Indiana
Tick encounters across Indiana on the rise, climate change plays a role
I’m roughly the dimensions of a sesame seed when full grown. I’m not an insect, however moderately a relative of the spider. Oh yeah, and I need to suck your blood.
What am I?
If you happen to guessed a tick, you’d be right.
You could discover a little bit of a pattern: The final version of the Scrub Hub was about mosquitoes whereas this installment will deal with one other summer time pest that may be equally annoying and harmful — although probably tougher to detect.
Mosquitoes a minimum of announce themselves earlier than making you their prey with their incessant high-pitched buzzing and that prickling itch once they chunk. Ticks, however, are silent stalkers that truly secrete a chemical of their chunk so that you gained’t even know they’ve latched on.
It is tick season:Listed here are tricks to defend in opposition to the blood-sucking bugs
As Hoosiers take to parks, trails and tenting grounds for some respite within the nice open air, many might have an unknown and undesirable climbing buddy within the tick. We’ve been listening to from plenty of you in posts on social media or questions despatched our approach that the ticks this 12 months appear notably dangerous and worse than regular.
We needed to see if that was, in reality, the case. So for this Scrub Hub, we’re answering the questions: Are ticks getting worse in Indiana? What’s inflicting it?
To get these solutions, we spoke with some consultants in entomology — bug buffs — to determine the standing of ticks in Indiana and the way are they altering.
Quick reply: Tick encounters on the rise
Are ticks in reality getting worse? That’s onerous to say, and relies upon the way you measure it.
Since 2004, the variety of complete reported circumstances of tickborne illness throughout the nation has steadily elevated, in response to the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. In 2004, there have been greater than 22,000 reported circumstances and by 2019, that quantity had grown to greater than 50,000.
Whereas there are extra reported illnesses, the consultants say it’s unclear what’s inflicting it.
“It’s not clear if there is a rise in ticks and publicity to ticks, or a rise in consciousness about ticks and the illnesses they trigger,” mentioned Jim Fredericks, the chief entomologist with the Nationwide Pest Administration Affiliation.
Scrub Hub:What’s mosquito management, and does it harm the setting?
He mentioned a rise in consciousness is an efficient factor “as a result of ticks and tick bites usually go undetected, they usually’re the commonest approach” individuals within the U.S. are uncovered to vector-borne diseases, or these transmitted from blood-feeding bugs.
There are three species of ticks which might be widespread in Indiana, and they’re able to transmitting a minimum of 9 completely different pathogens, in response to Catherine Hill, a Purdue College professor of entomology and vector biology.
The primary is the black-legged or deer tick, which Hill describes as “public enemy No. 1.” That is the tick answerable for Lyme illness and could be discovered all throughout Indiana. There are greater than 100 circumstances of Lyme illness reported within the state yearly.
The second species Hill watches for in Indiana is the lone-star tick, with an enormous white dot on its again (therefore the identify). That is an aggressive tick that’s extra widespread within the southern components of Indiana, and its chunk has been linked to triggering alpha-gal syndrome, or an allergy to purple meat.
The final sort are the American canine and brown canine ticks, that are all around the state, Hill mentioned, and may transmit Rocky Mountain noticed fever. A couple of dozen circumstances of the illness are reported in Indiana yearly, in response to knowledge.
Yearly Purdue, in addition to different universities and companies throughout the state and nation, are doing surveillance and looking forward to ticks, Hill mentioned.
“It’s a extremely widespread query: Are we seeing extra ticks?” she mentioned “However that’s actually onerous to reply, as a result of we don’t have baseline to measure from.”
Lengthy reply: Local weather change increasing tick ranges
Although it’s onerous to talk to the precise variety of ticks and whether or not there are extra of them, Hill mentioned there are strategies that individuals are having increasingly more tick encounters.
Much more, individuals are questioning if that rise in encounters is expounded to a altering local weather, she mentioned. And in a approach, the reply is sure.
The rise in human-tick encounters is coming from modifications to the place ticks are discovered in addition to when they’re energetic.
The geographic ranges for ticks are rising and spreading as we see hotter temperatures and extra rains or humidity — that are mandatory circumstances for ticks.
Some analysis reveals that over the previous decade or so, the northern fringe of the place the deer tick — or the tick carrying Lyme illness — has been discovered has continued to increase north “in components of Canada the place it hasn’t beforehand been detected,” in response to Fredericks with the NPMA.
That 2017 research discovered a “sturdy correlation between rising winter temperatures and the unfold of the tick inhabitants.” Whereas the deer tick was first found on the shores of Lake Erie within the Nineties, it has since unfold farther north into Ontario and components of Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
As ticks increase their vary, that additionally means we’re prone to see new species of ticks from farther south developing into Indiana, Hill mentioned.
