From one of the planet’s most notorious parasites to a number of cases in which its
bite has caused severe damage, join us today as we ask are ticks turning predatory?
Number 5 Lee Farmer British professional outdoor instructor Lee
Farmer had braved the world’s most dangerous jungles and even climbed Mount Everest.
In May 2015, he led a team of mountaineers through the Nepalese Himalayas.
Then, by the end of June, by his own admission, he was “as weak as a kitten”.
Farmer had contracted Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick, close to his home in North
Wessex Downs.
The disease is caused by the Borrelia bacterium, for which ticks are vectors.
Symptoms include headaches, muscle and joint pain, extreme fatigue and sensitivity to light
and sound.
The bullseye rash around Farmer’s bite kept growing and soon he started feeling severe
pain in his muscles and kidneys.
After being diagnosed, his doctor placed him on strong antibiotics thus commencing his
road to recovery.
Next up, a two-year-old boy is left fighting for his life after a tick bite but, first,
let’s find out more about these deadly bloodsuckers.
Ticks are small creatures, from 0.1 to 0.2 inches long, which belong to the Parasitiformes
order.
Their life cycle has four stages from egg to larvae, to nymphs and then adults.
To survive and move from one stage to the other, ticks feed on the blood of mammals
and birds as well as some species of reptiles and amphibians.
An adult tick’s body features two segments and legs tipped with claws.
The anterior part is retractable and contains mouthparts adapted for piercing through skin.
As the tick’s pear-shaped body becomes engorged with blood, for some species, it may increase
its weight up to 600 times.
Ticks are extremely resilient creatures and may go without feeding for up to 18 weeks
and survive in near-vacuum for as long as half an hour.
These creatures are also known carriers of diseases which can be transmitted to humans,
with potentially fatal consequences.
Before we continue with our list, answer this question.
Which of these animals belongs to the same animal class as the tick?
Is it the a.
Mosquito b.
Dragonfly c.
Scorpion d.
Flea Let us know what you think in the comments
section below and stay tuned to find out the right answer.
Number 4 Jackson Oblisk Kaya Oblisk, from Kentucky, US, came close
to living every mother’s worst nightmare, after her two-year-old son was bitten by a
tick.
Her son, Jackson, developed a potentially deadly disease called Rocky Mountain spotted
fever.
Light pink spots formed all-over his body and he couldn’t move, eat or drink.
Jackson would also scream in pain whenever anyone tried to touch him.
Oblisk rushed her son to the hospital, as his fever had spiked to over 105 degrees.
If she’d waited any longer, he could have succumbed to organ failure.
After he was diagnosed with the disease, Jackson went into a coma for nearly a week.
He was treated with antibiotics and woke up on the day of his second birthday.
Complications from Rocky Mountain spotted fever may include partial paralysis or the
development of gangrene requiring amputation of the arms, legs, toes or fingers.
Before moving on to our next listing, involving a 5-year-old girl left temporarily paralyzed
by a tick attack, let’s see where we might find ticks in the wild.
Ticks have been around ever since the Cretaceous period, 146 to 66 million years ago.
Specimens have even been found preserved in amber, along with dinosaur feathers.
This would indicate that the tick has also been a parasite of dinosaurs.
Nowadays, ticks enjoy a global distribution and tend to be found where their host species
occur.
They may also move across various areas as parasites of migratory birds.
Ticks prefer warm, humid climates because they need a certain degree of moisture in
the air when they undergo metamorphosis.
Most tick species are split into two families – hard ticks, also known as Ixodidae and
soft ticks, or Argasidae.
The difference is that hard ticks have a dorsal shield and their mouthparts are in a beak-like
formation at the front, instead of on the underside, of their bodies.
While most ticks prefer to lie in tall grass, those from the Hyalomma genus are known to
live in harsh desert conditions.
Because host organisms are hard to come by, these creatures tend to be more aggressive
when a potential host is sensed.
Number 3 Averey Mell While the vast majority of tick-related diseases
come from pathogens, there’s also one that these creatures can cause on their own.
It’s called tick paralysis and it’s caused by neurotoxic compounds in the creature’s
saliva which are transmitted to the host.
When Ohio native Averey Mell arrived at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, doctors
were unsure what was making her sick.
The 5-year-old had fallen on the bathroom floor and was unable to breathe on her own
or feed herself.
Then Averey’s mother found two Dogwood ticks behind her ear, which were reportedly engorged
to about the size of a quarter.
Tick paralysis usually occurs when the tick is embedded in the human host for a long time.
