Tick season. There’s been an explosion in people contracting Lyme disease as a result of a tick bite. And ticks seem to be everywhere. We’re warned to use long pants tucked into our socks when hiking. We’re even told to be careful in our gardens. Why the dramatic increase in ticks?
Those little critters just don’t live on deer; the larvae sit on a forest floor waiting for a small rodent to come along; the white footed mouse is the biggest carrier of the many diseases ticks can give to humans. When the larvae become nymphs, they only need to wait for the first human.
The warming climate explains some of the population growth, but not all. Clear-cutting of forests and woods for overpriced developments is a contributor as well because the diversity of a forest includes predators to kill the rodents. When the land is devoid of the forest, the predatory birds that feed on the rodents leave and those cute little mice have more and more ticks just waiting for you to take a walk.
Prayer for the Day
God who appears in the most unusual place,
Come, so we see your face and feel your Spirit;
God who continually surprises us when we least expect it,
Open to us your Presence and beauty.
God, you are in a blade of grass or a bird soaring in the air,
Making the ordinary extraordinary in our lives.
In the name of the One who opens us to you,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.
- John Muir, Naturalist (1838-1914)
If life were predictable, it would cease to be life and without flavor.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, humanitarian (1880-1962)
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all;
The earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there,
Things both small and great.
There go the ships, and Leviathan you formed to sport in it.
These all look to you to give them their food in due season.
Psalm 104: 24-27