and 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.800 nastiest creatures that be And uh, I had actually looked 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.839 up a passage from the Natural History and of course, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.560 bear in mind that the scientific information here is quite outdated, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.040 but the human disdain for ticks is not. He says, 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.000 there is an animal also that is generated in the summer, 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.840 which has its head always buried deep in the skill 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.200 of a beast, and so living on its blood, swells 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:31.640 to a large size. This is the only living creature 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.080 that has no outlet for its food. Hence, when it 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:39.880 has overgorged itself, it bursts asunder, and thus it's very 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.480 element has made the cause of its death. That is great, 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.120 He's saying. Picks can't poop, and they drink so much 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.360 of your blood, and they're so greedy that they just 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.880 explode and die. Yeah, they're like just a lesson in gluttony, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.760 which h yeah, I mean when you think of the tick, 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:58.240 that's what you think of this thing. But it is 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.440 just engaging itself on your blood or the blood of 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.520 sable love pet to the point where they're just bags 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:10.000 of blood. Well, I guess we should look at the 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.400 real science of ticks, right yea, So we'll put aside 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.520 we're not gonna use plenty as a primate source on this, okay, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.800 So what we'll we'll table that for now come back 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.600 to whether they just drink blood until they explode because 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.680 they can't poop. So ticks are what are they? They 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:27.520 are not insects. They are arachnids in the same class 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.520 as spiders and scorpions. Yeah, and as far as arachnids go, 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:36.200 the subclass akari is where all the real arachnid diversity is. 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.400 So in our previous episode on spiders, we mentioned forty 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:43.280 five thousand species of spiders, that being the about the 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:47.640 most recent count. But there are an estimated fifty thousand 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.160 species of mites. That's another kind of arachne right closely 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.240 related to ticks, and we'll get into those in a bit. 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.800 And then they are upwards of nine different ticks. A 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.880 good four variety of those mites, by the way, just 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.319 live in house dust. They they kind of live in everything, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.160 living everywhere. And uh yeah, the ticks and mites both 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.240 benefit from worldwide distribution. Wow, So if you scoop up 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.880 some dust bunnies from your floor, you're likely to have 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.560 some great diversity of mites in your hands. Cool. Now, Okay, 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:24.319 ticks are of course obligate thematophagus ectoparasites of terrestrial vertebrates 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.120 now that that's a mouthful, let's break it down there. 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.560 Ectoparasites meaning they're parasitic organisms that work from the outside. 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.040 Unlike some other things. They don't try to get inside you. 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:38.480 They're happy to work through your skin. Their prey is 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:44.160 terrestrial vertebrates. This means land dwelling animals with backmones like mammals, birds, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:49.440 and reptiles. They're obligate hematophages mean meaning that they live 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.840 by drinking blood and this is their determined survival niche. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.040 So blood sucking isn't just an option for ticks. It's 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.839 not one tool in their survival toolkit. It's blood or bus. 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.680 This is how they have to survive. So there are 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.480 two primary superfamilies of ticks. There's the hard ticks, which 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.040 are exodoidea and uh, those are usually going to be 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.240 larger and they've got a harder exoskeleton, the outer the 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.040 outer shell. And then they're the argosoidea, which are the 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.839 soft ticks. Those are usually smaller and they've got a 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:24.280 softer body. Yeah, so the hard ticks generally we're talking 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.400 three point six to twelve point seven millimeters in size. 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.960 Soft ticks one point seven to six point one millimeters 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.280 in size, but both varieties can reach twenty to thirty 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:38.200 millimeters when they're fully engorged on precious blood, until they 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.120 just make themselves explode as they can't poop. Well, I 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.440 I guess this um. This observation comes from the fact 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.360 that they do become so in gorge that they are 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.800 easily popped in the fingers between the fingers if you're 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.160 say pulling one off of a dog, which you don't 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:57.319 want to do. By the way, this is something I 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.920 learned when I was a kid. I saw adults taking 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.840 ticks off of pets and off of people, and they 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.560 would intentionally crush them between their fingernails or crush them 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.679 with their fingers when they could while they were pulling 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.840 them off. We'll get into the full range of tick 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.560 tips later, but you don't want to do that. Ideally, 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.720 you want to remove the tick without rupturing its body. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.599 Here's a question. Now we know it goes back to 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.360 plenty of the elder, but how much further back does 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.640 tick hate go? How long have other larger animals been 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.040 hating ticks? You can, I think safely say that dinosaurs 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.560 hated ticks because the fossil record indicates that ticks probably 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.599 first arose in the Cretaceous period between sixty and a 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.679 hundred and forty six million years ago. Well, I mean 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.120 there's a lot of vertebrate diversity during this time. This 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.960 was just a buffet, right, a lot of stuff to suck. 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.040 So uh, I looked into the history a little bit 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.280 about this. That there's a wonderful book that I've referenced 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.400 on the podcast before titled Dark Banquet Blood and the 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.199 Curious Lives of Blood Feeding Creatures by Bill Shoot. I 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.920 highly recommend it. He has a he talks a lot 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.040 about bats and a lot of and also about other 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.480 blood drinking organisms. So of course he talks about ticks 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.520 and he talks a little bit about their evolution. So 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:13.120 tick ancestors were likely mights. Again I mentioned it might 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.840 are very closely related to ticks, okay, and they evolved. 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.800 These might evolved to become obligate to sango var's obligate 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.800 blood drinkers like we've been discussing, um but but but 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:31.719 the difference here is that might are not obligates okay, like, 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:36.120 for instance, the modern and definitely foul jigger or red bug. 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.160 The more technical term here is Trumpiculidae, which comes from 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.319 the Greek to tremble. So these creatures and if you've 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:46.120 if you've ever had to deal with these, these are 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.600 are just horrific creatures to have to to to live 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.040 in the same environment with. I've hated them indirectly and 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.400 that they have assaulted beloved members of my family, including 0:12:57.440 --> 0:12:59.720 my wife before. But you never wanted to go out 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.400 of the fields and strangle the little things myself. No, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.000 I don't think I've ever maybe when I was a kid, 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.559 I don't remember ever having a big chigger attack. But 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.160 they they they've gotten all up on the legs of 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.760 people I have known in love. I just remember them 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:16.960 being a huge problem when I would go to Scout 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.240 camps as a kid, and uh and and they seem 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.440 to just be particularly bad in areas that I continue 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.599 to visit, like as some friends who live in the 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.160 North Georgia Mountains they have a bad ugger problem. And 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:34.000 then my my mom's house the area surrounding it has 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.800 has quite a schigger problem as well. So the interesting 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.520 thing though about these chiggers, which are mites. Again, they 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.760 only feed on blood in their larval stage, so that 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.800 the larval stages when they're actually feasting on your blood 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.160 the rest of the time, and when they get become larger, 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:51.400 when they reach a maturity, they're living in the ground 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.679 feasting on arthropods and also arthropod eggs picks. On the 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.559 other hand, Uh, what what essentially happened here is that 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:05.599 they evolve to carry on their juvenile ways exclusively. And 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.240 this is a common route we see in evolution. Actually, 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.360 often the router species takes to become a new species 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:17.840 is carrying over some juvenile characteristics into adulthood. Yeah, essentially 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.200 becoming like a blood sucking Peter Pan, an eternal man 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.600 baby in everything but breeding. Because that's the key thing, right, 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:29.200 is that if you're going to remain a juvenile blood 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.120 drink or your entire life, you also need to be 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.680 able to reproduce as an adult. So how does that happen? Well, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.680 according to Shoot, what occurs here is quote a change 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.600 in the timing of genetically programmed events, a process known 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.440 as heterochroni. So it might somehow maintain its larval feeding 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:51.680 behavior into adulthood. And and we actually have a few 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.240 examples of this that we can look to in the 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.240 contemporary world. The most well known process. For this is 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.880 a neotony by which an organism reaches sexual maturity while 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:07.160 otherwise juvenile, and the mud puppy salamander is an example 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.160 of this. It retained its gills through adulthood instead of uh, 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:14.280 you know, essentially leaving them behind um in it's in 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.880 