Averey slowly returned to normal, after the ticks were removed and no longer transmitting
the neurotoxins.
Before we move up to some truly startling tick behavior, let’s check out how these
creatures can actually kill you.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect about the tick is its incredible ability to detect a
host.
This is done through a unique sensory structure, known as Haller’s organ, located in a minute
cavity on its front-most leg.
It can detect odors and chemicals emanating from the host as well as vibrations or changes
in temperature and air currents.
Through Haller’s organ, a tick can even perceive infrared light given out by the host.
Some ticks will cling to leaves or grass with their first legs outstretched waiting to attach
to an animal.
Others, namely those in the Hyalomma genus, will even chase down their prey.
Once a tick has chosen you as a host, it will burrow inside your skin, and attach itself
firmly.
By feeding on your blood, the tick also delivers pathogens such as viruses, bacteria or protozoa.
Additionally, the Australian paralysis tick can also inject neurotoxic venom.
Some of the many tick-borne diseases include Lyme disease, typhus, Q fever, Rocky Mountain
spotted fever or Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever.
There have been numerous cases in which complications from these diseases and others have resulted
in death.
Number 2 Predatory Behavior According to recent observations, ticks of
the Hyalomma genus might be turning predatory towards humans.
As previously mentioned, these ticks live in rough climates where finding a host can
be difficult.
It would seem that the Hyalomma ticks retain their predatory behavior wherever they’re
introduced.
In July, 2019, Hyalomma marginatum was spotted in the Netherlands as an invasive species.
When engorged with blood, this hard-bodied tick can grow to 0.7 inches in length, which
makes it a giant by tick standards.
It was most likely introduced to the country through seasonal bird migration.
Adults tend to prefer large mammals and have been observed tracking down a meal for hundreds
of feet and up to ten minutes.
With the abundance of food at their disposal in non-native environments, the bloodsucking
predators could easily spread.
That’s certainly bad news since they’re known carriers of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic
Fever, or CCHF, as well as a number of other dangerous diseases.
Next up, we learn more about CCHF and its first confirmed victim in the UK.
And we’ll see what can be done to prevent tick-borne infections.
So, which creature shares the same animal class as the tick?
The right answer was c, the scorpion.
Ticks, just like spiders and scorpions belong to the Arachnida order.
It was named after Arachne, a woman in Greek mythology who was turned into a spider after
challenging Athena, the goddess of wisdom, to a weaving contest.
Physical similarities between various arachnid species include having eight legs, an exoskeleton
and body segments that are fused together.
In case you’re diagnosed with a tick-borne disease, the proper treatment for it will
be determined by your doctor.
When it comes to Lyme disease, for example, antibiotics are the primary treatment.
Yet, it’s worth mentioning that bites don’t always lead to infection, particularly if
the tick is removed within 36 hours.
In the absence of proprietary removal tools, this can be done with a pair of fine-tipped
tweezers.
Don’t squeeze the tick, as it may spill out the contents of its stomach into the wound.
Always make sure to remove the tick in its entirety and clean the wound with soap and
water.
If you’re walking through infested areas, wear boots made of smooth rubber and tuck
you pants inside.
This will make it harder for ticks to latch on to you.
When it comes to controlling the tick population as a whole, one researched methods is the
release of the parasitoid Ixodiphagus hookeri.
This wasp species lays its eggs into ticks, killing them in the process.
Guineafowl and opossums are also among the natural destroyers of ticks.
Number 1 First Confirmed CCHF Case in the UK
Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever is, by all accounts, a horrifying disease.
It’s fatal in roughly 30% of cases.
Even in a laboratory setting, CCHF is dangerous enough to require biosafety level 4, the highest
available.
It’s a multi-layered security protocol that involves full hazmat suits and other forms
of containment.
Initial symptoms of infection include mental confusion, agitation and mood instability.
As CCHF progresses it can cause severe bleeding which gradually spreads throughout the body.
Death can come from liver failure, acute kidney failure or respiratory failure.
There’s no vaccine or treatment for Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever.
Outbreaks can result from contact with infected blood or bodily fluids.
In 2012, an unnamed 38-year-old man became the first laboratory-confirmed case of CCHF
in the UK.
He’d suffered an infected tick bite while in Afghanistan.
The man subsequently died in a military hospital.
Anyone who’d sat next to him on the plane ride to the UK was closely monitored for signs
of the disease.
Thanks for watching!
Would you rather let a tick burrow itself into your skin and start feeding OR get stung
by an Asian giant hornet?
Let us know in the comments section below!