AndyHat ([info]andyhat) wrote,
@ 2008-06-11 15:18:00
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The Tick
There is one downside to living on a nice wooded lot in North Carolina. Getting ready for bed last night, I found this girl munching on my leg:



She is safely preserved (and, apparently endowed by her vampiric nature with indestructibility and immortality, still alive) in a Ziploc baggie should I come down with anything in the next few weeks.

I have to say I'm amazed by what I can do with this $60 Epson scanner (model 3490). I bought it to scan book covers for my librarything catalog, but the ability to scan at 4800dpi obviously has its uses, too.

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[info]defenestr8or
2008-06-11 07:54 pm UTC (link)
Approves!


Look for a red spot with a red ring around it, if you're worried about Lyme.

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[info]maegwynn
2008-06-11 07:59 pm UTC (link)
That is a lone star tick. Gak, I dislike spiders...

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[info]docstrange
2008-06-11 08:56 pm UTC (link)
Yep. You won't get Lyme disease from it.

However it does appear to sometimes carry a similar illness . . .

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/stari/index.htm

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[info]ymasen
2008-06-11 08:03 pm UTC (link)
creepy 8 legged thing *shudder*

Edited at 2008-06-11 08:03 pm UTC

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[info]alchemist
2008-06-11 08:28 pm UTC (link)
I preserve the ticks that think it's fun to munch on me in alcohol. Kills them dead, perfectly preserved...

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[info]vivian2112
2008-06-11 10:20 pm UTC (link)
wow.

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[info]a_nightengale
2008-06-12 12:46 am UTC (link)
Ahhhhhh!!!!!! Stab it stab it stab it...

*runs screaming*

I absolutely HATEHATEHATE ticks. Nasty, disgusting creatures with no ecological benefit whatsoever that I'm aware of. I don't like mosquitoes either, but I understand that lots of other critters -- bats, frogs, etc., feed on them, so that's at least something. But ticks? Ugh.

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[info]greatblueheron
2008-06-12 01:25 am UTC (link)
That is a novel use of the scanner. I'll have to remember that. And, though I hate and loathe and fear and despise ticks, I do think that there are a fair number of things that like to eat 'em (ducks?) so there's that.

And also, as Carl Zimmer has pointed out - predators are creatures that make their living by attacking and killing things smaller and weaker than they are, and yet we idolize them and name our cars after them.

Parasites live by daring to attack things far larger and stronger than they, and yet we revile them.

I say we make up for this bully-favoring and start naming sports cars after parasites. The Mitsubishi Tick! The Porsche Tapeworm! The Dodge Leech!

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[info]a_nightengale
2008-06-12 02:00 am UTC (link)
I do think that there are a fair number of things that like to eat 'em (ducks?) so there's that.

Ah, thank you. I wasn't aware that they were anyone's food source.

Reminds me of a joke my dad told at lunch the other day, though I don't recommend reading this if you happen to be eating...
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Spoiler space
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OK.

So a little boy was playing outside in the back yard, when suddenly his mom, looking out the window, sees him eating something.

She opens the windows and yells to him, "Boy, what'chu eatin'?"

Boy calmly says to his mom, "Raisins."

His mom hollers back, "Raisins?! We ain't got any raisins! Were'd you get 'em?"

Boy replies, "Off the dawg."
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See? I warned you. ;)

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[info]badger
2008-06-12 02:19 am UTC (link)
And my copy of The Parasite arrived today, in a lovely piece of synchronicity. :)

That scanner is amazingly impressive, esp. given the cost.

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[info]phoenix_defiant
2008-06-12 03:01 am UTC (link)
icck, a tick. i am an arachnophobe. thanks for the closeup though- now i know a new variety of tick (new to me).
i hope you don't get sick!
icck, tick, sick...

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