Cassandra, from your perspective as a veterinary entomologist and using insecticides and hopefully working with that veterinarian, how does that all tie in together to hopefully being beneficial for producers?

Well, I, I always think, um, wh- when I speak to people, I say this irrespective of whatever you're using, right? Be aware of purchase placebo.

Always look at the label because, you know, a lot of the times they'll, they'll put things on a label and it'll say, you know, "Effective against 70 species." Well, are we worried about 70 species, right? And, and sometimes you think that this has got to be better because there's 70 species.

Uh, you know, and so just taking a step back and, and you know, anywhere where a company claims something, you can follow up and say, "Hey, what are those species you tested it against? How well did it work?" And then I think the other thing is just, you know, wh- whenever you use a product, make a note, right? And before I use this product, whether it's ticks or flies or whatever it is, how bad was my problem? And sometimes that isn't counting the individuals.

You know, something like a tick is a bit easier, right, if you've got the animals in the shoot, but flies are hard to count 'cause there's thousands.

But what was my animal behavior like before the application of the product? What was my animal behavior like after the application?

Cassandra, at the end of the last segment, you were mentioning that people should be noting what the animal's behavior was before and after the application, and why is that?

Do I see a significant improvement in animal comfort? That's when you know a product's working, right? And then if i- if you don't see an improvement, then you've got to ask yourself, well, did I apply the product as the label instructed me to, or did I dilute it out to save a buck, right? Did I apply it properly? And if you know you applied it properly and it didn't work, then we've got to start looking, okay, is my insect population susceptible to this product? Right? When, when you buy an ear tag from Y-Tex or something like that, they have done studies that have measured the numbers of flies before and after, and they routinely will check whether their products are still working.

Cassandra, from your perspective as a veterinary entomologist and using insecticides and hopefully working with that veterinarian, how does that all tie in together to hopefully being beneficial for producers?

Well, I, I always think, um, whe- when I speak to people, I say this irrespective of whatever you're using, right? Be aware of purchase placebo.

Always look at the label because, you know, a lot of the times they'll, they'll put things on a label and it'll say, you know, "Effective against 70 species." Well, are we worried about 70 species, right? And, and sometimes you think that this has got to be better because there's 70 species.

Uh, you know, and so just taking a step back and, and you know, anywhere where a company claims something, you can follow up and say, "Hey, what are those species you tested it against? How well did it work?" And then I think the other thing is just, you know, wh- whenever you use a product, make a note, right? And before I use this product, whether it's ticks or flies or whatever it is, how bad was my problem? And sometimes that isn't counting the individuals.

You know, something like a tick is a bit easier, right, if you've got the animals in the shoot, but flies are hard to count 'cause there's thousands.

But what was my animal behavior like before the application of the product? What was my animal behavior like after the application?

Cassandra, at the end of the last segment, you were mentioning that people should be noting what the animal's behavior was before and after the application, and why is that?

Do I see a significant improvement in animal comfort? That's when you know a product's working, right? And then if i- if you don't see an improvement, then you've got to ask yourself, well, did I apply the product as the label instructed me to, or did I dilute it out to save a buck, right? Did I apply it properly? And if you know you applied it properly and it didn't work, then we've got to start looking, okay, is my insect population susceptible to this product? Right? When, when you buy an ear tag from Y-Tex or something like that, they have done studies that have measured the numbers of flies before and after, and they routinely will check whether their products are still working.

Are there any other health concerns they bring to livestock?

Yeah.

So we want to...

W- th- they're not great because they...

Because they've got these, they've got really big mouthparts, anybody who's squashed one...

And by the way, they're really hard to squash.

Like, especially those big black ones, you can whack them, and they're like, "Okay, I'm cool." So they're, they're very robust, but they've got very big mouthparts.

I know I've squished a few of them, but are there other ways for controlling them?

Are there any other health concerns they bring to livestock?

Yeah, so we want to – they're not great because they've got these – they've got really big mouthparts.

Anybody who's squashed one – and by the way, they're really hard to squash, like especially those big black ones.

You can whack them, and they're like, okay, I'm cool.

So they're very robust, but they've got very big mouthparts.

And so what happens is because they've got these really big mouthparts, when they take a blood meal, it's very painful.

And they've also got to probe multiple times.

I know I've squished a few of them, but are there other ways for controlling

Cassandra, you mentioned sterile flies, and can you remind us why that's a control management option?

This is one of those cases of using the biology of the insect against the insect.

And so female new world screwworm flies are very, very loyal.

They will mate once, whereas the males are promiscuous and they'll mate multiple times.

And so what we do is we raise screwworms in a laboratory and sterilize them so they can't reproduce.

We then release those into the environment.

And if you can release them at high enough numbers, they'll out-compete the native wild flies.

And while the first case was reported in Texas, so obviously quite a way south of us, what does the reporting process look like?

Cassandra, you mentioned sterile flies, and can you remind us why that's a control management option?

This is one of those cases of using the biology of the insect against the insect.

And so female new world screwworm flies are very, very loyal.

They will mate once, whereas the males are promiscuous and they'll mate multiple times.

And so what we do is we raise screwworms in a laboratory and sterilize them so they can't reproduce.

We then release those into the environment.

And if you can release them at high enough numbers, they'll out-compete the native wild flies.

And while the first case was reported in Texas, so obviously quite a way south of us, what does the reporting process look like?

[laughs]

Right, a dog that was hit by a car on the road.

And so, so we were having cases of within herd transmission here in Kansas where we had no tick vector present.

And so that kind of set off alarm bells with me, and I was like, "Well, hang on, this is, this has gotta be...

There's gotta be-A different plan.

And to be honest, I had been focusing on this as a tick-borne disease.

It's only when I started seeing these herds, and, and the only reason we know this is because of extension, because we work directly with people.

Yep.

So I guess getting back to basics, Dr. Olds, would you mind telling us what exactly is the Asian longhorned tick?

Yeah.

So it's a, it's a really fascinating tick.

I mean, I think I'm, I'm one of the few people in the world who get excited and fascinated by ticks, but here we are.

So it's, it's a, it's an invasive tick.

It's not a native U.S. tick species, but it's, it's very successful, and it's invaded multiple places globally, right? U.S.

isn't the only p- place that's had this issue.

Uh, but then we, we have to have a blood meal to be able to carry out the life cycle, which can take a couple years, correct?

what are some control options for ticks?

Ticks are a little bit tricky to control.

Number one, burning early on in the spring will significantly reduce your numbers straight out the gate.

You only get protection for that burning season, right? So if you burnt in January, not January, but recently, You only get protection for 2026.

Your protection doesn't go into 2027.

So that's the one thing.

Getting rid of those eastern red cedars is a really big deal.

And if people are finding ticks on themselves, what should they be doing?

How might a producer be able to tell that their livestock is uncomfortable?

Yeah, so lice are itchy.

And so there's two types of lice.

There's the chewing lice, which chew on the animal's fiber, the hair fiber, and birds get lice too, so it could be the feathers.

And then there's sucking lice, which directly tap into the blood vessel and... have a blood meal.

And so these two different biologies are important when we talk about control, which we'll do in a little bit.

And so both the chewing on the hair fiber and also the taking of the blood meal causes significant irritation.

And so