Do ticks somehow choose a preferred host

[J.C.MacSwell]

On 10/1/2020 at 10:33 PM, geordief said:

I've had them regularly for the past 25 years.At first I thought that Lyme's disease was only prevalent in N America  and maybe mainland Europe until a friend in England got it.

My Cliff Clavin inspired trivia:

 Otzi, the "iceman" who died 5300 years ago and found in Otzal Alps between Austria and Italy in 1991, is known to have had Lyme disease.

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-researchers-find-ancient-iceman-s-infection-helps-lyme-disease-bone-loss-discovery

 

[studiot]

On 10/2/2020 at 2:33 AM, geordief said:

I've had them regularly for the past 25 years.At first I thought that Lyme's disease was only prevalent in N America  and maybe mainland Europe until a friend in England got it.

 

So I  now  wash my hands whenever I need to remove them from different ,sometimes alarming parts of my body.

It feels like I should have built up an immunity but I don't know if that is what happens.

 

 

I understand that some folks have a natural immunity, but I am not sure you can 'build up' an immunity to Lyme disease.
It should be noted that the disease is not due to the ticks themselves, but to certain bacteria that some ticks harbour.
So in most parts of the UK your risk of Lyme disease is low even if you get several ticks.
The worst areas are South West Hampshite and South East Dorset  - The New Forest area.
Luckily (for me) they have not really spread out onto the Blackdowns.

If you do get the symptoms it is important to get the antibiotic treatment as it can develop into something much worse.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lyme-disease/

 

 

[Ken Fabian]

Ticks usually have specific or preferred host species and will inhabit the range of those... not because they migrate to such places, but because that is where the adult ticks successfully reproduce. Picking one specific individual host over another would be unusual - the way they find hosts doesn't really give them choice. They won't normally seek hosts by walking around on the ground but if lucky enough to find a host like that they won't pass up the opportunity. If it is the wrong host they may drop off - with or without a taste test first.

My understanding is that more usually they seek vegetation to climb, where host species pass under them or brush past. Some species have rudimentary eyes and sense movement and shadows, but it seems like it is mostly sensing odors and body heat that tells them to let go of the vegetation and try to catch a ride. As iNow noted above, they will be opportunistic.

There would be too many variables in the impromptu experiment to reach any conclusions about the apparent preference for one individual host over another.

Edited April 17, 2021 by Ken Fabian

[paulsutton]

On 10/1/2020 at 4:00 PM, Phi for All said:

Actually, a tick can sense a LOT, mostly body heat and smell (I believe they're attracted to ammonia in sweat). They try to latch on to you with their front legs, then crawl towards skin. 

I suppose they might have different behavior when on a flat surface, but since they need to latch on to their dinner, it doesn't seem likely they're trying to flea. 😁

I got this impression too, some insects are attracted by certain smells from our bodies,  different people have different levels of a particular chemical may attract tics differently.  I would guess the correct term could be aromatic compounds,  which IIRC ammonia is.

Could explain why some people are more prone. 

 

 

[exchemist]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:07 PM, paulsutton said:

I got this impression too, some insects are attracted by certain smells from our bodies,  different people have different levels of a particular chemical may attract tics differently.  I would guess the correct term could be aromatic compounds,  which IIRC ammonia is.

Could explain why some people are more prone. 

 

 

No. Aromatic compounds in organic chemistry are those containing an unsaturated ring structure with certain, particularly stable, numbers of  π-electrons (the aromaticity rule, known as Hückel's Rule, being 4n +2). The classic and simplest aromatic compound is benzene (n=1) and there is a huge family of compounds containing the benzene ring as part of their structure.  There are many more complex aromatic structures, e.g naphthalene (mothballs; n=2). A lot of them have a not unpleasant smell, which is presumably how they got their name in the c.19th, but I don't know the precise origin of the term.   

Some rings are "heterocyclic", which means one or more members of the ring is an atom other than carbon. There are examples containing nitrogen, e.g. the 5 membered ring pyrrole and the 6 membered ring pyridine (both n=1).

Ammonia however, NH3, is something quite different, a small inorganic molecule. It has a powerful choking smell that irritates the eyes and nose. Nobody would describe it as aromatic. 

In my experience the only human beings that smell of ammonia are babies with soiled nappies that have not been changed quickly enough, in which bacteria in the faeces break down urea from the urine and generate ammonia.

Edited September 29, 2022 by exchemist

[Doctor Derp]

I would guess mosquitos, ticks and parasites can gauge blood sugar levels and other factors about potential host viability through their senses.

The way that men can subconsciously tell when a woman is ovulating.