Tag: ticks feed on mice

What’s Long and Slithers and Had Ticks All Over?

You might have a difficult time believing the answer to this riddle!  Recently, Gold Coast and Brisbane snake catcher encountered a truly unusual snake.  When these professional reptile re-locators found this carpet python, he was covered in ticks – 511 blood-suckers, in fact!

Talk about an animal in need of tick protection!

Nike the snake is now in the care of Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation in Queensland, Australia, where he continues to recover. When Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher rescued poor Nike from a pool in Coolangatta, he was nearly unrecognizable and severely anemic, because these ravenous blood-suckers were feasting on him. Usually, snakes will fight off invading ticks and insects, but Nike did not. Once these hungry ticks latched on, they weakened the carpet python past the point of defense.

What does a cup of 511 ticks look like?

Feast your eyes on this! Even though more than 500 ticks were meticulously removed from the snake’s body, more remained intact under his scales, and had to be treated with medication.

ticks all over - 511 ticks
More than 500 ticks feasted on the snake’s blood until he became severely anemic

Days later, this baby koala required a blood transfusion after having 100 ticks removed!

To further illustrate the damage these nasty invaders cause, and the danger they pose to our families – pets – wildlife – livestock!

Ticks eat to live and live to eat! Don’t allow your family to become a “blood meal.”

Ticks must have their blood meal in order to survive each stage of life. In the larvae stage, they often take their first blood meal from Lyme infected hosts, like the white-footed mouse. Nearly the entire population of this mouse is infected with Lyme Disease, which is how ticks become infected. In the next stage of life, ticks are in search of a larger host with a lot of blood and nutrients – which make us humans an ideal feast! During this feeding, ticks actually filter and regurgitate the water content from our blood right back into our bloodstream, introducing the threat of disease. Don’t become a blood meal.

Dave Macchia, tick control enthusiast
Dave Macchia, tick control enthusiast

When it comes to tick-borne disease prevention, tick control is the key. Be sure your family is protected this year by calling a tick control professional!

Westminster Tick Control – Break the 2-Year Life Cycle of Ticks

You might think the fall is the end of tick season and that you will soon be protected from tick Westminster tick controlbites with the approaching colder weather.  If so, you are partially correct.

Ticks in Central Mass will begin to go dormant in weather below 45 degrees F. by hiding in the nests of white-footed mice.  No amount of cold will eliminate ticks and there’s one other fact you need to know about the fall and ticks.

A tick’s life cycle is usually 2-years long.  Ticks that were eggs last fall are now nymphs.  They have taken two blood meals to reach this stage in their life cycle.  Because of these two blood meals, often taken from several small animals or birds infected with Lyme Disease, they are now the most infectious to humans.  Next spring these nymphs will leave the mouse’s nest.  They will be the size of a poppy seed, making them difficult to see on our Westminster MA tick controlclothes and skin.  After their third blood meal next spring, they will become larger during mid-summer and be adults in the fall of next year.  At this last stage of their life cycle, the males will fertilize the females and the females will produce a new generation of ticks in your yard.

Westminster tick control is available now, to protect you next year.

Now is the time of year to interrupt the tick’s life cycle in your yard and reduce your exposure to nymph ticks next spring.  By using a tick tube program, you can eliminate ticks around your home even before next spring.  The tick tubes are placed out now will provide nesting material, treated with tick insecticide, the white-footed mouse will use to build its nest this winter.  This nesting material will eliminate ticks in the nest without harming the mice.  The net result is fewer ticks in your yard next spring and a head start at eliminating your family’s exposure to ticks all summer long.

When you sign up for Westminster tick control spray treatments next summer, it will eliminate tick control in Westminster MA85-90% of the ticks in your yard all summer long.  Treatments are scheduled at your convenience every 21 days.  The spray will eliminate newly hatched ticks, nymph ticks and adult ticks in your yard.  Ticks brought into your yard by any animals such as squirrels, raccoons, fox and deer will be eliminated by the spray.  Using the tick tube program now and the barrier spray next spring through next fall will reduce your exposure to tick-borne infections.

The town of Westminster has posted an online document explaining the Steps You Can Take in preventing ticks in your yard.  The document highlights the importance of using a licensed applicator in treating your yard to prevent ticks.  A link to a Tick Management Handbook published by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention is also in this informative document.

A licensed Westminster tick control spray applicator will be fully trained and qualified in providing the tick tube and barrier spray services you need to protect you, your family and pets.

Dave Macchia, tick control enthusiast
Dave Macchia, Tick Control Enthusiast