Quick Tick Tricks

Ticks are NOT insects! Does that bug you? 

Ticks are actually arachnids, just like spiders and mites. Ticks eat the blood of living animals, almost like little mini vampires (minus the cape and spooky castle). Ticks latch on to the skin of their host animal – usually some sort of mammal or bird. It’s called a host animal because it provides things that ticks need (such as food)… even though the animal may not want the tick!

Ticks are tiny all through their life stage. Tick larvae and nymphs are about as big as a poppy seed. Adults ticks are about as big as a sesame seeds but they can be almost as big as a grape when fully engorged with blood. 

In Ontario we have two species of ticks: deer ticks (also called black-legged ticks) and dog ticks. Ticks in Ontario can be found in a range of habitats, but usually they like areas that are grassy and forested (with leaf litter). They are also found in gardens!

Sick of Ticks: Diseases from Ticks

Sometimes ticks can transmit diseases to their hosts. The diseases can make the hosts (people and other animals) very sick, even though they don't make the ticks sick. Deer ticks can transmit diseases including Lyme disease. Dog ticks can transmit diseases including Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. 

We have deer ticks in the Georgian Bay Biosphere, so there is a risk of getting Lyme disease from a deer tick. Lyme disease has been reported from across Ontario, including parts of the Biosphere. Even though we have dog ticks in the Biosphere there have been no cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The disease is thought to be farther south for now.

Lyme disease is an infection caused by a bacteria that lives in Deer Ticks. The bacteria doesn’t make ticks sick, but it can make other animals (including humans) very sick. Ticks usually require 24—48 hours of being attached to the host before they can transmit Lyme disease. This is why it’s important to check for ticks soon after you come indoors!

Keep Things Right: Prevent a Bite

• Check your entire body after being outdoors in areas where ticks might live. Remember to check hard-to-see places like behind your ears, in your armpits, and behind your knees!

• Try to shower within 2 hours of being outside.

• Put your clothes in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes

• Use bug spray with DEET or icardin

• Be tick a-"wear" and wear clothing to prevent tick bites (see image below!)

• Stay on trails and pathways to avoid brushing up with vegetation

Tick Off: Removing a Tick

• Use clean tweezers to grasp the tick by its head and slowly pull straight backwards and upwards to remove the tick from your skin
• Instead of tweezers, you could also use a special tick-removing tool called a Tick Key
• Place the tick in a sealed bag or container so that you can send it for testing if it’s a Deer Tick or if you’re not sure
• Wash the area with warm soapy water
• Keep checking the bite area to look for any redness and/or swelling
• Check the Public Health Agency of Canada for next steps
• Contact your health care provider if you are worried or feeling unwell

More Resources for You and Your Family

Tick Talk Canada

Ontario Government – Lyme Disease

Canada Public Health – Lyme Disease

The Summer Solstice

You may have noticed that the days are getting longer and it's staying brighter later and later each night. This is because we are getting closer to the summer solstice, the day with the most sunlight hours all year! On June 20th, 2020 the sun will travel across its longest path in the sky this year, giving us 15.5 hours of sunlight. The sun will rise at 5:30am and it will set just after 9:00pm for us on eastern Georgian Bay.

How does this work? Why do the hours of sunlight change? Why do we have shorter days in the winter and longer days in the summer? All these answers relate to how our planet rotates around the sun.

There are two ways Earth moves that are important for all life:

1. Spin: The movement of the Earth that gives us day and night. It takes Earth 24 hours to complete one spin.
2. Rotation: The route the Earth travels around the sun. It takes one year to complete one rotation.

In addition to planet Earth's spinning and rotating, it is helpful to know it is also on a tilt. This means it has a slight angle as if it were leaning to one side. Billions of years ago a piece of space rock the size of Mars (but much hotter!) collided with Earth. The collision was so intense the Earth moved, giving it the tilt it has today.

The tilt is what causes Earth's seasons and creates summer and winter solstices, giving the planet more or less hours of sunlight. The summer solstice is the moment the northern hemisphere is at its closest point to the sun during its one year rotation. We get longer, warmer days when the northern hemisphere tilts closer to the sun in summer and we get shorter, cooler days as we tilt away from the sun in winter.

Fun Fact: The rock that hit Earth billions of years ago did more than just give us seasons. A fragment of that rock still influences life on Earth every day and you can see it almost every night. It’s the moon! The moon was a part of an ancient asteroid that slammed into Earth. The moon became stuck in Earth's gravitational obit and now controls the tides!

A riddle for you: Sarah's birthday is on December 18^th but somehow her birthday always falls in summer. How is this possible? Answer below!

