Do Ticks Fall from Trees? Dr. Mather Reveals the Facts

[@James-lj7rm]

It may not be common for ticks to fall out of trees but, I have seen it happen on two different occasions. I saw a tick land on a person's shoulder from a oak branch about 15 feet above. Then once on my wife from a tall pine tree. IT DOES HAPPEN!

[@vickijd22]

I've also seen ticks fall out of trees (or possibly were wind blown) onto myself & my husband. There was a tick infested area where our sons played tennis in high school & this happened on a daily basis. It happened FOR SURE, they were not aphids or weevils, and they were not filled with blood. They were 8 legged ticks.

[@steelwheel-i3s]

Ticks can sense the body heat of a target and know where it is from several metres away, they're choosing to jump.

[@braincereal4288]

Went camping with my girlfriend in MO once. We counted, on average, three ticks per hour falling on us from the tree limbs above. Not beetles, not weevils, not aphids...I know what a tick looks like.

[@steelwheel-i3s]

These guys are so invested in their beliefs that they're blinded to new information.

[@PeaceIntheValley]

They do fall from trees and I don't necessarily know how it got up there. I haven't seen them fall like rain but I have seen them fall on people. It's not that difficult to tell the difference between the Aphid and Tick. I have my own park and hiking trails and I know they do because I see it happen. Ticks will go to more than just the head. They like private parts too. Last video he said they could target their host whether raccoon, dog, or deer and would go to that height on the grass or plant. This time he says they (ticks) cannot as it wouldn't be a good host finding strategy would not be a very good strategy for natural selection. I guess contradictions are rife in the educated community to fit a certain narrative. He is right on Permethrin, it work well, but what if you don't want chemicals? Keep your blood sugar lower. blood suckers such as mosquitoes and ticks love people that have a higher blood sugar. So don't eat ice cream and soda pop then go and take a hike or you will be a bug magnet. You'll still have ticks and mosquitoes around you but, like the bear saying, "You don't have to run faster than the bear, just the person you are next to." Notice how Mosquitos always seem to target certain people - this is why - they go after the the best target. We are always releasing scents that tell creatures around us what we are and how tasty we might be. Next - eat raw garlic and get it in your system. Probably won't work if you just started today as it's an immune system changer. It is a serious help to your body, but there are two other advantages here, one it keeps the bugs away and two it keeps the people away! You can find studies on the internet that say there is no correlation to those who consume garlic and those who don't vs being a target of bugs. You can read the testing methods and see how flawed they are, but I won't detail that here. My experience says otherwise. I didn't use to, and would get eat up, and now I do everyday and have no problem of those kind of bugs.

[@steelwheel-i3s]

Absolutely good points. On your blood sugar point, i know a guy who has blood which is toxic to ticks. He's been bitten 5 or 6 times in the past year, and every time he found the tick on his body, it was already dead without having become engorged. They stay attached after death. He doesn't use permethrin and thinks it must be the very high dose of opioid pain-killers he's on.

[@508knucklehead]

I went to a customers house in my work van. Parked under a tree, grabbed my tool box, went to ring the door bell. Boom had one on my forehead arm. In a major city. I flicked it off .. worked in the house the lady asked me to check what was behind her ear.. she had a TICK imbedded behind her ear. There’s no tall grass or parks nearby They absolutely do fall out of trees.

[@GoArian]

How humid is humid enough? East Texas has really bad humidity.

[@jademorris]

We have a fully enclosed trampoline under our oak trees in our back yard. At the beginning of the summer, we have to have our bug guy spray the oak tree bases for ticks so they can't climb up and drop onto our trampoline. They do it en masse, not a random occurrence like something falling off a squirrel. I've been going down this rabbit hole here at Lake of the Ozarks, MO where we've been infested with ticks since my childhood (lived among these blood suckers for over 30 years now). I didn't realize i was going to need to prove the ticks fall (or jump) out of trees, but now I'm going to get video to submit to you. The thing i originally set out to prove was that they can jump, because my husband and i have witnessed them jumping from brush to our legs and shirts from over a foot away from the brush. My dad went to light a tick on fire last night in the palm of his hand and it jumped so high at the introduction of the flame, that we almost lost it. If you want to do real research on ticks, spend a day at Turkey pen hollow trail. There are spots in the trail where you can pause and witness what all the "experts" say is impossible from the studies in their labs....

[@steelwheel-i3s]

A house isn't a damp unoccupied bird nest, or a crevice where a trunk branches, or a humid space under dead bark. There are plenty of spaces for ticks to shelter while awaiting the next host, having dropped off of a bird. "Aphids" is a ridiculous stretch, they look nothing like.ticks.

[@duaneday5474]

I've grow cannibis in wooded areas...ive had 1000s of tics on me all together. One day after being in the woods a tic launched itself off the wall from above my fridge in my apartment about 2 hrs after arriving home...i saw the tic drop down. It hit my face with a lot of force.

