It has been a very busy summer out at Tyson Research Center. Forests, prairies, glades, ponds, and cattle tanks were sampled, things were weighed, babies were born, ticks were collected, bites were scratched, puppies were adopted, students became graduates, veggies were grown and eaten, Tiki gods were worshipped, seminars were given, buildings were certified and waterslides were constructed; more on all that later though.
Minke Man finally gettin' a little respect
This blog will be updated frequently for the next two weeks in an effort to catch up on all the exciting things that have taken place this field season. We’ll start with the ticks…
Dr. Brian Allan, former Tyson post doc and currently faculty at University of Illinois, has proven that the exotic, invasive plant, bush honeysuckle (Lonicera mackii), harbors many more ticks than native vegetation. He did this research all over St. Louis in city parks, MDC lands, county parks and state parks. This is very important research because it proves that you(and your children!) are ten times more likely to get a tick borne disease in a patch of honeysuckle as opposed to a patch of native vegetation. There are no reasons to refuse to cut honeysuckle down now, it has become a human health concern!
for more information on this and to read more in-depth articles, please see the news section on the main Tyson homepage www.tyson.wustl.edu
–Travis Mohrman