The summer solstice is a time of celebration for many cultures around the world as it marks the beginning of many growing seasons. Here in the Biosphere, strawberries are among the first harvest ready to be eaten around this time of year. The summer solstice also marks National Aboriginal Day. On June 20^th 2020 let's go outside and celebrate the beginning of summer on the longest day of the year.

Activity: Create a Sundial

It is not known exactly which time period sundials came into existence but they have appeared in many ancient civilizations around the world. It's about time you try setting up your own sundial!

Here's how:

1. Using the back of a paper plate as the face of your sundial, write the 12 hours of the day around it like a clock face and decorate it to your heart's content.
2. Carefully poke a hole through the centre of the plate and place a pencil or wooden rod through the hole.
3. You might need to tape or glue the pencil so that it can stand up.
4. Bring the sundial outside and align the 12 on your clock with north*. You could also try matching up the time with a real clock to start.
5. You might need to put a small rock on the paper plate to keep it from blowing away. 
6. Let the sun do the rest of the work!How accurate is your sundial?

*Not sure how to find north? Most phones or GPS’s have compasses built into them. If you don’t have a compass, find out where the sun rises (this will be east) and sets (this will be west) and you can get a good idea of north.

Riddle answer: Sarah lives in the southern hemisphere!! When the Earth is rotating around the sun the southern hemisphere is always opposite to us up here in the northern hemisphere, so when we are in winter and have short days they are in summer and have longer days!

LOON-ey TUNES

Picture this… it’s a calm, quiet night and you’re sitting by the shore. What do you see? The stars? The moon? The shapes of pine and oak trees all around? What do you smell? Perhaps a campfire? Now, what do you hear?

A loon, right? Chances are you’re imagining the call of a loon. After all, it seems to be the symbolic sound of the Canadian wilderness. People LOVE how loons sound! In fact, we’re looney for loon calls! TV and movie producers love to toss in a loon call into the background whenever they want to make the scene feel peaceful or wild.

Did you know that there are actually four main calls loons use to talk to each other? There’s the wail, the tremolo, the yodel, and the hoot. Each call has a different meaning. Let’s find out what the loons are saying to each other with these four types of calls.

1. The Wail

The wail is mainly used as a CONTACT CALL. The loon makes this call to say “I am here. Where are you?” They often wail if they are far away from their mate or chicks and want to find out where everyone is. Listen to the wail here.

2. The Tremolo

The tremolo is used when loons are AGITATED, such as if they see something that makes them worried. For example, they might make this call if you come too close in your boat or if an airplane flies low overhead and they feel scared. Loons sometimes use the tremolo as an announcement to tell other loons they are on the lake. The tremolo is also called the “crazy laugh” and might be what inspired the saying “crazy as a loon”. Listen to the tremolo here.

3. The Yodel

The yodel is mainly a TERRITORIAL call, but sometimes loons yodel if they feel threatened by a predator. Male loons use yodels to tell other loons “This is my territory!” Male loons care a lot about their territories and will fight another male that tries to take over. If the new male wins the fight, he takes over the original male’s territory and then yodels to let other loons know he’s new. What’s really neat is that the loon will change the sound of his yodel any time he claims a new territory. This really helps advertise to the other loons that he’s the new loon on the lake. Listen to the yodel here.

4. The Hoot
Hoots are softer, quieter sounds that loons make to each other when they are close by. A loon might hoot at its chicks or at its mate, just to say “Hey, I’m here”. Listen to a hoot here.

Next time you hear a loon calling, see if you can tell which type of call it's using and what it might be saying! The best time to listen for loons is during the evening, at night, and at dawn. Can't wait until next time you hear a loon? Try making a loon call using your hands in the activity below! And hey, if you can’t quite get it, there’s nothing wrong with just using your voice to make the loon calls! 

Activity: "Hand-made" Loon Call

1. Press your fingers together and curve each hand into a C-shape. 
   
2. While keeping your hands in this shape, press your hands together so that the back edge of one hand (including outside edge of the pinky finger) presses onto the base of the fingers of your other hand. While keeping your fingers on each hand pressed tightly together, bend your fingers so that they curve over your other hand. 
   
3. The idea is to create an air pocket inside your hands, and to make sure your hands and fingers are pressed together so there are no gaps surrounding that air pocket.
4. Press the sides of your thumbs together, but leave a narrow space between your thumb joints and the base of your thumbs. 
   
5. Put your thumb joints up to your lips, while making sure the hole between your thumbs is below your lips and still open to the air.
6. Keep your lips relaxed and hold your tongue back a little while you slowly blow onto your thumb joints. See if you can get a sound. You might need to adjust the position of your lips and make sure the only hole around your air pocket is the one between your thumbs.
7. Keep practicing – you may not get it right away!

Blog by Kayla Martin