Scrub Hub: Is local weather change making Indianapolis’ pothole issues even worse?
There are two forms of what Hill calls “invasive” ticks which might be at the moment knocking on Indiana’s door. The primary is the Gulf Coast tick, which has been widespread within the southeast and Atlantic states. There are studies it’s been seen in Indiana in recent times.
The opposite species is the Asian longhorned tick, which was detected in Kentucky final 12 months. Each of those ticks can transmit numerous illnesses, and the latter has the potential to influence animal reproductive methods, Hill mentioned.
That might create an enormous downside for the dairy and livestock industries within the state, as science at the moment lacks good instruments to manage ticks on animals and cattle, in response to the Purdue professor.
Not solely are ticks increasing their vary, however in addition they are extra energetic for longer instances of the 12 months.
With hotter temperatures coming sooner and hanging round longer — the lack of the shoulder season, as many name it — ticks equally are making their debut earlier within the 12 months after which staying later.
That’s additionally why reported tick bites within the winter have gotten extra widespread. Whereas bites are nonetheless uncommon in comparison with the summer time months, they aren’t unattainable and nonetheless pose a threat. Ticks can be out and on the lookout for a meal nearly anytime the climate is above 50 levels Fahrenheit, Fredericks mentioned.
“When you have an prolonged heat season, that’s when ticks can be most energetic,” he mentioned, “and that’s when individuals are most energetic, too.”
Some preliminary analysis from the Purdue Local weather Change Analysis Heart means that the warming temperatures might certainly improve the precise variety of ticks by boosting their copy charges.
Between expanded ranges, better exercise and probably boosted copy — ticks are posing a rising downside.
“As our threat of tick encounters will increase over the state or all through completely different instances of the 12 months, our threat of publicity and potential to contract a illness will increase,” Hill mentioned.
Each Hill and Fredericks mentioned that folks shouldn’t be discouraged from going exterior, however there are steps they will take to guard themselves from ticks.
Extra analysis on how tick populations are altering and what local weather change has to do with it’s underway. One of many first steps is establishing a baseline, Hill mentioned, to grasp what consultants are seeing extra time.
She mentioned it is going to take years to do this, and all Hoosiers can assist. Purdue has began a statewide surveillance program wherein individuals can ship in ticks they’ve collected together with details about when and the place it was discovered. For extra info: tickinsiders.org
This helps Hill and her group proceed to construct out their basis of tick analysis and add to a map concerning the forms of tick encounters across the state.
“We all know plenty of issues about ticks in Indiana,” she mentioned, “however there’s nonetheless extra to be taught.”
When you have extra questions on local weather and pests, or some other matters, tell us! You possibly can ask us by submitting a query by our Google type beneath.
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Name IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or electronic mail at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Observe her on Twitter and Fb: @IndyStarSarah. Join with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Be a part of The Scrub on Fb.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting undertaking is made potential by the beneficiant assist of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Belief.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s football rise into the national elite has been such a dizzying, intoxicating ride that it felt like it might never end.
Alas, No. 2 Ohio State dealt the Hoosiers a reality check with a dominant 38-15 victory Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
Most Indiana observers understood that a splash of water in the metaphorical face of Indiana football was likely when the College Football Playoff rankings came out.
Once revealed? It was a pretty cold splash that hit the Hoosiers late Tuesday night.
Indiana (10-1) fell to the No. 10 spot in the rankings. Six one-loss teams (Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, SMU) and two two-loss teams (Georgia, Tennessee) are ahead of the Hoosiers. Indiana is rated the worst of the one-loss Power Four conference teams.
Because of the way the College Football Playoff bracket is constructed, Indiana is the last team in the 12-team field. Two teams ranked lower than Indiana would make the field as projected conference champions.
It’s a precarious position for Indiana as its margin for error has been exhausted. Still, there are plenty of happy and heartbreaking outcomes to consider as the college football season gets closer to its pre-Playoff climax.
Here’s a few scenarios to consider after the College Football Playoff committee set the latest pecking order Tuesday.
The best-case scenario
• If Indiana wants to go for the glory? Apart from the obvious win Indiana needs over Purdue, Hoosiers fans can hope for a Michigan win over Ohio State and a Maryland victory at Penn State. That would put Indiana into the Big Ten championship game against Oregon. A win in that game would give Indiana a bye into the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
However, the risk in that is that if the Hoosiers were to lose, they could be out of the CFP field altogether depending on what happens elsewhere. High reward, but high risk, too.
For Indiana to get back into the playoff hosting picture? The Hoosiers probably need at least two of the following results: Georgia loses at home to Georgia Tech on Friday night, Tennessee loses at Vanderbilt, Miami loses at Syracuse, SMU loses to California at home or Notre Dame loses at Southern California on Saturday.
