SARCan - S2E8 - Tick Tock, They Don't Stop

My name is Patrick Armstrong, and I'm here with my co-host, Spencer Whitelaw.

How are you, Spencer?

I'm excellent, Patrick.

How are you?

Good.

It's been a, a hot, humid summer so far.

It has, and I love your directing skills when it comes to SARCAN, 'cause you picked a great guest for a midsummer episode.

Yes.

I think that it is a very common topic, uh, definitely in Southwestern Ontario, but I know that the range of ticks is growing every year, and we in search and rescue are sort of in that front line and deal with them.

We do our tick checks after all of our search exercises.

So, thought why not have the specialist so that we can find out what exactly is a tick and what is it they do, because I think most people only know them from Avril Lavigne's encounter.

Well, Avril Lavigne, yes, a Lyme disease, uh, survivor, just like Justin Bieber, um, and just like our guest who's coming on today.

And it leads me to wonder, Patrick, what is your degree of experience in encountering ticks?

I'm not a fan of any bug or insect or anything, so I like to stay in the command post where it's relatively tick-free.

I was just thinking that.

I know you've, you've been much more boots on the ground than I have, and obviously have many, many, many more years on this earth than I do, so I thought that you may have encountered one or two in your days.

But, uh, me just being the adventure smart guy, I talk about them a lot, but I don't really encounter them, 'cause I'm, I'm comfy inside, uh, school gyms and classrooms.

I think my army days, which go back to the early '90s, I don't think they were that big of a, a deal back then.

So I, I don't remember a, a heavy emphasis on it.

And then once I was in the Navy, we didn't really have to worry about ticks that much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fair enough, though.

It makes sense.

Now, before we get a little bit too deep into our episode, I wanted to give a quick acknowledgement.