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.

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.

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!