Ticks: what are they good for?
Been bitten by a tick this summer? That sucks. Well, now is a good time to check yourself for early symptoms of Lyme Disease. A good indicator is a large, bullseye-shaped rash in the area you were bitten.
How do you get Lyme Disease?
Deer ticks are the primary vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi—the bacteria pathogen that causes Lyme Disease—which they mainly obtain from feeding on the blood of deer and white-footed deer mice, and then transfer to us when feeding on our blood.
People infected with Lyme Disease experience dizziness, joint soreness, and in severe cases, death. That can tick some people off!
Ticks are big in the world of disease.
Ticks in general are the main carriers for the majority of vector-born diseases in the world, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Ehrlichiosis, and relapsing fever. As parasites, ticks spend their lives feeding on the blood of other animals and consequently can be detrimental to the fitness of individual organisms and can help keep populations of some animals in check.
Can you think of anything that ticks are good for?
- What about from a pathogen's perspective?
- From an ecosystem perspective?
Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas
Science Buzz is supported by the National Science Foundation.Copyright © Science Museum of Minnesota, 2004-2010, except where noted.
hi i have been looking for hours now and i cannot find one single reason ticks are benificially in anyway. so if you ever find out anything please let me know i would greatly appriate it.
Are there any ways that ticks are good for the environment? Food for birds and small carnivores maybe?
they are good because they eat stuff
Hey- i was assigned an assignment on some animal i hate. I hate ticks,i think they are disgusting, but now i have to right something good about them. What are they good for?
Borrelia burgdorferi: I like ticks! Image courtesy CDC.Well, sometimes what they are good for takes some perspective. From the perspective of Borrelia burgdorferi ticks are a good thing becuase they help it spread. Are there other vector borne diseases that spread using ticks? They would also be appreciative of the tick. Are there animals that depend on eating ticks in the wild during their or the tick's life cycle? You have to think outside the box a little for this one - what they may be good for may not be something we ourselves condsider "good".
Do ticks serve a positive purpose? Ecologically or ??
Can ticks with Lyme Disease kill someone?
People have died from Lyme Disease, although I'm sure you have to let the disease get pretty far before that happens.
There is also, of course, the distinct possibility of choking on the Lyme-carrying ticks. You would need a lot of them, but that would do it.
I was bit by a tick and didn't even know it until months and months later. It had been feeding on me for months on my back side where I couldn't see it. I'm sure I got it from my Beagle because she slept with me every night! Started having extreme joint pain in my hand. I finally realized it was a tick and the Dr. got it off of me and that was it...didn't do any blood tests or anything. Till this day I still have pains in my joints, but now in most of my joints. Should I be concerned?? He sent me home with no medicines or anything and said I was fine.
It seems unlikely that a tick would stay on you for months and months. But if it was there long enough that a doctor was the first person to notice it, then it might have been a good idea to get some tests done. I've always understood it that if a tick has been on you for over 24 hours, there's a chance that it could have passed lyme disease onto you.
And check out Thor's post on "Lyme rage." You don't want to be fooling around with that!
On the other hand, once a tick has infected you with lyme disease, I think the bite location often looks like a gross little red bullseye. The doctor probably would have recognized that when he or she removed the tick. But it doesn't appear in all cases...
yes. seek help now and say you believe you have lymes disease. Tell them the story because they won't test you unless you have a valid reason for suspission
you need a new dr. it's obvious you have lyme disease
Go to a different doctor immediately. You need to be seen by someone who understands Lymes and is willing to treat it aggressively. Good luck. Doing nothing is not a good option.
Does anyone know if there are long term health effects from RMSF?
What do ticks do that is good for the world? I thought everything had something good for the world. Some purpose.
My 4 year old grandson asked me this same question...so far we have not found the answer...except that they do supply food for small creatures
i just got bit by a tick. not good
ticks are just a nussance
If you want to learn about ticks and lyme disease and TBI's tick borne diseases goto Lymenet.org , or
lymePA.org , or goto http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/index.html , and heres the Drs site, http://www.ilads.org/
This below is a link called Newbies Links on lymenet.
http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=029917
and one more site it has plenty of Lyme Literate literature->
http://www.lymeinfo.net/lyme.html
CHICKENS & GUINEAS LOVE TICKS! Ticks serve no other purpose than to slowly bleed every creature in the world!
i like ticks. I live in the country though so thats why i guess. I dont care if they bite me i like to pick them off anyway. I wont get any diseases ive been bit lots of time i aint getting lymes disease.
Well i think that ticks are just little problems in life so i dont care much but what are they really for caring diseases and hurting and maybe killing people i just got bit on Oct,27,08 so they really suck.
i am scared of trick
I AM REALLY REALLY SCARED OF TICKS MORE THEN ANYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ticks are good for thinning out the population of certain animals by sucking on their blood and weakening them so another predator can kill them. For many herds of deer, for example, there may not be enough food for the entire herd to survive the winter so the ticks help weed out the weak members of the herd. It's the same idea behind why humans are allowed to hunt deer for a couple of weeks every year, I'm sure in spite of PETA!
ticks are ill
i have to say why ticks are good and why there bad i have ALOT of BAD things but no good ):
i need help!!! please help me )::
Seriously, There is nothing good about ticks. We should find a way to make them extinct. Ok so they spread diseases...well so do mosquitoes and I'm sure the little animals that eat them can find something else. They serve no real purpose besides scaring the crap out of me. They are disgusting yuck yuck yuck. I just had one on my leg and now I feel like they are crawling all over me. GROSS. Death to all woodticks!!!
i was at my dads house for a week and i went back to moms house and took a shower. i was washing my body and i found a tick on my right hip AND IT WAS ATACHED. I got out and (dont laugh) threw it in the grabage!!!!!
I always notice them (the ticks) before it has a chance to bite me, it tickles when it crawls on me. I always look for more ticks after I've killed one, so there's no chance I would ever get bitten. I never go out with the dog when it's summer, I leave that to the rest of the family. But I can't help to pet it from time to time. Tick hater for LIFE!
you are never going to be able to comppletely avoid ticks, so you may as well just take necessary precautions, but dont let it ruin your life
Actually, scientists have figured out how to use the anti-coagulant from the salivary glands of ticks. Some of the molecules are 70% more effective than any blood thinner in use.
Take it from somebody who lives in the county with the highest rate of lyme disease in the world that the tick serves no beneficial purpose to the ecosystem. Trying to reason why ticks are good is like saying cancer is good. I'm hopeful that science will come up with a way to eliminate all ticks.
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