NSF-EID Lyme Gradient Project

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Florida: More hosts and ticks

An eastern woodrat with a tick two weeks ago (March 13) and two broadhead skinks with ticks from today (Mar 22).

Florida: Eastern Fence Lizard & a Tick!!!

No cricket necessary! Cody plain ol' noosed this big male!

Cody's Cricket Method for Luring Skinks

Works like a charm - most of the time! ;). Cody also has a noose tied onto the end of the fishing pole in case you want to switch methods. He says the best way is to get them to jump at the cricket so that they aren't gripping to anything (like a tree trunk). So, he recommends luring them down off the tree onto the leaf litter, where they really don't have much to grip onto. Key partner tool is the bucket into which you place the skink once you have hooked it. (Note: we put the skinks into separate bags: they are shown side by side here in a bucket to show possible different sexes.)

Gena's Florida Tick Life Cycle Arenas: Go, Mama, go!

On February 28, Cody added rabbit-fed engorged female blacklegged ticks to Gena's tick life cycle enclosures. He has been checking their progress weekly. Shown below are photos of a tick's egg laying progress 2 and 3 weeks later respectively. Go, Mama, go!

Monday, March 19, 2012

More North Carolina Critters

Friday, March 9, 2012

Tick garden video

http://vimeo.com/38221175

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Installing Isis' 'tick gardens' in Tennessee

Friday, March 2, 2012

TTRS: Vulture? Why not?

While we did not catch many small mammals (only our trap-happy woodrat), we caught two very interesting critters today! A corn snake and a turkey vulture!!!

Cody got the corn snake from a metal coverboard, and the vulture was in a tomahawk trap. Both animals were from our tickiest grid here at TTRS, but we did not find ticks on either one!

Thanks to Rich Keith, Michelle Rosen, and Steve Schmitt for their advice on how safely to approach extracting and handling this bird!