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Why Ticks Are So Hard To Kill - YouTube
Channel: Science Insider
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Benji Jones: In the summer of 2019,
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a bull was found dead on
a farm in North Carolina.
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Dead by exsanguination.
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Which means it was drained of blood.
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The culprit wasn't real-life vampires,
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but something just as frightening:
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an army of more than 1,000
Asian longhorned ticks.
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But here's the thing.
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As scary as that sounds,
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Asian longhorns are just one
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of about 90 tick species found in the US.
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All of them suck blood, all
of them can carry disease,
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and all of them are
incredibly difficult to kill.
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The Asian longhorned tick
is truly a villainous pest.
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Not only is it an invasive species,
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but it can also clone
itself over and over again.
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Since it was first reported in 2017,
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it's crawled its way to
at least 12 other states.
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Including where we are here, New York.
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Danielle Tufts: OK, so this is an adult.
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This looks like the Asian
longhorned tick to me.
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Jones: So this the infamous
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Asian longhorn tick?
Tufts: Yep.
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Jones: That's Danielle Tufts,
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a disease ecologist at
Columbia University.
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She's studying ticks in Staten Island
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to figure out what diseases they carry.
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But first, she has to collect them.
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Tufts: So, this is what
we call a drag cloth,
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and it's a meter by
meter, so a meter squared.
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And basically what we would do
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is we just walk at a nice, even, slow pace
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and drag this right behind us.
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And we'll stop every
about 20 meters or so,
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and we'll flip the cloth over,
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and we'll look for whatever
ticks are on the backside.
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Jones: Contrary to what
many people believe,
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ticks don't actively seek you out.
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Tufts: Ah, so here's a tick right here.
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Jones: Tick spotted!
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So many ticks in this forest.
Tufts: Oh, yeah.
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This is a very ticky forest.
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Jones: And they're definitely
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not jumping on you from trees.
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In fact, ticks can't even jump.
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They're actually more like opportunists
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who take what they can get.
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Tufts: Ticks are what we
call sit-and-wait predators,
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where they climb up to the
top of the blades of grass
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and they put their arms out.
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And at the top of their arms
they have little sticky pads.
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And those pads will get attracted to this.
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And this is how they
get stuck on your pants
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or on other animals in the wild as well.
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Jones: And what do you call the, like,
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when they stick their hands up like this?
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Tufts: We call that
questing or host-seeking.
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Jones: Yeah, ticks are
literally on a quest for blood!
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And they've mastered the
art of extracting it,
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all without getting caught.
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After a tick crawls onto you,
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it sneaks into a concealed
crevice, like your armpit.
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And after that, it uses two
horrifying hooklike structures
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to tear into your flesh
and keep from falling off.
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Then, they insert what
is basically a straw
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covered in spikes, like
a piece of barbed wire,
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which makes them even harder to remove.
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And this sounds like it would hurt, a lot.
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But ticks have another
trick up their sleeve,
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or rather their mouth.
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Saliva.
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It's a tick's ultimate
weapon to avoid detection.
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It contains pain-numbing properties,
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so you don't notice them
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even as they stab and rip your flesh.
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Plus, it suppresses your immune system,
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so the wound is less
likely to get red or itchy.
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That's why ticks can stay
in you undetected for days,
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even as they grow to several
times their normal size.
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And if you do find a tick
in time to get it off,
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it won't die easily.
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Tufts says that ticks can survive
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for as long as two years
without a blood meal.
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And they're also masters of the elements.
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They can tolerate long periods of drought,
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and some species can survive underwater
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for two to three days.
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So, yeah, flushing them
down the toilet or sink
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likely won't kill them.
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Tufts: If you put them
in the sink, sometimes
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they'll crawl back out of the sink.
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Jones: Now, all of this
wouldn't be such a big problem
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if it weren't for the diseases they carry.
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In the US alone,
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they transmit at least
16 diseases to humans.
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That's more than any other
insect, including mosquitoes.
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Lyme disease alone, for example,
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infects an estimated
300,000 Americans each year.
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And it's only getting worse.
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In 2004, there were about 23,000
cases of tick-borne disease
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reported to the CDC.
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But by 2017,
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that number had almost
tripled to nearly 60,000.
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But what isn't clear is why.
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Why ticks and the diseases
they carry are spreading.
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Though Tufts and other scientists say
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that climate change is
at least partly to blame.
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Tufts: We've been having
pretty mild winters,
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which can promote survival,
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overwintering survival of
hosts and of the vectors,
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which also will lead to new expansion.
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Jones: Whatever the reason,
there are tons of ticks.
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Pretty much everywhere.
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So, the next time you go for a hike,
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keep these tips in mind.
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Stay on the trails, where ticks
are less likely to hang out.
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Wear bug spray; preferably
something with DEET.
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Tuck your pants into your socks,
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so nothing can crawl onto your legs.
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Wear light clothes, so
anything that does get on you
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is easy to spot.
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And, of course, always do a tick check
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once you're out of the woods.
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All right, so we're gonna do a tick check,
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which you recommend doing
after you get out of the woods.
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Tufts: Absolutely.
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Jones: So, crevices...
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Tufts: What you want to
look for is on your pants.
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I wear rubber boots, so that
they don't crawl up there.
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But, like, for here, my pants,
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any of these little crevices
along here, I would look for.
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Jones: I mean, I feel like those
little guys are definitely,
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like, the larvae form are
definitely on me, right?
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Somewhere.
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Tufts: Maybe, maybe not.
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And then you want to check
up around your belt region.
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Jones: This is, like, not safe for work.
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Tufts: It's also good when
you are hiking with a friend
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to check each other.
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So, for instance, I would check your back.
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Jones: I feel like we're like
chimpanzees or something.
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Tufts: Yeah, grooming behavior.
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So, you want to check
all along the sleeves,
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on anywhere on the back.
Jones: So really, like,
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on top of clothing?
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Like, you don't need to, like, strip down?
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Tufts: No, no, you can strip
down later in the shower.
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Jones: Great.
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