Ticks! with Dr. Laura Ferguson.

Today we are talking ticks. This is the tick-talk episode.

This is a discussion about the parasitic bugs that creepily crawl slowly up your legs, embed their little heads into your nooks and crannies and suck your blood. 

They are a serious external parasite that can carry a variety of different pathogens. The most well-known is Lyme disease. 

Here in Atlantic Canada we have ticks and they are prevalent.

And that’s named after Lyme Connecticut, where it was originally distinguished as a separate disease. Lyme disease was of course occurring before then, but it was being mischaracterized as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Ticks come a few different shapes and sizes. The largest of the ticks are the dog tick, which we have in Atlantic Canada. However, that’s not the one to be concerned about – the concerning one is certainly the deer tick, which is characterized by it’s smaller body and orange back. The deer tick is the one that can transmit the Lyme pathogen. I want to emphasise something about the size here in the introduction. Within the tick life cycle it has a nymph stage and an adult stage. When the tick is in it’s nymph stage, it is so un believably tiny. It looks like a flake of pepper. And yes. A deer tick nymph does carry Lyme. And yes. It can still transmit it to you. In fact, most cases of Lyme are attributed to the nymph version of deer ticks. So scary!  

This is tick season, hence the show. It’s on everyone’s mind as it should be. If you like being outdoors, you should take precautions (wearing longer clothing, use tick repellant, and doo tick check frequently and certainly a good thorough one at the end of the day). Living where I do, which is pretty much in a field on the edge of the woods where there is a high traffic of deer, I have had my fair share of tick experiences. I have learned to not only look out for them during tick season, but year-round. My wife and I have a big sign up in the bathroom with a cartoon tick on it and in big bold letters “Tick Check”. This is so that we remember to check our kids (and ourselves) for these pesky little bugs. 

I wanted to bring in someone who knows their stuff. Enter my guest for today’s show. Dr. Laura Ferguson. 

Dr. Ferguson is a biology researcher and the director of the Ferguson Lab, where she researches how climate change in Atlantic Canada is affecting the prevalence of zoonotic diseases. Ferguson Lab is focused on the impacts of six different mosquito species in Nova Scotia, but her experience goes well beyond that. 

I am honored to have Dr. Ferguson provide a slice of her valuable time to me today to have a tick talk.