Ep. 269 (Coffee Time) Ticks, Limes Disease, and A Hunter’s Guide to Staying Safe in The Field
With summer in full swing across the Midwest, we’re tackling a topic that’s critical for every farmer, hunter, and outdoor enthusiast: the growing threat of ticks. More than just a nuisance, species like the infamous Deer Tick, the common American Dog Tick, and the aggressive Lone Star Tick present a real risk, carrying illnesses like Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Anaplasmosis.
Beyond personal protection, we also explore the bigger conservation picture: how thoughtful land management and healthy habitats can help reduce tick populations. This conversation is all about giving you the knowledge to work and play outdoors with confidence and peace of mind.
Check out this episode of the Prairie Farm Podcast to find out more!
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00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;02
Unknown
I ate sugar yesterday. Yeah, drank sugar yesterday. You seem so. First time in a while. No no no no. It smells better. Eggnog in July. Everybody's favorite dairy company. Andy. Yeah. They do eggnog. They do Christmas in July. They do eggnog. And I love, love eggnog lattes. I like them more than any sort of flavored latte. Any any kind of coffee?
00;00;23;02 - 00;00;42;00
Unknown
Eggnog latte is my favorite. But yesterday, I did half milk, half eggnog. Cause I've been doing sugar for a few months, and I. It was way too sweet. Even just a half eggnog. Way too sweet. So, did you throw up? No, but I like, didn't like. I got down to the last third and I really didn't want the rest.
00;00;42;03 - 00;01;01;13
Unknown
But you drank it anyways. I drank. That's nice. I gonna let you go two ways. No. I paid for that sugar. I'm gonna eat it. Dave Ramsey showed up on his shoulder. You paid for that? Yeah. You know what? The best thing that my wife and I say this all the time. What is the best thing you can do for the world with candy?
00;01;01;16 - 00;01;28;14
Unknown
As soon as you buy it. The best thing for the world. For the world, for you, for your family, for your bison. Assuming it's already been paid for. I guess eat it. No, brother it is. Throw it away. It is because if you eat it, you'll be a worse human. You'll be more. You'll have more toxins.
00;01;28;14 - 00;01;51;12
Unknown
More. You know, more of this stuff that's banned in these other countries. And now got a warning label in Texas. So it's literally better to just throw candy. It's better for the world to throw candy away, but then they'll just keep they'll just keep making it because it's being bought. Yeah, but what what what's better. But there's no there's no benefit ever coming from there's no benefit of you eating might be happy.
00;01;51;14 - 00;02;10;17
Unknown
I mean, maybe for a short period, but there's a lot of data and there's a lot of data on mood and sugar way into it. That's got to weigh into it. Like like joy of like, I guess maybe if you gave it away, if you're having like, you know, it's Halloween or something and these little kids come up to your house and you get that little warm feeling.
00;02;10;18 - 00;02;26;19
Unknown
Here you go. Here's a Snickers bar. You know, maybe that would be the benefit. And then if the kid just went threw it in the dumpster after you were, after you got after the giver got the warm feeling receiver, and now it depends on it has to be some kind of positive thing to come from it. For that to be true.
00;02;26;19 - 00;02;44;01
Unknown
I feel consumption because. Because the best thing would then just be sugar and buying it. So then it's stopped being made. Well, yeah. No, but I'm saying what it was just made. If it was already bought or if it was already paid for. So that's already said and done. Now, if it has been bought by the company, gets money.
00;02;44;01 - 00;03;01;00
Unknown
Yeah. And it pays. So there's the there's your benefit. There's some trace that we could source there. But I mean like you could, you could, you could compare sugar to cocaine and be like, well there's got to be some benefit to someone to, you know, stimulate the economy. If your friend hands you cocaine, it's already been paid for.
00;03;01;00 - 00;03;21;09
Unknown
The best thing you can do with that stuff is throw it away. Yeah. I guess if you put it into the context of cocaine, I guess. Yeah. Have you go that far? What? What are the cacao leaves? All right. So you guys are talking like you're all like, yeah, I, I eat food for joy. I watch Riley every day.