After the upsets that took place in Week 13? Stranger things have happened.
The most realistic good scenario
• If your best-case scenario is to beat Purdue, but lose the risk of incurring a second loss by missing the Big Ten championship game? It’s as simple as beating the Boilermakers on Saturday night. Given that Indiana are currently 28.5 point favorites, that is a solid probability.
However, Indiana is looking over its shoulder, too. No. 12-ranked Clemson lurks behind the Hoosiers and has a chance at a quality win when the Tigers host rival South Carolina Saturday. Though the Gamecocks are also lurking in the No. 15 spot, it would do Indiana a world of good to have South Carolina get Clemson off Indiana’s rear bumper.
The worst-case scenario
• This is simple: Indiana loses to Purdue. Barring a litany of upsets elsewhere, a loss to the Boilermakers would be a mortal blow to the Hoosiers’ CFP hopes.
Another worst-case scenario would be if Indiana beat Purdue, but Texas A&M beat Texas to make it to the SEC championship game and then pulled a major upset in that contest against Georgia.
That would put the Aggies in the CFP field as a bid-stealer and knock every other team down a notch. If Indiana was still on the bubble, this would cause it to burst.
The most realistic bad scenario
• Indiana beats Purdue, but not convincingly. A two-touchdown win or less is going to reflect poorly on the Hoosiers. Like it or not, style points matter.
If Indiana squeaked by the Boilermakers, in combination with a Clemson win over South Carolina and no upsets in front of them, it would be high time for Hoosiers fans to start to sweat.
Add in an Alabama win over Auburn and/or an Ole Miss victory over Mississippi State? The Hoosiers might survive it all, but the conference championship games and the reveal of final rankings on Dec. 8 would be a white-knuckle experience for Indiana.
The most ambiguous scenario
• Indiana beats Purdue, but once again, not convincingly. However, some of the teams ahead of Indiana also lose.
Any loss by either Georgia or Tennessee would be trouble for either team as it would be their third defeat. SMU has had a great season, but the Mustangs would take a hit if they lost at home to California. Similarly, Miami has just one loss, but the Hurricanes have won their share of close shootouts during the season.
Add in wins by Clemson, Alabama and Ole Miss? Perhaps toss in a Texas A&M victory over Texas that would put the potential bid-stealing Aggies in the SEC championship game? The CFP committee would have one heckuva Gordian knot to untangle going into the conference championship games.
Indiana
Warde Manuel reveals how College Football Playoff committee views outcome of Indiana vs Ohio State
A Top-5 showdown highlighted the Week 13 slate as Indiana and Ohio State squared off at The Horseshoe. Ultimately, the Buckeyes got a blowout victory over the Hoosiers, and all eyes turned toward Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings to see how the committee viewed that outcome.
Of course, Indiana wasn’t the only top-ranked team to fall last week. Multiple others did, as well, which likely helped the Hoosiers stay in the Top 10. According to committee chair Warde Manuel, IU has the resume to be the No. 10 team in the country.
Manuel pointed out it wasn’t all bad for Indiana in last week’s matchup. The Hoosiers had some good moments, notably the opening drive. Although they dropped five spots, Manuel said IU still did enough to be in the Top 10.
“We viewed Indiana – they played well at times against Ohio State,” Manuel said on the CFP rankings reveal show on ESPN. “And Ohio State pulled out a victory and really came on in the second half of that game. But we were impressed with some of the things that Indiana did. And they dropped five, but we still felt that their body of work was strong enough to remain in the Top 10.”
Indiana’s strength of schedule was a key point of conversation entering last week’s game. The Hoosiers’ schedule ranked No. 106 in the country through Week 12, according to ESPN, which was the second-weakest of the College Football Playoff Top 25. After the Ohio State game, though, IU’s schedule now ranks No. 51.
Of course, the numbers also back up Indiana’s case to be one of the top teams. The Hoosiers rank No. 9 in the nation in scoring defense and No. 2 in scoring offense. That’s why, after Saturday’s game, Curt Cignetti scoffed at a question about whether they should still be in the 12-team field before answering with a wink and smile.
“Is that a serious question?” Cignetti said in his postgame press conference, with a smirk. “I’m not even gonna answer that one. The answer’s so obvious.”
PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas – The slate of marquee nonconference games surrounding Thanksgiving has become known as Feast Week.
Tournaments in Maui, the Bahamas, Las Vegas and elsewhere generate top-25 matchups on a daily basis. Monday, Memphis upset back-to-back national champion No. 2 UConn. No. 4 Auburn erased a 16-point halftime deficit to take down No. 5 Iowa State. And No. 12 North Carolina came back from 21 points down to defeat Dayton.
