When the weather is nice isn’t it great to be outdoors communing with nature?
I love hiking through the woods or viewing nature by a pond or river.
There is only one problem. There are some creatures in nature who are looking for a meal, and humans are on the menu.
I speak of the dreaded tick!
Ticks have been around, well, since the beginning of time. The ancient Greek writers even mentioned them! Ticks are arachnids and they are part of the mite family, which live by feeding from the blood of mammals, birds and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. And these nasty creatures transmit a whole slew of illnesses such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. In 2012, Lyme disease was included as one of the top ten notifiable diseases by the Center for Disease Control.
But there is hope. Here, at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia, there is The U.S. National Tick Collection. With over one million specimens…that are ticks! Researchers here are working to understand these devious, small creatures and the diseases they carry. And being that this collection is at Georgia Southern University, it is hoped that students will continue the research because it is desperately needed.
Currently, the CDC estimates that there are over 329,000 new cases of Lyme disease each year in the United States alone.
These are some frightening statistics, fuel for thought and another Stories, Secrets and Sagas episode!