00;03;21;17 - 00;03;45;13
Unknown
Yeah, I see peanuts, and I see kidney stones. Every single bag with the oxalate consistency. He's like, you guys know what an almond bomb is? My wife recently taught me what this is, Dutch letter. No, no, no. Almond moms are moms. And mom, I said, oh, yeah. No no no no no, it's. What the. It's a mom who is determined that their kids are going to be skinny.
00;03;45;19 - 00;04;03;07
Unknown
So the joke is like a kid comes his mom. I'm hungry. He says, okay, first you drink water and then you have one almond. And if that one almond, doesn't fill, then we'll see where we're at after that one. Oh, it's called being an almond mom. And I. I've never heard that is an almond mom. I wonder if that kind of parent.
00;04;03;07 - 00;04;22;24
Unknown
Not for your kids. But I wonder for me, I wonder if that kind of parenting ever, like, ever in the history of the world, has had any kind of permanence with the children. It's one tells me the second they're out from the, what do they call it, the control diet, then? They, they, probably going to make some choices that are not water at all for their diet.
00;04;22;28 - 00;04;36;05
Unknown
Yeah. Creating that Dorito feed, an 18 year old Dorito thing right there. It's going to be snorting pixie dust. Yeah. Oh, man, that's so funny. Going.
00;04;36;07 - 00;04;48;05
Unknown
Coffee time Wednesdays with, the Prairie Farm podcast. Can't hit us with the jingle. Dee dee dee dee dee dee.
00;04;48;07 - 00;05;09;01
Unknown
Welcome back to the Prairie Farm podcast. Coffee time Wednesday. I'm your favorite host, Nicholas Leary. Your favorite co-hosts can be your favorite coast to the coast, Riley Rose and all of that pixie stick. Riley, wipe your nose off. Those were, I think that's one of the things we're going to look back on in about 50 years. You know how people look back at asbestos now?
00;05;09;02 - 00;05;26;13
Unknown
They're gonna look like Pixy Stix and be like, that was really awful. Why did we do that? You never see those bees. It'll be like the kid that used to do this. It'll show like, you know, a picture of some kid who did. You guys are having this in school? We're giving, like, snort a string or dental floss or something up their nose.
00;05;26;16 - 00;05;44;12
Unknown
They'd pull it out through, like, the roof of their their palate. They'd, like, wiggle it back and forth. No, no, that was my God. Yeah, I know multiple kids that would do that the wrong way. And then the meme will be the meme. I'll be like, this kid is in jail now. The snorting Pixy Stix could probably, fit in that category as well.
00;05;44;19 - 00;06;05;07
Unknown
Yeah, just trying to feel something. Just trying to feel anything. And fifth grade, man, I just remember, like, Valentine's Day where all the kids are handing out candy to the other kids. And I remember thinking, like, why are we doing this? Yeah. Why am I not getting anything? You know, what is everybody keep asking my desk. It was a really sad time for me.
00;06;05;09 - 00;06;23;04
Unknown
Yeah, the the middle school, social lessons that we learned. They, last a lifetime. Whether we like it or not. Right, man? Well, Ken's got a topic, but first, we're kind of in a hurry. We've got June grass to harvest, and we've got some other things going on. We've got some equipment that still to be worked on.
00;06;23;04 - 00;06;42;08
Unknown
Ripken. So I'm so sorry. I know we talked about we'd have a question this week, I promise you. Totally. We're going to your next question, next week. And we will we'll jump back in then. But for now, we got to get back on the farm. It's just there's I can hear the hum of the, the dryer fans drying out some Ohio spider.
00;06;42;08 - 00;07;01;10
Unknown
Where in your house? It's in. It's in three wagons. I pushed those wagons. Yeah. I want everyone to know with my own muscles. And I was sore for days just to do that in jeans, I did it. No I didn't. Shorts. Good. Because you'd probably be dead right now. But the heat that there was, it was so hot.
