(bright music) - Welcome to Digging Deeper with Backyard Farmer.

I'm your host, Kim Todd, and on Digging Deeper we have in-depth discussions with extension and industry experts about all those important landscape topics.

Tonight, we're going to be talking about ticks with special guest, Jody Green.

And of course, people know Jody from Backyard Farmer.

And Jody, as always, you came extremely prepared with props and things that you made and everything it's going to take to educate people about ticks.

And part of the reason we decided to dig a little deeper on this one is I think you've been getting a lot of questions this year about those little beasties.

- Yes.

- So let's start with... What do you wanna start with?

You wanna start with the creature itself?

- Sure.

Well, I got three tickets today at the office in Omaha and anytime I'm walking my dog, I pick off ticks off the dog as we're walking and then off myself every time we stop.

And I'm not out really in the woods, it's like pollinator habitats or any type of grassy area where there's gonna be wildlife.

So it can be anywhere, you don't have to be out playing in the woods to pick up ticks, so it's always good to keep checking.

Lemme see if...

It's probably at the side here.

- [Kim] It's trying to find its blood meal.

- Yeah.

I don't want anyone to get mad at me for letting it go, but you can see.

Okay, I'll be very careful.

I don't know if you can see it.

And if I like took a breath or breathe over top of it it would sense the carbon dioxide and it would go to me.

And so I think one of the things people don't know where the ticks are.

So they're actually in the grass and I don't want people to not plant grass or not have a full garden because of ticks, because ticks need a blood meal to survive.

So they need wildlife.

They need mice, and rabbits, and deer, people, dogs all of those things.

So it's not just the environment, but it's also the host.

So you've gotta think about where you're going.

But we've got ticks here, in this area in grassy areas, in prairies, in wooded areas.

So I mean, anywhere there's gonna be wildlife.

So people are picking them off and they're bringing them to be identified.

And the important thing about that is we don't have like a service that actually is out actively serving for ticks across Nebraska.

So we do rely on the public to either post pictures, add it to an iNaturalist project called Tick Tag Go or call it into the extension office.

'Cause if we do see the black legged tick, the one that can transmit Lyme disease, we wanna be aware of that and make sure we can hit with education and prevention 'cause we don't want people to get sick.

So ultimately they're a health pest and we wanna protect Nebraskans.

- [Kim] So what was that iNaturalist again?

Say it again.

- Okay, so it's iNaturalist, it's a free app that you can get on your phone.

So iNaturalist app.

And what you can do is, well I don't want you guys to not send me anything anymore, but you can take a picture of like bugs, mushrooms, birds, plants, and there's a AI or artificial intelligence that will kinda narrow it down to what it could be.

And we have a project in there called Tick Tag Go and you can add yourself to that project or that project to your account, and you can click on that when you submit a tick.

And then people like me and other people that are interested in ticks will go into our computers and we'll identify those ticks for you.

And it's important to identify what kinda tick you have because that can really determine if you do get sick what potential illnesses you may have, right.

So, if someone says I had I had food poisoning it's probably because they ate some kind of food, right.

So it's kind of like that with ticks.

- So you mentioned the black legged and I think we had the picture of that one up.

- Yeah.

And so this is kind of what the black legged tick looks.

Yeah, you did have the picture of that one, and then this, this is what it looks like, but way, way, way, way big.

So these ticks, they're very common in the Eastern states.

And I mean, everyone knows about Lyme disease.

But we don't have a great prevalence of these ticks or we haven't found a lot of them, but they have been found to be established in Nebraska.

So that's why we wanna keep an eye on these.

And one thing about these is that they're active all year round.

So... - [Kim] Even in the winter?

- Yeah.

So, we've got some of those warm days that occur.

So anytime there's no snow cover and it's above 45 degrees, we can find ticks.

So we want to continue to, yeah... And I think actually it was a friend's dog on Thanksgiving, and then also around Christmas, in 2019 she pulled two black legged ticks off of her dog.

And then the Department of Ag went out and surveyed and they did find it's black legged ticks.

So, we previously thought maybe didn't have a Lyme state, but people travel too, and ticks don't know boundaries.

So we just wanna make sure that we keep everyone safe.

But the ticks that we do get a lot on our dogs for all of our dog lovers.

It's usually the American dog tick, which is this one.

It's also the one that I made especially for Backyard Farmer.

I would say 90% of the ticks I get are those.

These do not spread Lyme if they're infected but we can get Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia.

So even though they're not the Lyme disease tick, like check for ticks and get those off 'cause we don't want any of those illnesses.

And then this is the lone star tick.

The female adult will have that single white spot there.

And this tick is known for...

It can actually cause bullseye rash as well, so.

But the red meat allergy is also spread by the saliva from this tick.

And that's an image of the dog tick and the lone star tick side-by-side.

