Mosquito.buzz Blog

Greetings, faithful readers! It's Thursday, and that means a new Tick Talk blog is signed, sealed, delivered, and ready to be consumed. What a time to be alive!

Speaking of consumption ... we're going to be talking about the tick blood meal this week, arguably the most important task of a ticks 2-year life.

Right now, ticks across the country are gearing up for their first blood meal, which is required for them to stay alive and advance to the next stage of their life cycle. In order to avoid becoming a ticks next blood meal, we need to study their habits and memorize tick prevention tips and tricks - starting today! 

For many Canadians, the end of April means warmer weather and NHL playoffs. For us at Mosquito.buzz, however, April showers bring tick encounters - forget about those flowers!

While ticks can be active all year round, risk of human exposure is greatest in the late spring and during the summer.  Once better weather hits, so do the ticks, and they will begin questing for their next blood meal as soon as they are ready. Unfortunately, this just happens to coincide with the start of our spring outdoor activities.

Right now, ticks across the country are gearing up for their first blood meal, which is required for them to stay alive and advance to the next stage of their life cycle. In order to combat tick encounters and the harmful diseases that they can potentially spread, we need to better understand their life cycles, from egg to adult stage. 

Read on to learn more about the life cycle of the tick

Welcome to Tick Talk, ladies and gentleman; a weekly informational series on the life and times of our not-so favourite arachnid, the tick. From now until late-May, we will be writing about all things tick-related, with the goal of keeping you safe and informed for the upcoming spring/summer season! 

We all have that one (annoying) friend that mosquitoes just don’t seem to bite. They could be doing jumping jacks, in a swamp, dressed in all black, and still not be swarmed by those blood-sucking bandits. Where’s the fairness in that?

There’s a lot to love about winter in Canada, that’s for sure. From sleigh rides and hot chocolates to ski hills and frozen rinks, winter is the season where Canadians and their rugged country truly get to shine. There’s a reason it’s called the Great White North, after all.

Don’t look now cottage-goers, but winter is right around the corner. That means it’s time to shut down your property and put your cottage to bed before the gales of November come early. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened!

With Fall underway and temperatures dropping, it's almost time to say goodbye to ticks for the winter. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, I say!

But before that glorious day comes, we'll probably be seeing a whole lot more of them terrorizing our precious woods and gardens. Or, perhaps more accurately, what we think are a whole lot more of them. Let me explain.

Ticks are just another thing to worry about, right? Well, yes. But the more you know about them, the more equipped you'll be to prevent tick bites and not worry about them while enjoying yourself outside.

Here are 10 quick facts about these tiny terrors.

There are people out there who are scared of bears, sharks, alligators... my partner even has an irrational fear of horses. The bigger the beast, the scarier it is. That's usually how it goes.

But what about something you can't always see from a distance, that literally inflates with blood after puncturing a tiny hole in your skin? And what if, after piercing said hole, they can send a disease swimming through your bloodstream?

Just when you thought skeeter season was over, your property appears to have been invaded by mammoth mosquitoes. But don't be fooled; these look-alikes are actually nothing like the real deal.

To the untrained eye, these might look like GIANT mosquitoes. But don't stress - these guys are European Crane Flies, and they've been out in force for the last few weeks.