00;07;01;10 - 00;07;21;08
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And we had to get them lined up and our skid loader was being worked on. And they're the wagons. What do you call those where the wheel and the tongue, like, turn together? There is a term for that I can't see right now. Free wheeling, floating free willy. Anyway, the, So it was, though, so it's very difficult to back up and steer.
00;07;21;08 - 00;07;39;15
Unknown
Like, if you get it lined up perfectly, you could back it up. So I had to push by hand. These wagons, they have a bunch of Ohio's firewood and it drying. And it was very heavy and, you know, like one little bump in the gravel, I'm like, oh, like, tried to rock out. Yeah. You can't put your full strength into it because you have to, like, steer the tongue.
00;07;39;16 - 00;07;59;29
Unknown
Yeah. Pushing that is that was all there. Like max effort is like 70%. And one of those tongues is not like the other. One of those tongues is very heavy. Yeah, man. So anyway, so those are drying in the back room. So if you hear a little hum, that's because our editing couldn't get it out and you had to put it in because we got like a ridic amount of rain this weekend.
00;08;00;04 - 00;08;17;26
Unknown
I'm glad I'm glad I talked about it a little bit. Yeah. Like, oh yeah, we're supposed to get a little bit, you know, we're. I even talked to Nicholas. I was like, I think we just tarp them. I mean, the forecast. Yeah. He's very tense. Yeah. And that's what it was. That was what? That's what the weather app was for.
00;08;17;28 - 00;08;40;00
Unknown
We got three inches I think in Knoxville. Yeah we got six inches in. My house has car for four and a quarter maybe. Yeah that's crazy I mean this is probably the only rain we need in July. Yeah. No. Well problem is it as we've talked about before is we don't hold on to it. No, no, no, but I hope I hope we get rain once a week for the, for all of July.
00;08;40;02 - 00;08;56;14
Unknown
Very good. My wife asked. She said what's optimal like rain cycle. And I was like, I really don't know. But my guess is like an inch every ten days. I don't know. What are your thoughts? Yeah, maybe like, maybe, you know, 3 or 4 tenths a week, something like that would be okay. It'd be nice. Yeah, yeah, something like that.
00;08;56;17 - 00;09;20;06
Unknown
The more important question is infiltration rate, right? You know, if if it's slow enough, 4/10 goes as far as an inch, you know, in 20 minutes. So. Yeah. Oh, cool. Well, we shouldn't hold up any longer. I wanted to also talk about you know, obviously this is a news type of podcast. And what happened, Kerr County, Texas is just, terrible tragedy this weekend.
00;09;20;08 - 00;09;45;27
Unknown
Obviously we weren't the only place to get quite a bit of rainfall. Down there in Texas, they did as well. And, and, you know, I just hate seeing events like that where, you know, loss of, quite a bit of life. You know, we, I think last year was Iowa's worst tornado season, possibly on record just for number of tornadoes.
00;09;46;00 - 00;10;08;04
Unknown
But I would imagine that, there was more. I don't know for sure, but I think that there was far more lives lost in this one flash flood event. And, Texas in their world, in Iowa's busiest tornado season. So, I mean, it just shows you the magnitude of how that's impacting those communities, communities there.
00;10;08;07 - 00;10;33;07
Unknown
And, that's just from the loss of life. And then, of course, a lot of people have property damage, on top of that. So, our thoughts and our prayers are with, Kerr County, Texas as, they, kind of climb out of this mess here and, and, hopefully come together as community and, and, hopefully, are able to, get the peace and comfort that they need at this time.
00;10;33;07 - 00;11;02;07
Unknown
So, but, Nick, just, I'm trying to kill the crush for some reason. They're all around me and Teddy Riley. No, no, it was close. Isn't it nice? I did start, I watched it every other every 6 or 7. Where's. But no, my other topic is, As I was, looking for topics this weekend, tick borne illness came up and I had seen something on it just this last week.
00;11;02;10 - 00;11;25;07
Unknown
So I thought, you know, maybe I'll talk about how we're trying to get to the bottom of the weird cases. Yeah, he's been really trying to figure those out. The first is, like, how many tick borne illnesses there are? How many? You know, what's the prevalence like today? But, I kind of just zeroed in on one of them, which is pronounced pah wasson.