You can see the difference in the shape and the markings, and the mouth parts of the lone star tick are a lot longer.

Those ticks are a lot more aggressive too.

So the American dog tick, a lot of times we'll find them on the nape of our neck, up in our scalp or our kid's scalp, and between our dogs toes, ears, around the collar.

The lone star tick it's aggressive in that it will crawl up from the ground and it will start feeding like on your ankles and your legs.

They're just a lot more aggressive.

So for anyone who goes out in the woods, I definitely recommend repellents and dressing appropriately.

But keep like a roll of duct tape in your car that wouldn't hurt and some plastic bags.

You never know when you're gonna have to take some of those clothes off and use that tape, it happens, or a lint roller if that... - So the lint roller and the tape are to get the ticks off.

- To get the ticks.

- If they start crawling in your car, like if you get in and they get out of your, get out of your shoes or things like that or off your dog and you can get those really quick.

'Cause getting tweezers, these are not the appropriate size.

Getting tweezers and trying to pick them out of your upholstery it's not gonna be fun.

So duct tape.

- So what are the teeny ones that are, you said off air, the size of a poppy seed.

What are those?

- Yeah.

So the black legged tick or the deer tick, it's the same species.

They are very, very tiny.

So like the tick that I just showed you here, this one is a giant compared to the small ticks.

This photo here is of a friend's leg.

He's actually probably got like 50 to 75 maybe lone star tick nymphs there.

Sometimes if you're out in the woods or out somewhere and there's like a hatch, so they lay like hundreds of eggs.

If you run through that or walk through that, you can pick up like hundreds of ticks in one go.

And I know we've had people bring in ticks from their dogs beds.

So their dogs have been treated which I would highly recommend, according to veterinarian.

And because when the ticks feed on them they'll die.

They all end up dead in the dog bed and people will bring them in, they look like pepper and they have no idea what they were.

And I'm like, these are ticks.

- So do the nymphs also feed or is it... - Yeah, the nymphs feed and they actually have a larval stage too.

So there's a larvae, nymph, and adult.

And to get to each stage, to molt, they need a blood meal.

So... - So if they don't get the blood meal they're former ticks, they croak?

- [Jody] Right.

- But like, if they feed all summer and the ones that will over winter, is it the same tick or do they have like six weeks and they're gone regardless?

How long do they live?

- Sometimes they could have like a year life cycle, some of them have two year life cycles.

So if it was a larvae and they... Well, so ticks have like four pairs of legs as adults.

As larvae, they only have three pairs of legs.

They're super, super tiny and we call those seed ticks and they are pretty much born or emerge without any pathogens.

So they have to feed on something that's infected with some kinda pathogen in order to pass it on.

So larvae ticks are not gonna be infected, so they'll feed on an animal, likely small animal.

Getting gorged to fall off and then molt to the nymph and then get at another animal, maybe a bigger animal, I don't know.

Rabbit, dog, human, who knows.

And so that's the stage that they can transmit illnesses if they've got them.

- Oh my goodness.

- Are you freaked out?

- It's so creepy.

We do wanna make sure that you send us your questions or your comments, whether they are, you love this, you are creeped out by this, but at least you're learning something because the whole point of this show is we want to be able to give you what you are interested in, or maybe at least where you should know something about.

And certainly ticks in a place where you can get sick and very sick from them is a good idea.

All right, Jody.

So talk about repellents and then talk about if one is on you, what do you do?

- Okay So let's talk about preventing ticks.

So, I've talked about tick checks and I wanna say that there's no, like there's a lot of things you can do but nothing replaces a good tick check, right.

You wanna check yourself, your friends, your kids, your pets after out outdoor activities.

But if you've got a lot of clothes, let's say you're hunting or anything.

If you can throw those in the dryer too, any ticks that are hitchhiking they will die in a hot dryer.

Like even 10 minutes.

It's the dry heat, just dehydrates them.

So they can live through a washer.

I've done that just for fun, they live, don't do it.

Just dry your clothes and then put it in the hamper.

Partners don't like getting in bed and finding a tick.

I don't know why.

But you want to do that.

Another thing you can do is wear, it's not stylish, but you can wear long sleeve.

I recommend like light colored clothing and loose clothing so that you can find the ticks faster.

So wearing, beige pants and a white shirt you can find the ticks quicker than like if you were wearing complete like jeans or dark clothes.

It's not stylish, you can tuck your pant legs into your socks.

That's how you know, someone's, they're looking for ticks.

You can wear permethrin treated clothing.

So permethrin is an insecticide and it is safe to use according to label if you're treating your clothes.

So it's specific for treating a cloth treatment you have to... Not, when it's on your body, you treat it prior to going outside.

You follow the label, you pretty much spray it until it's damp, let it dry.

And then any ticks that touch that will die and you don't have to do it yourself necessarily.

