The Daily Bucket is a place where we get together and share the things we've noticed in the natural world around us. It might be that robins are building a nest in the old apple tree out back or that the crickets outside your window are keeping you awake at night or that coyote pups up on the ridge are beginning to sing with their parents every evening. Doesn't matter what it is, nothing noted is too big or too small, so please join in and tell us what is happening in your neck of the woods. Everyone is welcome. All we ask is that you give us an idea of where you're located.
Seattle. September 24, 2013.
We've been traveling a lot this summer. We always assume our accommodations have been thoroughly cleaned...
So, I was stripping the beds the other day for the weekly laundry, and noticed this little smear of blood on my forearm. There was a tiny pinhead sized whitish object occluding the bloody place. My first impulse was to brush it off, but on closer look realized that the tiny pinhead sized whitish object was, like ... organic ... and was ... um ... moving.
OHMYDOGWE'VEGOTF#$%BEDBUGS!!!!
OK. Deep breath. Find a jar. Encourage the tiny pinhead sized whitish object into the jar. Shut the lid. Tight. Find the magnifying glass. Find the right pair of glasses. Focus. Focus. Focus.
Race to the computer. Look up bedbugs.
Inhale.
Adult bed bugs are light brown to reddish-brown, flattened, oval-shaped and have no hind wings. The front wings are vestigial and reduced to pad-like structures. Bed bugs have segmented abdomens with microscopic hairs that give them a banded appearance. Adults grow to 4–5 mm in length and 1.5–3 mm wide.
Exhale.
Tiny pinhead sized whitish object is neither light brown nor reddish and does not have a segmented body. To be sure, I take the magnifying glass into the bedroom and search every crease and every wrinkle in the remaining bedclothes, looking for light brown or reddish things that are about 4mm in size. Bedbugs like to hide in creases and wrinkles. I look for dried blood specks. I look for - shudder - frass. I find nothing.
To be even more sure I yell out to Mr Bwren, "How many f@#$%ing legs does a f@#$%ing bedbug have??"
Mr Bwren also looks online. It takes too long. Finally, he yells back an answer:
Six.
Another deep breath. Tiny pinhead sized whitish object appears to have eight legs, which it is waving at me from inside the jar. I look again. Count the waving legs, just to be sure. Yep. Eight.
"Hooray" I shout, "we don't have bedbugs!"
The tiny pinhead sized whitish object waves at me through the glass. It appears not to be a bedbug, but it has tasted my blood.
What has eight legs and sucks blood?
Back to the computer. Search "Ticks". This comes up. See that little guy on the far left? Yep, that's who's waving at me. A nymph Western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus).
The western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus) can transmit the organisms responsible for causing anaplasmosis and Lyme disease in humans. Wild rodents and other mammals are likely reservoirs of these pathogens. This tick is distributed along the Pacific coast of the United States. Larvae and nymphs feed on birds and small rodents, while adult ticks feed on deer and other mammals. Adult ticks are primarily associated with pathogen transmission to humans. - CDC
Looks as if
Ixodes pacificus is another of the critters who calls the neighborhood home.
Cool.
September 24, 2013. Western Black-legged ticks are present in my neighborhood.
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Your turn. What's happening in your neighborhood? Everyone is welcome to join in. There's no need to talk about either bedbugs or ticks. I'll be back in the early afternoon PDT.