00;11;25;07 - 00;11;51;02
Unknown
I looked up the pronunciation, and I think that was how it said it to how it said to pronounce it. Paul Wasson this was in was, Wisconsin's news, last week, I believe, maybe two weeks ago, because unfortunately, somebody who contracted Powassan from a tick bite, died of the disease. And I have heard about Poston for a few years now.
00;11;51;04 - 00;12;16;19
Unknown
And, you know, it was kind of, so there's the different tick borne illnesses, right? The most common cause you guys hear most times, Lyme disease and Lyme disease is what most people think of. And actually Lyme disease and lyme's are two different things. Fun fact. I'll, I'll, have to take your word anyway, but, my my, are a close relative of mine.
00;12;16;19 - 00;12;36;08
Unknown
I will say I won't, I won't zero in on who it is. I actually just, got sick with Lyme disease here in the last few weeks, and thankfully, they're doing better now. And, big, shout out to their medical care, because when this person first called, they were like, hey, can I just get some Tamiflu?
00;12;36;08 - 00;12;54;17
Unknown
I think I'm coming out with the flu. I got flu like symptoms. And they were like, man, you need to come in. We need to look at you because they thought this is weird getting the flu this time of year. Yeah. Very good chance. Could be a tick borne problem. And because they did that, we're able to get this person antibiotics so quickly.
00;12;54;19 - 00;13;21;09
Unknown
It it, took care of it relatively quickly. They still were very sick, you know, had a lot of, they this person has had viral meningitis in the past, which is so bacterial meningitis is like a grim Reaper type disease, right. Like that, that for most people to get that, it leaves major permanent damage, if not death, but viral meningitis is, still extremely miserable sickness.
00;13;21;11 - 00;13;47;02
Unknown
A lot of, like, swelling in around your brain, in the. Well, not in your brain, but inside your skull, in the meninges, which is like the little, cushioning membranes inside of our skull and spinal canal. So the the, she she likened this sickness to that. And, so it tells you it's very miserable, right?
00;13;47;02 - 00;14;07;00
Unknown
Yeah. And, but thankfully, doing better. Other tick borne illnesses. We know Powassan, right? Do you guys know of any other ones that have hit the news? Rocky mountain? Yeah. Right on spider feeder. Yeah, yeah. And I was doing a little reading on that. I think it's from Cleveland Clinic. That can be fatal. Yeah. Rocky mountain spotted fever can be fatal.
00;14;07;04 - 00;14;25;04
Unknown
So when they say it can be fatal, it's like the person's already kind of got a frail system. And so it's kind of the moon or the moon in the sign up to align perfectly. Or it's just like sometimes it is bad enough that they die. Yeah, I think it's more that I like it. I mean, I'm sure it, you know, it always helps to be healthier.
00;14;25;06 - 00;14;43;24
Unknown
Yeah. But sometimes, you know, we kind of saw this with, people who were dying from Covid do right there be usually you can expect it to be. Oh, that person was really old or they had all these other comorbidity comorbidities, but sometimes it was just people who, you know, they were young and healthy and just. And it just laid them out.
00;14;43;26 - 00;15;01;23
Unknown
Right. Yeah. So I think it's kind of that situation where, for whatever reason, your body just does not handle it well. And, that's my limited understanding of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. And then there's one other one that hits the news fairly often, too. You guys think of this one. I'm, I'm putting the nickels here. I'll give you a hint.
00;15;01;25 - 00;15;21;02
Unknown
The Lone Star tick is the, vector for this. It's the. Is it the one where you can't eat red meat anymore? I can't remember the name of it. Isn't that crazy? I told you guys. Really? Just like a steel trap. You probably heard that in, like, third grade. Once in the background. Like, I'm probably not, because I don't think it was really.
