WEBVTT - Why Ticks Suck 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know? 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.479 From house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.080 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuckers Bryant 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.880 and that makes this stuff you should know. If you 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:28.440 didn't know, now you know. Happy birthday, Josh, Thanks Chuck, 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:33.440 it's your birthday. It is my birthday. Four. Uh, you're 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.639 closer to me an age now for about a happy year. 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.360 And I'm six months older than Umi, which makes me 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.520 a year older than Umi right now? Oh she your age? Yeah, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:48.800 I think it's so funny. It's okay when you say 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:51.960 that because you are way way older than me. But 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.360 it's funny when people say that about people who are 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:58.160 like a year or two different. They're like, you know somebody, um, 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.960 who's they're almost our age. It's like our age is 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.880 a year, maybe a year and a half on either 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.280 side of your age, maybe two years. But often think 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.039 we're the same age until you do something that reminds 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.800 me it's because we both act like we're eight. That's 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.759 where we're that's where we're on the same page. Case 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:22.360 in point, where's the worst place you've ever had a take? Well, Josh, 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.960 I know you know, because we share a commonality, and 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:28.880 I should a side from the show, I should warn 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.640 you I'm not going too fest up to anything on 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:33.840 this one before you do. I just want to give 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.120 you fair warning. Well, since I said that we share this, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:38.600 I don't know what you're talking about, dude, Josh and 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.520 I have both had a tick in a very unfortunate place. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:46.640 If you're a man, it was. There were different ticks though, Okay, 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.640 as far as we know, they good, well years apart. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.920 Mine was last summer. This is the worst birthday? When 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.080 was your? Oh? Mine was years and years ago. Two 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.720 ticks last summer? Did you really horrible? Well, no one 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.800 was on my thigh and it's still itches and like 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.920 swells into a little bump every now and then look 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:10.960 at year later. You want to get that checked out there, 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.240 it's fine. I read up online. Sound fine? Now? I 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.520 read and they said tick bites can still bother you 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:25.560 for like years, evidently without lime disease or something like that. Yeah, okay, 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:27.639 well we're talking about ticks. Oh can I say the 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:31.080 inspiration for this real quick? Sure? Because I'm curious myself. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.920 As you know, Josh are an official house fan the 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.680 Henry Clay people out of y Infested. They came through 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:43.040 town about a month ago, stayed at my house. About 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:44.880 a week and a half later, I get a call 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.799 from Joey, the lead singer and songwriter guy, and he said, hey, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.760 you got ticks in Georgia. I said, sure, there's ticks 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:53.440 all over the place in this country. He got ticks 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.240 in l a And he said, Jordy, our keyboard player 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.560 has lime disease. Holy cow. He thinks he probably got 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.240 it from your house because you know, I live in 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.360 a wooded section of Atlanta, of Yeah, actually most of 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.800 Atlanta's wooded. Yeah, I think george is one of the 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.320 most wooded states in the country from what I understand. So, 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.400 Jordy got lime disease, and I am very sorry. Uh, Jordan, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.840 if you got that from my house and residents, it 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.400 is likely, but although you were on tour, dude, you 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.600 could have gotten it from anywhere. Yeah, it's likely because 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.120 he's like, you know, the eighth or ninth person this 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.000 year to get lime disease. After you're like it, maybe 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.440 you know what that would make your house chuck a 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.840 infested haven of disease, a disease vector. Yes, let's not 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.440 get ahead of ourselves here. Here was my original intro. 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.800 You're ready. That was great, Chuck, thank you, that was great. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:55.840 I was gonna say, Chuck, Josh, there is a tick 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:04.080 species called Epanoma comemodo, and say komodo wins. Eponoma komodo wins. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.640 This is fascinating. It is a tick and it looks 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.160 almost completely like the scale of a Komodo dragon. It's 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.320 only host, the only animal that it feeds on is 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:24.520 the komodo dragon. Right. If it's sucking the life out 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:28.000 of a Komodo dragon, you can't tell just by looking 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.440 at it that it's a ticket. Looks like a scale. 