Tick talk, bee mystery & asbestos issue
ARE THE TICKS HERE?
Our cottage is on an island, and the only mammals there are mice and voles. What is the probability that ticks are also on the island?—CAROLYN BEATON, VIA EMAIL
It’s not high. “But it’s not zero,” says Robbin Lindsay, a research scientist with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Black-legged ticks—the ones that carry Lyme disease, and the ones we assume you’re concerned about—do feed on birds and, therefore, could be introduced practically anywhere those birds go. “But it’s rare that ticks would become established in a place with no white-tailed deer,” says Lindsay. While tick larvae and nymphs use mice and voles as hosts, adult ticks generally prefer deer. In places without any deer, tick numbers typically either crash completely, or remain low. “Adults just don’t seem to feed on small mammals,” says