00;15;21;02 - 00;15;43;10
Unknown
So. It hasn't really been big until the last five, ten years. Yeah, that I've really heard about it. Yeah. So you can't eat red meat because of this tick. Yeah. Causes you. So I was doing some reading on this too. I think this was from the CDC. It causes you to be allergic to a sugar that is produced by mammals allergic to a sugar that is produced by mammals.
00;15;43;10 - 00;16;11;28
Unknown
Yeah. Interesting. So some mammalian products, will trigger a, Which is weird because we're mammals. Yeah. How are we not just allergic to ourselves? I don't know, almost like, you know, like, if somebody gets a organ transplant and they go through rejection, you would think you'd maybe almost have that kind of a response. But, if you eat meat coming from a mammal or even dairy products, can, can trigger reaction.
00;16;12;00 - 00;16;39;11
Unknown
But the one we're going to talk about is potion. Which potion is, most of this research is coming from, the CDC today. Is a is a flavivirus. Flavivirus, something like that. But if you want to say like five right now, I know you said that. Yeah. Over ten people in my,
00;16;39;13 - 00;17;15;27
Unknown
Other, other, well known viruses in that, that genus, viruses, would include, dengue fever. So a mosquito borne illness and, yellow fever and Zika virus and West Nile virus, which, aren't those are all mosquito. I believe can be mosquitoes. I believe so I, I'm not sure about yellow fever. I think it is, mosquito borne as well, but but yeah, so they are they're, you know, it's kind of a common thing.
00;17;15;27 - 00;17;44;19
Unknown
They're something that is, you know, carried by a, an invertebrate. Right. And then ends up biting a human and getting into the human right. And so you think about those diseases, my uncle, worked with somebody. I believe this person was here in Iowa who, contracted West Nile virus, and they're, like, in their 50s.
00;17;44;19 - 00;18;12;12
Unknown
And they ended up, for a time, I think they were, completely paralyzed. And and now today, they're like a, I think they can walk on occasion now, but they oftentimes are, are, are wheelchair bound because of the effects of that. So, I mean, very, very serious illness. Right. Yeah. And and so this is in the same genus of that Powassan is it comes from the same tick.
00;18;12;12 - 00;18;38;24
Unknown
As far as I understand, the blackleg tick. We usually call them deer ticks. The real tiny little black ticks, you know, that are almost heart. You almost don't see them. They are the carriers of it. Same as Lyme disease, right? And, they get it from feeding on other, like, rodents and stuff that, that carry the virus.
00;18;38;26 - 00;19;07;10
Unknown
And so they pick it up when they're feeding the, the article I read said specifically, squirrels and maybe the other one was, mice, if I remember correctly. Pick it up from there, get on a human bite. The human and they, you know, as they're, you know, circulating saliva and blood through their little beaks, they, they get it into us, and then we get the, the, effects.
00;19;07;14 - 00;19;37;20
Unknown
So, so the symptoms, I believe, start like flu, like, similar to line, but then lead to encephalitis, which is swelling of the brain. Meningitis, swelling of the meninges, the, the like I was telling you that membrane that cushioning membrane inside our skulls and our, our spinal canal. So the actual not I didn't say spinal column because that includes the whole vertebrae, just the actual form and the opening that your spinal cord runs through, that is lined with these meninges as well.
00;19;37;20 - 00;19;59;29
Unknown
And that caused that to swell. So now you're putting a lot of pressure in that opening inside your skull. There's a lot of pressure in between your brain and your skull and your spinal cord and your spine. And so, that's not good, right? That's your central nervous system. That's the. That's like, spilling coffee on the, you know, like the tower on the old computers where you had a tower, right?
00;19;59;29 - 00;20;31;11
Unknown
It's not. This might make it, but, you know, it's going to cause some serious damage, most likely. And so Pawson has that effect, and, and unfortunately, in this case, for this guy, for Wisconsin, he ended up passing away from it. This year, there's been 11 cases reported. But I did read something interesting on the CDC website said that, you know, they they were basically doing a disclaimer for we don't know if this data is, you know, most accurate data.
