WashU Expert: Mosquitoes and ticks do better in extreme cold than we do
Does this recent extreme cold snap spell bad news for mosquitoes and ticks this summer? Not necessarily. Researchers at Tyson Research Center, the environmental field station for Washington University in St. Louis, offer insight into how both insects are surviving the Polar Vortex that has gripped most of the Midwest and eastern United States.
Every rose has its thorn — and its tick
A new study in Parasites & Vectors finds ticks in urban parks dominated by an invasive rose bush are nearly twice as likely to be infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, as compared to ticks from uninvaded forest fragments. But the trend reverses itself at a broader scale.
Study extends the ‘ecology of fear’ to fear of parasites
Work at Washington University in St. Louis, just
published in EcoHealth, shows that the ecology of fear, like other
concepts from predator-prey theory, also extends to parasites. Raccoons and squirrels would give up food, the study demonstrated, if
the area was infested with larval ticks. At some level, they are
weighing the value of the abandoned food against the risk of being
parasitized.