its juvenile stage right, so it would have otherwise had 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.600 like this amphibious lifestyle cycle where it was like a 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.680 guild underwater organism as a larva and then became this 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.720 air breathing organism as an adult. But it maintains the 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.800 gills throughout adulthood. So the examples of the tick and 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.160 the chigger are interesting to look at because you see 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.480 the divergence there. One continues to stick to a very 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.240 successful strategy of only feeding on blood when it's small, 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.320 when it's when it's young, whereas the tick just continues 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.520 to do it. It was so successful, so good at it, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.400 it doesn't need to do anything else. Oh, I'm so 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.240 tempted to do that thing here that biologists hate, where 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.800 you imply that a an organism that's taken a further 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.800 evolutionary route has somehow become more advanced. Now we know 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:01.720 that's not the case. And I hate it when people 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:03.680 use that metaphor, but I want to say the ticks 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:08.240 are just more advanced micro vampires. They are. Yeah. Well, 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.720 and the the the other interesting thing. I'll get into 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.320 the details here in a bit, but the tick is 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.160 the only one that is a true vampire. The trigger, 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.200 though it is essentially feasting on your blood, it's not really, 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:24.720 it's doing something a bit grosser to you. Now, if 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.120 we want to look back at tick history itself, a 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.000 lot of what we know about ancient ticks is through 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.680 ticks we've found preserved in fossilized amber, Yes, fossilized amber, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.560 just like in Jurassic Park. And like in Jurassic Parks, 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.760 some samples of these, amazingly have maintained some of the 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.080 red blood cells, the ythrocytes of the mammals that these 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:53.080 ticks were feeding on millions of years ago. This brings 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.920 up an amusing idea. What you have Jurassic Park. All 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.200 these kids, you know, they go to it in this 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.640 fictional scenario, and they're excited about seeing the dinosaurs, but 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.920 instead all they have are ancient mosquitoes and ticks. Just 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.560 you're just riding around in in a special car and 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.879 you just look out and just ancient mosquitoes flocking to 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.320 the glass trying to get in, ticks kind of raining 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:23.520 from the trees like uh like snow, like evil fruit 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.320 dropping from above. Yeah, and they're they're giant ticks. I'm 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.800 not saying that they're actually were giant ticks, and we 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.639 can believe maybe. Yeah. I mean, if we're we're doing 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.280 the Durassic Park scenario and we're we're tweaking science a 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.800 bit for blockbuster success, everyone who wants to see giant ticks, 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:46.640 welcome to a matto phage park. Yeah. So one interesting 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.920 study here is in April of this professor emeritus of 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.040 Oregon State University, George George Poynard, Jr. Published a paper 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.480 describing a really interesting fossil find. So it was a 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.359 tick of the genus Ambiloma, which is a genus that 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.159 will come up later on. And it was engorged with 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:12.320 blood preserved in a sample of dominican amber. Not only that, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.359 but there were two holes in its dorsal exoskeleton. So 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.480 the back of the tick, it's engorged with blood and 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.080 it's been punctured. And this indicates that the tick was 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.960 probably plucked off of its host by force, so you 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.639 have to imagine this ancient scene. Probably what happened is 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.200 that this tick was a casualty of primate grooming. So 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.119 one monkey plus a tick off of another monkey somewhere 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.000 between fifteen and forty five million years ago, punctures that 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.480 ticks in gorged body like you're not supposed to do, 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.320 then drops it into a puddle of tree resin which 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.160 hardens and then preserves it almost perfectly. And this also 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.680 preserved something amazing mammalian red blood cells pouring out of 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.840 the punctures in the ticks back. Even more amazing. Point 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.680 claimed that because of the preservation quality, you can make 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.880 out the evidence of a blood parasite known as pyroplasms 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:10.720 that are attacking the red blood cells that the tick 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.840 drank from the monkey. So at the micro scale, this 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.000 is a really cool fossil action scene. Oh that is 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.400 and it this brings to mind two things. The first point, 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.879 I want to make it totally non scientific, but I 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:28.160 wonder if anyone has devised a monster movie in which 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.480 someone tries to clone an ancient hominid or a or 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.400 