What Ticks and Art Have In Common for Residents of West River, MD

West River, MD is the birthplace of Joseph Galloway, first congressman, and eventual loyalist. He’s alleged to have married for financial gain. The faith conversion that allowed him to marry his wife is said to have boosted his political career.

The more things change, the more they stay the same which is proven by the different reasons behind today’s weddings in both celebrity and non-celebrity circles.

One celebrity whose marriage certainly surprised many and begins our blog on “Ticks and Art” is Justin Bieber. Away from that, however, he just announced earlier this month that he’s been diagnosed with Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness.

Singer Justin Bieber revealed he recently received a diagnosis of Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness that can cause fever, rash, joint pain, fatigue, and neurological problems. Another common symptom people with Lyme disease experience is depression, which can appear both before, and linger long after, the illness is treated. This can result in delayed diagnosis of Lyme disease for those who are already living with depression or other mental health conditions. Read more at Healthline…

Although most people identify Lyme disease with the target-like rash called erythema migrans, the rash isn’t the only symptom and unfortunately, lots of the other symptoms can mimic other conditions, which make Lyme disease difficult to diagnose.

In this case, we’ve seen how ticks have touched the musical art scene. Did you know ticks will bite and infect not just anyone, famous or not, but anywhere? You could change the game to “Where in the world is the Tick” because ticks have been found on every single continent! Just check out the U.S. National Tick Collection.

Since 1990 the collection, which belongs to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, has been on long-term loan with the university due to its strong focus on the study of entomology. Thanks to its location on campus, it’s readily available to students, researchers and the public to view and study (the assemblage of creepy crawlies is particularly popular among local elementary school groups). The collection’s comprehensive array of specimens contains ticks representing all seven continents (yes, this includes Antarctica, where ticks have been found feasting on the blood of seabirds) and nearly all of the approximately 860 known species of ticks found around the world. Read more at Smithsonian Mag…

When you think “Smithsonian,” you think art and history, but now you can link it to ticks and the nearly one thousand species that exist. This is why it’s a good idea to remove and store, or take a picture of any tick you find on yourself so that it can be identified. Different ticks carry different diseases, so any help you can give your health care professionals when treating you would be beneficial.

Ticks have also been the subject of literal art. You would have to travel about 2,700 miles across the country to Oregon to see it through.

Thanks to the warming climate, we’re living on a more tick-friendly planet, where you can be infected with a tick-borne disease (tularemia, anaplasmosis, Colorado tick fever, Powassin encephalitis, relapsing fever, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme Disease, et al.) in as little as 15 minutes after a tick attaches itself to your scalp, long before you return home from your hike with your Labradoodle and begin extracting the tiny arachnids. One of my favorite rock art images is of an engorged tick in a small cave high above the Columbia Gorge. It was probably some kind of shamanic symbol near a vision quest site. I was once told by an elder of the Yakima Nation that ticks have mystical power because they are shape-shifters who sustain themselves on human blood. Read more at Counter Punch…

This cave art may have been done long before global warming began. But at this rate of climate change, we’ll likely see many more ticks over time, which may lead to more tick art.

To protect yourself from tick bites, remember to wear long sleeves and pants and to tuck your socks into your pants when in the woods. As for areas closer to home, get in touch with our tick experts at Backyard Bug Patrol. We’ll locate all the hard-to-find tick hideouts and make your yard safe from these biting bugs.