00;20;31;11 - 00;20;54;17
Unknown
Here's why. And it could have just been a generic statement for why the real time data isn't always next. Looking like he's got Paul right now. His central nervous system just blanked. No, I mean, I just sounds so horrible. He's, he's considering categorizing this podcast in the horror category just for this episode. Sorry, Doug, we're not going to be coming to see anywhere.
00;20;54;19 - 00;21;13;07
Unknown
But. Oh, yeah, he's thinking about it. I gotta go to Woodstock. I'm going to Wisconsin here in a month. And they said there's been 11 cases in six different states. And the disclaimer was, well, there may be some light cases that people aren't reporting. So I don't I don't know if that's just a generic statement like we say that on everything.
00;21;13;07 - 00;21;32;17
Unknown
Oh, all of our data for this year, we might not know at all. It could be could be talking about rhinovirus, which is the cold, right. Common cold. Or if it's no, there are very mild cases of pollution that people don't even, you know, don't even realize they're seriously sick or something at. So, I don't know, I think usually it makes people pretty sick.
00;21;32;24 - 00;21;56;19
Unknown
And but that being said, thankfully, even with the very small number, it's thankfully it's it's very rare still. And only one out of the 11 people have passed away from it. So, you know, it sounds like you're getting miserably sick, but there's a pretty good chance you can, you know, with medical care, you can you can fight it off.
00;21;56;22 - 00;22;15;13
Unknown
But, yeah, it's, it's something, interesting. And, and I think we need to. As I was researching this, I was thinking, we need to talk. We need to do a full length podcast with a tick borne illness. Pathologist sometime and just go through. I don't think we do. What are these? I think we need to do that.
00;22;15;16 - 00;22;38;27
Unknown
Oh, that's becoming a I mean, a lot of people listening to this podcast, we Riley, myself, spend a lot of time outdoors, even if we're not working recreate and I, I think, every. Whoa, hey, whoa, wait a minute. I spent a lot of time outdoors walking from the coffee shop to a street. Eight steps.
00;22;39;00 - 00;23;03;19
Unknown
My wife and I go on a walk every day on the sidewalk, though, right? Yeah, often. But often not. Well, sometimes we'll go to Red Rock, or sometimes we go in the people's lawns. Just look at the sidewalks closed. I like I like to, I like to, break the rules on highways. Just anywhere there's an HOA, I'm going to step on some grass while you're going to get posted.
00;23;03;22 - 00;23;22;17
Unknown
Now, the the, I think it would just be good to like, really find out. And then the other question is, why is this all of a sudden? So common. Right. You heard it. You definitely heard of people. So I'm the oldest one here and I, I had an uncle who he's still living. When I was a little kid I was aware of Lyme disease.
00;23;22;17 - 00;23;48;09
Unknown
Right. We go up to Wisconsin is where he's located. And, you know, me and my older cousin, we'd play football in the yard or we'd wrestle or whatever. You know, and his mom would always be like, guys, get out of the grass. You're going to get taxed, you know, all that kind of stuff. And that was because her brother, my uncle, he, contracted Lyme disease, you know, so we're talking over 30 years ago.
00;23;48;09 - 00;24;13;04
Unknown
I've, I've known about it that long. So it's been around for a while, but certainly now, I bet you if I sat down and, like, can't list every person that you know of, that are you're personally connected to some way. It might be a kid of a friend or something like that, but like all the people you know that have Lyme disease or who have gotten Lyme disease, and I'd have a pretty long list, and, and a lot of those would just be coming within the last ten years.
00;24;13;04 - 00;24;35;00
Unknown
And so it it certainly seems to be increasing in prevalence. I did see a chart from CDC that showed that that yes, we are more people per 100,000. So that same sample size and I think it was from 1992 to 2022, that the data that was represented, you've definitely seen a a very upward trend for people getting Lyme disease.
00;24;35;02 - 00;24;55;19
Unknown
But also now posting is a new thing we're hearing about. As Riley said earlier, alpha gal over the last 5 to 10. Yeah. Hearing more of that, I don't know as much about Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. And then also you see it in, I think we've talked about this before in the podcast as well, the moose populations in New England.
