Yes, almost all lizards have a pretty heavy tick load when there are ticks around, particularly around their ears. On a related note, Western Fence Lizards actually seem to be able to destroy the bacterium in the ticks that cause Lyme disease, such that after having fed on one of these lizards the ticks no longer transmit the disease. However, apparently there's also evidence that lizards are such important hosts to the ticks that simply removing them reduces the number of ticks, so it's not quite as simple as more fence lizards => less Lyme disease.
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Thank you Ken-ichi!
No prob. Tammy would have deserved WAY more naturalist cred for hand-capturing a whiptail.
Ken-ichi, did you noticed the ticks on the lizard? It's a common problem for lizards?
Yes, almost all lizards have a pretty heavy tick load when there are ticks around, particularly around their ears. On a related note, Western Fence Lizards actually seem to be able to destroy the bacterium in the ticks that cause Lyme disease, such that after having fed on one of these lizards the ticks no longer transmit the disease. However, apparently there's also evidence that lizards are such important hosts to the ticks that simply removing them reduces the number of ticks, so it's not quite as simple as more fence lizards => less Lyme disease.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing!
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