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:37.080 That is the most interesting thing anyone has to say 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:42.520 about any tick anywhere. Okay, that's it. Uh. Does that 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.280 explain why the komodo dragon attack Sharon Stone's husband? Yeah, 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:48.800 it does. That's what I read it was mad with 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.480 in the Daily Mail. Disease. Yeah. Um, well, since we've 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.960 already gotten the most interesting part of this podcast out 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.760 of the way, Chucks um ticks story. The Henry Clay 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.599 People's lyme disease drummer, Right, keyboard player, keyboardists. And I 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.800 should mention you can buy the album somewhere on the 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.480 Golden Coast. You're such a chill how much what percentage 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:13.919 are you getting of growth sales? Nothing? Um, And and 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:19.800 then we've got the Eponoma Commodo ents story. Yeah, so 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.520 we're gonna get to explaining ticks just because you know, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.560 what we're doing here is explaining every aspect of the universe, right, Yeah, 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.120 ticks are a part of it at a time and 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.440 everyone stuff you should know, lovers, we have to trudge 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.479 through this together. Yeah. And I kind of see this 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.960 as sort of a half kind of interesting and half 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.520 public service announcement. Yeah, because the summertime and ticks are everywhere. 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:45.680 That is great idea and a lot of people there's 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.280 a lot of misinformation out there about ticks and how 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.600 to remove them. So we're gonna say straight yes, thanks Chuck, 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.039 way to frame that. Um, there is a lot of 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:02.080 misinformation out there, misunderstandings, uh, specifically with ticks being insects. Right, 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.800 they are not insects. They're arachnets. They have eight legs. Yeah, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.960 well they're born with six like an insect, but they 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:18.440 will ultimately develop eight unless they're they're um disfigured. Uh, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.560 they are not spiders, though they are in the same 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.840 group arachnets as spiders, but spiders have segmented bodies and 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.680 ticks is just one nasty, bloody lump of a body. 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.480 That's right. And um, there's about eight hundred and fifty 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:36.359 species of ticks in the world. And uh there I 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.200 didn't either. I thought it was just like I hate 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.239 you when I hate you more, right, um, And they're 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.960 generally you can divide ticks into two general types, the 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.040 hard tick and the soft tick. And the hard tick 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.880 I get the impression that if there is such a 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.799 thing as intelligent design, the hard tick was like version 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.000 one point oh and the soft ticks version two point oh. Yeah, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.600 hard ticks are They're like the philis signs of the 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:05.280 arachnid world. They are an example of just the single 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:11.320 minded ruthlessness of genes to anthropomorphize, right, yea. Their entire 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.520 purpose in life is to suck blood so they can 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.640 reproduce and die so they can make babies that suck 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.480 more blood. Bloodsuckers are I'm a I'm a big animal, guys, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:26.160 you know, as are you? And I even save insects. 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.840 You know. I won't kill a bee, you know, or 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:34.400 a spider. I will usher them out somewhere else. But flies, mosquitoes, ticks, 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.600 and fleas no use for him. You and I are 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:39.560 on the exact same page. Those are the only four 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.480 insects that all kill. I won't kill a roach. Um, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.040 I will kill roach. I won't kill kill the hell. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.520 Roach never did anything to anybody. It's just it just 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.480 happened to be unfortunately ugly and like scuttle. That's what 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.840 it is. Roaches scuttle. That's why we don't like them. 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:59.280 You can't kill something for scuttling, something for being a parasite. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.520 If it moved at least slowly across the room, I 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.320 probably wouldn't kill it. But the fact that they run 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.600 like they've they're like they're looting exactly makes me want 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.119 to kill them. All right, So those are insects we hate. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.320 I don't mind roaches, don't. I'm not going on record 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.440 with you on well, what does Umi do when she 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.640 sees a roach? I try to keep roaches out of 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.560 Umi sight. Think if we ever see him, I'm like, hey, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.680 you look over here, and I'm like kind of brushing 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:30.200 it out like yeah, um, so Chuck, we're talking about 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.320 we were talking about the differences the hard tack and 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.440 the soft take. Right, let's talk about the commonalities. Takes 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:44.000 a pretty basic creatures, right, Um. They are one celled organisms. Right, No, 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.160 they're not. I'm just trying to jazz this up a 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:52.280 little bit. Okay, Um, they are. The commonalities are a body, 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:57.120 eight legs, I think eyes on either side. Generally most 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:01.880 of them have eyes. Um. And then the capitulum, which 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.440 is the mouth part. Right yeah, mouth parts is actually 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:10.760 a word, a single word, mouthparts, blood, sucking and gorge. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.640 Everything about ticks are wrong blood meal, yes, um. And 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.560 then you've got on the hard tick a something called 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:25.439 a dorsal shield or a scutum, right um. And that's 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:27.320 pretty much it, unless you want to get into the 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.240 details of the mouth parts, which really just to add 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:33.800 a little more time to this podcast, we probably should. 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:37.960 Now they get in your body, that's what matters. What 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:42.200 it was interesting though, my friend, is the legs are 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.440 covered in little spiny hairs and it has the legs 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.640 have a tiny little pincher claw at the end, and 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.360 they use this too, you know, climb up grass blades 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:58.719 and vegetation, sticks, trees, and should we'll go ahead and 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.680 talk about questing, should we? Since we're right there, why 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.280 not ticks? How? This is how the hard tick feeds. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.520 It goes on a quest and it literally will wait 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.440 on a blade of grass with this little pincher claws 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:13.360 up in the air for somebody to brush by them, 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.959 and then they'll go hack and then they'll latch onto 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.319 your pant leg or shoestring or whatever your face. Yeah, 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.520 and then it's all over. But we'll get into questing more. 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.440 But that's what they use, a little pincher. I don't 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.800 think there's anything more to questing. Well, yeah, you're right, 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.760 um we I I gotta vta you man. We should 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.600 talk about the mouth parts, right, Okay, So you've got 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.520 like the little what looks like their head, that's actually 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:42.240 their mouth parts, right right? Um. You have two flaps 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:47.600 on the side that are called palps. Yes, right, that's 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:53.280 a beautiful illustration. You have their color shiny um. Uh 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.560 So the palps when when a tick gets on you 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.240 right and starts digging in, the palps moved to the side. Yeah, 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.319 they're they're not part of the eating and digging in process. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.560 Then you get the cellisera, which are too I guess, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:12.160 kind of cutting boring mouth parts and not boring like 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.880 more like boring into your skin, right, um. And then 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:22.640 you have the hypostone, right, which is this um barbed 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.640 needle like protrusion that they just go room and start 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.600 sucking blood. But it's barbed in. The hooks curve backward 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.080 toward the tick, which makes it harder to pull out 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.079 if you if you pull a tick out the wrong way, 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.600 you just pull its body right off of its head 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.040 and its head stays in there. We'll get into how 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.400 you can you can get rid of a tick appropriately, 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:51.760 right speedily, safely, Yes, with with um, the whole thing intact, 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.200 So you can do what I do and drop it 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:58.520 into a glass of bleach and alcohol and just let 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.120 it die. Oh, I've put mine in a ziplock so 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.640 I could take well, no, just in case I needed 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.080 to take it to the doctor if my vice had 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.640 a bull's eye rash on it. Well, yeah, I mean 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.120 you can take the glass of the doctor. But yeah, 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.679 that's true. Yeah, good point. You just wanted to kill 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:18.600 it in a cruel way. Okay, I hate those things, man, Well, 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.760 who likes ticks? So you'll notice then, um that you've 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:28.319 got the barbed hypostome, you have the hooked legs. Right. Um, 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.320 Everything these everything that has to do with ticks has 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.560 to do with like hanging on right and digging in 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.960 sucking right. As Tracy Wilson put it in this article, Um, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:44.200 they are basically like a living blood pump. Yeah. The 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.520 all they feed on is blood, right, so gross, And 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:52.480 the entire point of their life is to eat so 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:57.200 they can grow up and reproduce and die like we said, right, yeah, 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.319 and when they eat, josh, their body their ideo suma. 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.600 If you want to get technical, it expands. A male 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.520 tick has the scutum or scoot them on the back. 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.439 I'm not I said scutum, but yeah, I couldn't tell 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.640 which way either way. We're both too lazy to go 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.480 onto mirriam webster dot com, aren't we. Uh So what 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.200 happens is the body of a hard tick male hard 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.360 tick can't stretch that much to hold the blood. Soft 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.080 ticks don't have the scut um, but they don't require 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.680 a whole lot of blood to live and lay eggs. 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:35.080 The real nasty one of the bunch is the female 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.960 hard tick. That's the one that goes from the science 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.839 of about a sesame seed to you know, something like 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:47.000 the right. Yeah, I saw one of my dog when 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.240 I was a kid, and that is stuck with me. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.400 A big gorge tick that was I mean, it was 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.520 a big look like a big purple balloon. That was disgusting. 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.320 Their body is also very flat, so they can lay 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.680 flat while they're feeding. This is especially important for a 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:05.080 hard tick because the hard ticks are born, they feed, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.720 they reproduce, and they die. Right, So a hard tack, 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.280 actually the hard tack female especially, we'll sit there and 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.640 feed for twenty four hours and that's that's really dangerous 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.320 as far as survival goes, because you're just sitting there 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.320 feeding hoping no one notices. Um, you get larger and yeah, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.520 and you get bigger and bigger and bigger, and then finally, 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.960 if you make it until you're done with your blood meal, um, 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.160 you can fall off and lay some eggs after mating, 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.960 as many as eighteen thousand eggs. Yeah. Did you see 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:42.400 that picture. There's a picture in this article. It's pretty boss. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.280 It looks like caviar coming out of the bottom of 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.080 a tick. You don't want to put that on the 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.280 tick just pooped out a bunch of caviar. That's what 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.520 it looks like. Can we talk about two amazing facts, Josh, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.720 about how the tick um does its work when it 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.200 when it rips into your skin and die is in. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.080 I thought we got the amazing facts out of the way. No, no, no, 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.840 these two are pretty amazing to Ticks do two things. 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.120 When they feed that blow me away. They excrete a 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:15.360 cement like substance into your body where they attached to 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.800 make it harder for them to fall off, and that 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.960 dissolves when they're ready to fall off. Fact number one, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.920 I know they're like spitting up like that shot that 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:26.760 tastes like cement in your mouth. You know what I'm 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.240 talking about. Yeah, it's awful. And number two is they 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:34.440 have um, a substance to prevent your blood from clotting, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.200 so they can just continually drink and it and it 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.080 won't heal. And that's all in your their saliva. And 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.720 this this happens from a tick's mouth. They have cement 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.960 and blood thinners basically, and their spit chuck. Let's talk 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.320 about the tick life cycle. All right, Clearly you weren't 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:55.440 as blown away by that's me no. Um, the tick 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.680 is born from caviare right after this stork brings it 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.320 to somebody's skin, maybe a lizard skin after the quest 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:08.200 and a latch onto your gene pant yes, right, your 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:13.520 pant leg Yeah, your gene pant your gene pant leg um. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:19.120 So you're born, you are a tick larva. Yeah right. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:21.880 And at that point you are about the size of 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.200 a period. And I couldn't find the font size for this, 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.040 but you're about the size of a period at the 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.640 end of a sentence twelve point five. Maybe there's a 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:32.920 big difference between ten and twelve point And I mean, 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.480 what if it's like a hundred and forty four point Yeah, 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.440 but that's you know, let's go with twelve standard. All right, 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:44.920 thanks for that. Um, you have six legs, remember, Yeah, 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:46.720 when you're born, you got six legs. If you've got 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.160 good genes, you're gonna have eight eventually. But first you 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.440 have to go find yourself a blood meal. And to 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.960 do that, you have to crawl along the ground and 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.200 maybe find a mouse with its tail hanging out or 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.440 lizard something with blood, And and the closer to the 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.640 ground the better because you can't really crawl that well yet, Yeah, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.879 this is just before you can if you want to 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:07.680 grow up to be an adult tick. If you don't 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.600 get that first meal, you're done. Yeah, it's like a 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.920 sea turtles. Sure, after you get that first meal, right, 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:20.919 say you are a a soft tick. You get that 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.240 first meal, you're gonna do it pretty quick. And then 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.720 right you go back down to the ground. You drop off. 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.000 After you have your meal. You hang out. You're like, Okay, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.000 I'm really that that mousetail was packed with energy. I'm growing, 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.960 I'm growing. I'm literally getting too big for my shell. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.720 I'm gonna mold. And now all of a sudden, I 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.040 have an extra pair of legs. Look at that, and 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.119 you might call me a nymph. That's exactly what you 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:47.119 would be, right, And then you say, well, you know 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.840 what being a tick nymph? Now that I've molted and 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.280 a little bigger, it's kind of nice. I like a 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.840 six year a pair of legs, right right. Um, I'm 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.400 hungry again, so I'm going to go get another blood meal. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.080 It's so grass Okay, So then you go you get 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:09.159 another blood meal. Um, and then you drop off again. 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:14.240 Sure you you stop hardening and clotting that your host's 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.560 blood from your you know, um saliva, you drop off, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.280 you go grow again, you molt. Now you're an adult. 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.639 Now you're ready to reproduce. But first you give a 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.520 little tick bar mitzvah I guess sure, or bought mitzvah h. 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.639 But first you need a blood meal, so you go 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.160 get another blood meal. Right, and it's about here that 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.880 the life cycle of most ticks begins to end. Right, 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.720 Most ticks are three host ticks, is what they're called. Yeah, 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.040 but you know, Tracy pointed something out I thought was interesting, 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.800 is that a tick that does not get their blood 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.280 meal will die. But it could take like a year 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.080 to starve to death, to starve to death. So they 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.240 might be just um in nymph stage or adult stage 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.959 or whatever, just pining away on that blade of grass, 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.720 waving their little claw. No one ever walks by. And 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:08.959 they can't they can't reproduce, they can't lay eggs, they 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.440 can't uh, they can't do the bump with their little 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.520 female tick friends. They can't do anything if they don't 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.159 get their blood meal. So they just it's like on 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.600 the couch basically, right, And so you would think, well, 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.960 then ticks are just stupid for being questers. You know, 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.359 it's such a willy nilly way to go look for food. 