00;24;55;22 - 00;25;14;07
Unknown
Yeah. I heard that. I think I've seen a video of a moose just covered it. Yeah. They're getting they're getting decimated by tick load. Like they're literally drinking the calves dry of their blood. I think, you can fact check me on this. I know you have before on the podcast, but I think the average calf has around.
00;25;14;09 - 00;25;39;07
Unknown
It's like 50 to 60,000 ticks on them. Well, there's been an ongoing discussion, too, about, we live in such an altered eco ecosystem. What what's the role of fire in tick suppression? What's the role of, all kinds of these habitat management decisions that are having knock on effects, right? Yeah. You know, choices we make have, 47,000 ticks on its body on average.
00;25;39;07 - 00;25;58;13
Unknown
Wow. I'm proud to have as much as 100,000. Well, I wouldn't want to be the guy. That's job is to count. The count the ticks. Yeah. Yeah. You bring up some great points there, Riley. One thing my dad suggested once, and this is just a hypothesis. But I'd love to. I'd love to hear an expert weigh in on it.
00;25;58;13 - 00;26;21;24
Unknown
Is, the effect of losing our passenger pigeons. So passenger pigeons were incredibly like, unimaginably numerous. So, so many of them, that when they'd roost in, like, an oak tree, they would there'd be so many of them on a branch. The branch would literally fall out of the tree with all the weight of all these. And then they would take days for a flock of parsnips.
00;26;21;24 - 00;26;40;07
Unknown
You're talking billions and billions of these birds. And, you know, I don't know, maybe they didn't eat ticks at all, but they're the right size of a bird that would eat text. And they spent a lot of time in trees, you know, roosting in trees and, and, you know, in forested areas. So I think it would have made sense that they would have been eating some ticks.
00;26;40;14 - 00;27;01;27
Unknown
Pretty good theory. And, you know, maybe that we've kind of hit this, you know, maybe they had held them down for so long. Those populations, those tick populations down for so long that it's taken, you know, because it's been like the last one died off was in the early 30s or late 1920s, 1920s. Yeah. When so many moons or 20s, maybe Martha was the last one.
00;27;01;27 - 00;27;24;15
Unknown
Right. Yeah. Maybe that, maybe that you know, gap in that predator prey curve has finally spiked in favor of the prey. And that's what works for I don't know, it's a good spitball, but I think Riley's right. Fire is probably the most, well, one of the most that, animal populations as well, you know, deer, rodents.
00;27;24;15 - 00;27;43;25
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We suppress rodent predators like coyotes. Are we seeing an increase? Morrison Road trapping a lot of possum. That was actually mentioned in one of the article. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And deer. So over populations of deer. And we don't have that here in Iowa. So much like in Wisconsin you do in a lot of other places, you know.
00;27;43;25 - 00;28;01;22
Unknown
So you're saying that we're giving them in a, we're giving ticks an abundance of food. Right. Okay. Yeah. And then but lack of rodents is so the rodents aren't eating the ticks. Rodents don't really I don't think rodents eat a lot of ticks. I think it's they're more food for birds. And our bird populations have certainly been going away.
00;28;01;24 - 00;28;21;20
Unknown
The rodents, the rodents or something ticks can latch on to. Well, so there's more rodents. There's more rodents and more deer. Right. Yeah. Oh, because there's less predators in general. Yeah. So, so all these things coming together. Right. And and so I think it'd just be great to get an expert to like, set a straight on, on what is really going on here with the tick problem in the United States.
00;28;21;23 - 00;28;42;03
Unknown
Yeah. One of my favorite things, a couple prevention things real quick. First of all, the states that are most affected, New England and northern Great Lakes, where light colored clothes, you know, you know why that is? So you can see them. Yeah. I, I was like, was that some kind of like, way that you can, like, they don't like that or they don't that I'll see you as well or whatever.
