Vigilance is Key to Preventing Tick Bites
An Iowa State University entomologist discusses strategies for avoiding ticks and the diseases they spread.
An Iowa State University entomologist discusses strategies for avoiding ticks and the diseases they spread.
hereLet there be no mistaking it, bats are important. And, in light of a long history of changes to forest habitats, new emerging pressures associated with energy development and an exotic disease-causing fungus that’s been wreaking unprecedented havoc on eastern populations in the last decade, many of Iowa’s bats are in trouble.
Accidental invaders are insects that inadvertently enter homes and buildings from the surrounding landscape. Many species are troublesome during late summer and fall as they move to protected locations to spend the winter.
Nearly half of Iowa farmers say in a recent Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll that they are willing to plant monarch breeding habitat but are unsure how much land or money they would invest in the effort.
Ticks are active from March through November, the same months that host the most outdoor activities. Understanding the different types of ticks that are found in the state and how to remove ticks if they become attached to a human or domestic animal is the focus of a new Iowa State University Extension and Outreach publication titled ‘Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases in Iowa’ (PM 2036).