In light of the recent run in with Deer Ticks that Rob and I experienced during our trip to Saskatchewan, I did a little reading up on the subject. I fail to see how and why evolution has allowed such a useless creature to survive. Parasites in general serve no purpose and I have no respect for their place in nature. It seems to me that nothing eats the stupid things and they are just a menace to other animals...
In reading up on Ticks I was reassured to learn that none have been found to carry Lyme Disease in Alberta or Saskatchewan. Lyme Disease is caused by yet another parasite that is carried in the gut of the tick and passed on to the human or animal host that the tick takes its blood meal from. Ticks in British Columbia, Ontario, the Maritime provinces and the United States are known to carry the Lyme Disease. Furthermore, the tick needs to feed on its host for as much as 24 hours in order for the parasite to be transferred. So it is virtually impossible that Rob and I could have picked up anything as to the best of our knowledge we were not actually bitten by any ticks, and certainly none fed on either of us for any length of time. Nonetheless these little buggers totally creep me out and every time I think about them I start feeling itchy and feel the urge to start checking for them all over again.
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