Hello everyone!!!
I have decided to take a break from blood sucking and career shift into a new adventure. I am excited to be bringing you up-to-date news on tick activity occurring in Illinois. The people here at I-TICK have been wonderful to me (I mean, they haven’t drowned me in ethanol yet)… But anywho, let’s talk about some ticky updates that are occurring in Illinois.
Amblyomma maculatum (Gulf Coast Tick) male on left, female on right.
GULF COAST COUSINS COMING TO VISIT:
My ticky cousin, Amblyomma maculatum (Gulf Coast tick) has been spotted down in southern and central Illinois. For those of you who didn’t figure this out yet, they usually like the Gulf Coast area… These guys may be hitching rides on migrating birds or cattle being shipped across state lines, and warmer global temperatures may explain their northward expansion (Paddock et al., 2015; Sonenshine, 2018). Lookout for these southern invaders in the Illinois area as they can carry novel diseases, like Rickettsia parkeri, not found in the usual Illinois tick species. The Gulf Cost tick can look a lot like the American Dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, but they have longer and narrower mouth parts. The people here at I-TICK are keeping their eyes peeled for new information to report to you!
TICK TALK TRIVIA AND MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
While this is the second year of the I-TICK program, this is the first year I-TICK has launched a social media campaign! If you are lacking people to follow, consider liking and following their facebook page here, instagram account here, and twitter here. We just know that ticks will be a huge social media hit!!! Plus, if you are a nerd like the I-TICK people I work for, you can participate in their trivia, yay!
Thanks y’all for reading a blog from a tick, looking forward to talking to you in the future,
Tattle the Tick