00;28;42;03 - 00;29;02;26
Unknown
Pick up your heat, your your, infrared image or whatever. Now it's just so you can see them when they're on you better. Yeah. So where like close if you're going to the woods and they do recommend using Deet which has its own health concerns. Right. And permethrin as well is another is another thing.
00;29;02;26 - 00;29;26;15
Unknown
I've used both of those products. I will say this and it's, this is something that I've, borrowed from the logic of Stephen Ranelagh. He says, I know the effects of Deet and permethrin, but I've had Lyme disease. I'm telling you, that poses a much more immediate threat to my health. Yeah. So I will endure the, the and permethrin, and I agree with that.
00;29;26;15 - 00;29;46;21
Unknown
I've used permethrin and I've been amazed at how effective that stuff works. Well, and you can even use permethrin pretty strategically if you're if you're talking, like your, your pants into, like, long socks or boots of some sort, you can apply permethrin around like the cuffs where it's not, not your skin contact. There's there's ways to get around enemy.
00;29;46;22 - 00;30;13;12
Unknown
It's not a no risk, but neither is mine. So. Right. Yeah. Be careful out there, folks. Yeah. And, Yeah. Always, check yourself. You know, hop in the shower. I usually try to do that anyway, just for, like, poison ivy or poison. Yeah, whatever. Wild parsnip. Hop in the shower after you go. You know, on a on a summer hike or, fishing trip or whatever, where you're in the woods, in tick country.
00;30;13;12 - 00;30;37;12
Unknown
And then give yourself a quick look over to, before you, get the shower. Yeah. I was always told that. Really? You. I don't know, this is the benefit of having a tick borne expert on. I'm about to, perjure myself here. I was always told that you have a couple hours. You know, you can get a tick on you, and they spend a couple of hours trying to figure out where they want to go before they really bite you and start circulating those kinds of bacteria.
00;30;37;14 - 00;30;53;20
Unknown
I mean, I, I have found that. Yeah. You do you have a little time. You do have some time, but one time, my mom up in Wisconsin, she walked off the there she was on a walk with my dad. There was, like, on the shoulder of this country road, and she saw some wildflowers down in the ditch.
00;30;53;22 - 00;31;09;28
Unknown
She went down to pick some wildflowers. Yeah. And by the time she got, she was down for maybe five minutes. When she got back to the house, she had 13 ticks on her. And I think like 5 or 6 of them were already embedded. Wow. So I mean they can think you're working on it pretty quick.
00;31;09;28 - 00;31;26;28
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. That be a folk folk myth. I'm perpetrating here. Yeah yeah yeah I would, I would just try to take care of it as quickly as possible. Yeah. And I will say this some people are more attractive to ticks and others, unfortunately for my friend Caleb, who I don't much at hunting with, he is that person.
00;31;27;01 - 00;31;45;11
Unknown
So I just have him walk in front of me, and then I. It's all. He's, He's the magnet gentleman eating so many Cheetos. His blood just fill. It's like orange powder. Oh, what actually happens is it clogs. Yeah. I got a funny story. So, my uncles, who are still living up in Wisconsin, I just went to visit him recently.
00;31;45;13 - 00;32;03;15
Unknown
Awesome time. Right. Great mechanics as well. They had a friend who was on so many medications that, when he would, he swore when he would get bitten by a mosquito, the mosquito would just drop dead.
00;32;03;17 - 00;32;28;09
Unknown
And I heard from an eyewitness, they told me that it was true. Just fall off. And that. That is so crazy. Fortunately, that friend is no longer with us. Oh, man. All right, well, everyone listening, we really appreciate you. If you haven't left us a review and or subscribe, you don't have to do that. But the more views we get, the more the Apple Podcasts and Spotify puts us in front of other listeners.
00;32;28;11 - 00;32;45;06
Unknown
We don't make any more money from it, but other listeners actually start to see and hear things about conservation. And I think that makes a big difference in the world. So if you, live in an apartment and aren't allowed to have plants and can't do anything else for conservation and have no money, you can leave a review.
00;32;45;08 - 00;32;55;14
Unknown
All right. We'll talk to you again next time.