That was just the start of a week that makes November feel a bit like March. No. 14 Indiana will compete in the eight-team Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, along with No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 24 Arizona, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Providence and Davidson.
Indiana is off to a 4-0 start and rose two spots in the latest AP Top 25 poll. Three wins have come against mid-major foes Southern Illlinois-Edwardsville, Eastern Illinois and UNC Greensboro. Indiana also handled South Carolina in a 16-point win, but the Gamecocks have taken a step back from last year’s second-place SEC finish.
And with a nonconference slate that features just one high-major opponent outside its three opportunities in the Bahamas, the Hoosiers must eat up all the opportunities Feast Week offers.
That starts with a matchup against Louisville, a team Indiana defeated 74-66 last year in the Empire Classic. But the new-look Cardinals are a completely different unit now, led by former College of Charleston head coach Pat Kelsey, 13 new transfers and one freshman. Louisville failed its biggest test of the season so far, a 77-55 home loss to Tennessee, but it’s shaping up to be a far more competitive team than those that went 12-52 in two years under former head coach Kenny Payne.
Analytics site Bart Torvik favors the Hoosiers by 3.6 points and ranks them 30th nationally, compared to the No. 57 Cardinals. With a win, Indiana would likely advance to face Gonzaga, which moved up to No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 poll and is ranked No. 4 by Torvik.
That’s when the big challenge could come, one that Indiana vitally needs to meet as it builds an NCAA Tournament resume. Its best win so far is South Carolina, currently a bubble team at best. The Hoosiers may end up with wins against mid-major teams that reach the NCAA Tournament, but none that they can hang their hats on come Selection Sunday.
And once they return to Bloomington, they won’t get another chance to pick up a quality win until Big Ten play. That’s part of the risk that came with Indiana scheduling lighter than normal in the nonconference and relying so much on what it can gain in the Bahamas.
The other factor is that beyond Louisville, Indiana doesn’t know exactly who it’ll play this week. Upsets happen in college basketball all the time, and Indiana could end up facing a lighter slate this week by no fault of its own. Or it could lose to a capable Louisville team Wednesday and head to the loser’s bracket, where wins over certain opponents may not significantly strengthen its profile.
This Indiana team has enough talent that reaching the NCAA Tournament shouldn’t be in question, but its schedule lacks frequent opportunities at resume-boosting wins.
The other question going into the Battle 4 Atlantis is, how much do we really know about the Hoosiers so far? In terms of its Big Ten and national title aspirations, almost nothing. We can speculate how Indiana might fare against premier programs, but this tournament in the Bahamas represents the first time we’ll actually see it.
Indiana’s 4-0 start has mostly provided optimism, as the Hoosiers have defeated each team by 11 points or more. But there have been several moments of concern, or ones that at least reveal a team with six transfers and one freshman still getting to know each other. That was expected going into the season, but Indiana can’t afford it to last much longer.
The clear difference between the 2024-25 Hoosiers and last year’s group that missed the NCAA Tournament is guard play. Point guard Myles Rice is averaging 14.8 points and shooting 46.2% from 3-point range so far, a dynamic Indiana simply didn’t have last season. Sophomore wing Mackenzie Mgbako appears to have taken another step in his game, leading Indiana with 18.8 points per game and connecting on 8-of-15 3-point attempts.
Woodson also has much more capable depth to work with, with veterans like Trey Galloway and Luke Goode, along with budding freshman Bryson Tucker, coming off the bench. That’s all said without mentioning Malik Reneau and Oumar Ballo, who could comprise the Big Ten’s best front court.
So where does the hesitation come from? Woodson has been unhappy with several aspects of the Hoosiers’ play this season. After a 90-55 win over Eastern Illinois, which featured a 37-36 halftime deficit, Woodson called out his team’s readiness.
“I thought we were still home in bed asleep,” Woodson said. “It was awful.”
Indiana jumped out to a 21-5 win over UNC Greensboro, only to be tied 40-40 with 15:57 left in the second half. Indiana shot just 41.7% from the field and 26.3% from 3-point range, allowed 13 offensive rebounds and committed 13 turnovers in the win. That left a lot to be desired from Woodson, and some of the frustration stems from knowing how much talent he has on this team.
“As a team we had 16 assists. That’s awful. I mean, it’s awful. With this team, we should average between 20 and 30 assists. So the play tonight, the way we played offensively tonight was selfish as hell to me,” Woodson said.
“That’s something that just can’t be because we have enough guys on this team that can make basketball plays,” Woodson continued. “We’ve just got to be unselfish and sacrifice the ball for the sake of the team and good things will happen.”
Woodson and the Hoosiers have a chance to ease those concerns and pick up several quality wins. Good, bad or somewhere in between, this week will reveal a lot about this Indiana team, which needs to return to Bloomington with something to show for this trip.
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