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:29.440 But as we said, ticks do have eyes and they 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.439 can um differentiate shapes that kind of thing. So they 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:36.760 can technically hunt us as parasites, right but not really. Yeah, 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.480 and they can see colors, yeah, so Tracy said they can. 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.480 They they use that to get in on a good 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.040 blade of grass with a high likelihood of some schmuck 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:52.600 camper like me walking by. Uh. They also can sense 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:59.120 carbon dioxide that animals exhale. Yeah, so that's kind of cool. Actually. Um, 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:03.080 so let's say you are a tick that has you're 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:08.439 a female hard tick and you're engorged. You've just made it. 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:10.840 The male you made it with just went off and 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.240 died right after mating. Yeah, well you both eat first, right, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.000 and then you come together and you're like, hey, I'm 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.159 super full, and then you made That's what I called him. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.399 The Philistines are like, let's go eat and then have 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:26.040 sex and then I'll die. So you're the female. Okay, 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:28.919 where where are you going? He said, I'm the female. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.000 Oh and then after the guy goes off and dies, 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:34.119 you're like, oh, I better go lay my eggs and 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.040 then there's all this caviar that comes out, and um, 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.000 now you're dead, and then the life cycle begins a 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.760 new right. Generally, I don't think they always die, but 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.600 generally the female dies after they lay eggs, and the 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.119 male dies after they do do that thing, do the 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:55.199 thing that thing? Um yeah, so chuck, that's the life cycle. 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.320 I wish we had some sort of applause, right, is 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.320 that was riveting? Um? If at any point, let's say, 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:06.560 remember I said that most ticks are three host ticks. Yeah, uh, 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:08.960 if at any point one of those hosts, especially the 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.639 first or second host, happens to be a disease host, 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:18.240 then ticks become their disease vector. There a disease vector, right, Yeah, 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:19.640 But you can also, I don't even think you said 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:21.440 you can be a one host tick. If you find 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.760 a very gracious host, you might stay there your whole life. Right. 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.919 If you are a hard tick, yeah, you can be 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.760 a one or two host. But if you're a one host, 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.200 like you said, you're born and then you go start 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:37.399 feeding wherever you're born, and you reproduce and die and 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.959 you're like, this is this interior thighs? Nice? I think 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.560 I'll just stay here for my whole life. Yeah, so 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.960 chuck um if they do become a disease vector. And 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.000 by the way, ticks are the number one disease vector 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.760 in the animal world and among humans they're number two 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:57.880 only to mosquitoes as bugs that spread disease. Yeah. Um, 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.199 if you are a disease tick, how what what are 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.639 some of the things that you're going to spread? Well, Josh, 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.880 you can, um spread. I know everyone's sort of Rocky 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.720 Mountain spotted fever, that is if it started out obviously 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:13.840 in the Rocky Mountains, but now it's kind of in 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.919 many places in the US because of animals at migrate 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:21.000 and move around. Uh, you can get if you're in Australia, 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:28.000 you can get Queensland's tick typhus or Finlander's Island spotted fever. Yeah, 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:32.440 or uh, you know the big one is lime disease, yes, 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.400 which um Jordan has. I think he got the kind 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:39.720 that goes away with some antibiotics. You can I think 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:41.840 you can get it for life. If I'm not mistaken. 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.120 I think I didn't do a whole lot of lime 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.720 disease reacharch research, but I worked with a director one 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.600 time that um did a short film online disease. No, No, 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.560 he had lime disease I think forever and needed to 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:58.159 take like a little afternoon naps because it would wear. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:03.560 He was just a lazy, So lime disease. The big 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:06.160 giveaway for that one is a bull's eye rash. It's 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:11.119 an inflamed raised area wherever the bite was. That's the center. 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:13.440 So it's real red and then kind of pale skin 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.080 or regular skin color and then real red again like 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:19.879 a ring around it, right or bull's eye all right, exactly, 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:23.040 So if you have that, you are um in big trouble. 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:27.440 And uh, Rocky Mountains spotted fever, I don't think lime diseases, 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.719 but Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a Ricket seal Rickett 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:34.479 seal um illness, and I looked this up. So basically, 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:39.320 you have a fever, general malaise, headaches, muscle cramps, you're tired, 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.760 it's just not you're feeling lousy. Yeah, you can actually 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.200 die from Rocky Mountain spotted fever if you don't get 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:46.800 anything treated. If you're like out, you know, doing the 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:49.680 Ted Kazinski thing and you never get treated for anything, 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:52.680 you could die. That's the second time today you mentioned 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:56.000