There are clothes that you can buy already treated.

So commercially treated clothes, shirts, jackets, hats.

And I've got like my favorite pair of socks.

Some of like the treatment, that's the do it yourself, that's on the screen right now.

I think that's up to six washes or I don't know how many weeks.

So you designate your gardening clothes or designate your outdoor activity clothes, and then that will help.

And it's been shown through research to be very effective.

And then the commercially treated stUff, you can buy it.

It's labeled as, has permethrin in it, and it can be up to 70 washes.

So it's pretty good.

When it comes to repellent, these are gonna be what you apply to exposed skin.

So you don't wanna apply to skin and then put clothes over top.

You want to use, like on anything that's exposed.

And when you go to the store, there's a ton and it's probably hard to decipher what is going to be good, and what percentage and what active ingredient.

So you wanna get something that's EPA approved.

So that means it's been tested against whatever biting insects they have on there.

They're all for mosquitoes, ticks, black flies.

But just because it has a higher percentage doesn't mean it's better.

It just will be how long it lasts.

So for DEET products, there's all different kinds.

They've got like family kinds and that's like a 7%.

It may be effective for like five minutes, right.

So it's not...

It's not going to be...

I mean there is a 100% DEET and it's not recommended.

So for DEET, I would say 30% would be good.

But you can see like these different products, different brands, but like 25%, 30%, and this one's a lotion and this one's a spray.

This is a wipe 30%, and then this one's 40%.

I wouldn't go any higher than that.

We've got Picaridin which is, if you don't like DEET, it's just another option.

I think it smells nice.

This one's like a spritz.

So it's not aerosol.

And then there's one called IR3535, that.

And then there's a oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.

So there is a variety.

Some people don't like DEET, but I mean, it works.

So these have all been shown to work.

- So if you are planning an all day hike and you cover your exposed skin, or you use one of these repellents, is it like sunscreen you have to do it again in two hours?

- So you wanna do sunscreen first and then insect repellent.

But I would prefer to probably use a like a 30% and reapply after eight hours if that's what it is, rather than using a 100% for 12 hours.

Not only will you be sensitive to it if you have sensitive skin, but it's a plasticizer if you're using DEET.

So a lot of these ones won't come in that high percentage, but it's just one of those misconceptions that you think, oh, more is better.

Right.

- All right.

So, all right.

So I think you're kinda the last thing we wanna cover, So you, one has decided that you are lunch.

- Okay.

So if you see a tick crawling on you just take it off, put it in a container.

You can put in a ziplock bag, put it in the freezer.

Like these ones, I just brought to show you.

But if it's embedded, so that means it's cemented its mouth parts into your skin and whether it's feeding or not, it's ready to feed.

So what you wanna do is not burn it with fire, not use a cotton ball with (indistinct).

You want to remove it safely with a pointy tweezers.

So these are the pointy tweezers that I have in my car, in my backpack, on my body, at all times, because you never know when I'm gonna have to pick a tick off somebody.

- [Kim] And those are seriously point.

- They're pointy because I want to get to...

I wanna get the tick out.

Sometimes the mouth part does break off, but it's gonna be okay.

You want to get the tick to stop.

You don't want the tick in there anymore.

So this is my reenactment with a large set of tweezers.

What you wanna do is you wanna find that tick, you wanna take it.

Like put the tweezers down as close to the skin as possible, because you wanna remove as much of the tick as possible, and ticks don't screw in, so they don't need to be screwed out, right.

You just wanna have a firm steady pressure and you just wanna pull straight up and out, and then put that in a bag.

Because if you get sick, you get a fever, you get a rash, you can tell the doctor that you were bitten by a tick.

We will identify what kinda tick and then they can be ready for those symptoms or they can just put you on an antibiotic that will prevent you from getting a tick borne illness.

- So the little place where the tick was embedded, would you disinfect?

- Yeah disinfect that and monitor it.

I mean, if it was a black legged tick that bull's eye rash it doesn't show up in all bites.

It's just a certain percentage and it doesn't necessarily show up where you've been bitten.

- So tiniest tiniest little insect can just make all of us just go, okay, do I really wanna go outside and play?

- You do.

You do wanna go outside and play.

If you're not getting ticks you're not having enough fun, just be see smart.

- Or you're in a location where there aren't any ticks at the moment, right.

- Yeah.

Well, I mean, we're pretty lucky in Nebraska, we really are.

There's so many great things to do outside.

I would never let ticks stop you.

- All right.

Well, and that is all the time we have for Digging Deeper with Backyard Farmer.

We wanna say thanks to Jody for show and tell and coming in and talking to us today.

We will be back next time with another in-depth discussion, do be sure to watch Backyard Farmer live every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Central on Nebraska Public Media.

Thanks for Digging Deeper with Backyard Farmer.