an ape from blood like this, and since it's it's 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.040 blood from inside the tick. You end up with a 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:44.480 tick hominid hybrid get Roger Corman on the phone, brilliant. Yeah, 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.200 it basically rights itself. But the other idea is, I 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.240 wonder if we do have any tick defenders out there, 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.440 if this is not an area of consideration. The role 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.240 that ticks might have had in the social evolution of 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:02.320 primate species is fecial humans. Yeah, I mean so, we 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:04.760 spent a lot of time at the beginning of this 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.760 episode dwelling on how easy it is to hate ticks 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.760 that might be programmed into us at a very basic level, 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.560 because it is what it may be a big part 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.080 of what gives us the social functions of our brain. 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.000 So if you look at grooming as one of the 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.800 primary social activities of primates and our brains as being, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:30.119 according to the social brain hypothesis, primarily shaped by social relationships, 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.600 and like remembering who you've groomed, who grooms who? Uh, 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.280 the kind of power dynamics in these grooming relationships. So 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.159 you've got ticks. You've got ticks right there at the 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:44.440 center of what makes us who we are. Yeah. Hey, 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.920 here's a third bonus idea for any especially for startups. 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:50.240 I think tech startups stuff. What you do is you 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.479 introduce ticks into your office environment and then encourage social 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:59.560 grooming techniques to keep tickboard illnesses from uh, you know, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:05.000 be abilitating your your workforce. I am foreseeing some hr complication. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.280 All right, so let's let's move back to the tick 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.399 in my scenario for a second, because I want to 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.840 talk about their feeding practices. So, first of all, I 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:22.040 mentioned how ticks and mites, especially especially chiggers, and also 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.240 you could probably extend this stephen mosquitoes as well. These 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.080 are creatures that are not just mere parasites that they 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.239 hunt us. I feel like we often lose sight of that. Uh. 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.200 Ticks and mites use a combination of light, touch and 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:39.400 chemical stimuli to track you and then to spring and chickers, 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.400 especially your speed demons. So they move in, they find 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.280 the thinnest parts of your skin, such as ankles or armpits. 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.920 They crawl under any type clothing they encounter, and that's 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.600 often where they bite and then they and then when 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.200 once they buy, they start feeding. So what is chigger 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:59.919 feeding like? Oh, it's it's grotesque. It's you might expect 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:01.760 it to be more in line with what a tick does. 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.800 But the tick is more is really more specialized, and 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:06.879 what the chigger is doing is more in line with 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:13.200 Brundle fly. Ronin brings the fly um, so the chigger 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.680 attaches and then basically just shives the be Jesus out 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.879 of the target area, injecting their saliva into the wound. 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.600 Then the outer layer of the epidermis hardens into a 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:29.920 straw like style of stone. The saliva flows down this 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:34.920 tube and in the enzymes melt the surrounding tissue. And 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:37.080 this is where I want to quote quote Bill Shoot 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.359 because he puts this perfectly, says the rudest part of 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.280 the chiggers feeding gig begins as the liquefied dermal stew 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.920 is snorked up through the style of stone and into 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:52.040 the parasite's muscular fearings. Wow, so so it comes in 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:55.840 stabs you up real good, like it's like it's you know, 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.880 with an ice pick, breaking up some ice, and then 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.560 it puts some in zymes on you or is that right? 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.639 It does a little dissolving. Yeah, there's a Basically it 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.480 would be like imagine a dungeon and dragon scenario where 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:12.879 a evil goblinoid stabs you with a magical dagger that 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:16.879 like the wound caught arizes into a tube like a 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.560 grotesque infected tube, and then it uses that as a straw, 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.280 right to just to pump a bunch of dissolving saliva 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.800 into your body and then slop up the work snork 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:33.480 up the dermal stew afterwards. So so it's just it's 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.840 almost not fair to call it sucking because there you're 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:40.320 imagining a tidier process. It's more like, just go into 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:42.920 town on you, right, and while there are going to 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:47.280 be blood cells in that that that liquefied stew, it's 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:50.600 not drinking just blood, right, So well, to be fair 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:53.280 in some of what I've read, now, ticks are primarily 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:55.920