[@508knucklehead]

Ticks absolutely FALL FROM TREES. Happened to me. If he’s a “tick expert” we’re in trouble

[@inspired2rv661]

I appreciate the link that shows the other insects that look like them. 👍 I can see how people would confuse them with ticks.

[@151ncoke]

People who work in the woods every day know the truth.

[@EdHunter55]

I have for the past 23 years never seen it happen... ^^ but boy make a mistake of standing still for three minutes and they are half way up to my waist.

[@swishnsmokes]

Just had one on my kids neck within the first 2 minutes of her being carried through the woods, she never touched the ground let alone branches or brush. No tick is climbing up one adult human, and then moving to another in 120 seconds or less. Just listening to how you speak to all of this, it's clear that your rationale lives in a sterile vacuum and is not grounded in reality. Assuming ticks can only leave an animal after feeding is one of many clear examples of this. Assuming that a falling tick falls with intention is another. And by the way, we know what ticks look like. Writing this off because of your own stated "5%" misidentification is ridiculous and frankly a shameful display of arrogance and hubris, which these days is not at all uncommon from "experts" as yourself who double down on being correct over keeping an open mind. Your ego is showing.

[@Montana_horseman]

While I can't say I've had a tick fall/jump from a tree onto me I have seen bushes up to about 8 feet tall on deer trails with many ticks poised to drop. When I barely brushed the bush on purpose to see what they'd do, perhaps a 1/4 of them dropped immediately even with no real chance to land on me. So they don't seem to have Norden bomb sights and seem to react to others dropping just in hopes that they will land on the victim that brushed the bush while passing by. I've always though of ticks as stealthy surgeons, I appreciate the follow up video here. 👍

[@camp44mag]

That is not debunking. All your anecdotes are no better than other people's. Sending you a picture of a deer tick, would not prove or disprove it had fell onto the host from above. Also, seems that your first "go to" explanation in at least two of your videos is that everyone who believes ticks may fall from a tree on occassion is mis-identifying other critters for ticks. Of course, they're most likely to grab onto my leg or a deer from a perch on low vegetation. That doesn't mean, for example, that a deer tick won't fall from a pine onto a passing deer or me walking a path frequented by deer.

[@rogerthomas1982]

Very convincing. Except for...... I once absolutely saw a tick hanging off the edge of a leaf ready to drop. And before you start thinking I'm mistaken, know this: my daughter grew up wearing a shirt saying, "My Daddy Is Always Right"

[@Beauacadian]

I've noticed that i don't get a lot of ticks on me when I stay in full sunshine instead of shaded areas. Coincidence or fact? Do you have any data on shaded areas vs full sunshine for tick population? Thanks for the informative video.

[@duaneday5474]

Ticks prefer cold and wet environment

[@85sparrowhawk]

I remember my Dad pulling bunches of ticks from his hair after taking a walk under some trees. Only happened once, but they can manifest on high spots and then fall off when you brush by a branch.. Not their preferred strategy of attacking, but it can happn for sure. wear a hat we learned

[@matthewokeefe2286]

Denying is not debunking. This only proves that scientists need to get out more

[@m.w.2401]

Ticks definitely fall out of trees, spend sometime outside. I literally had two fall out of the trees on my property a few minutes ago on a walk, there was no other way for them to get onto me from where I was.

[@mario-ck3es]

Ticks 100% do not jump out of trees. Weaver bettles look similar and they do. I've tested this theory. I've pulled out tall grass with ticks at the top at least 20 to 30 times to prove to my friends, kids, etc. 100% of the time they just hang off with there legs out. After awhile they just walk down real slow. I've never had 1 jump off onto my hand or finger. They walk down. Given that opportunity why wouldn't they just jump. Being 8inches to 2ft piece of tall grass. I hold the very bottom straight up. In 20 years, I've never had a tick get desperate and jump to my hand. If they won't jump 8 inches why would they jump from 10 to 20 feet out of a tree. He's right they don't. Try this yourself. They just walk or extend legs out.

[@georgea6403]

I just got back from putting a bench in my woods. I broke off a small branch overhead to clear the viewing. A bunch of the fell off on us. They were not aphids. I definitely know what ticks look like they were ticks. Now please explain.

[@MrEcted]

An explanation would require proof on your part other than "trust me bro". People misidentify stuff all the time despite swearing up and down saying "they know what they saw". It's super common.

[@PeaceIntheValley]

@@MrEcted But are we to "trust" the doctor just because he said so? Why does one have to prove their stance and the other is just accepted? It should be easy for the expert to prove that all of those who have witnessed this are wrong. His interview states that those who believe this are being told by others, but that is not the case in the comment section. These are first hand witnesses. I'm sure many are wrong in their ID of the bugs, but not all.

[@eleephant9726]

They use static electricity to attach to their hosts.

[@steelwheel-i3s]

New research has proven that ticks can detect the heat signature of a target species, directionally,.and with discrimination, at distances of at least 6 metres (18 feet). They have a heat sensitive organ which works somewhat like an eye, on their front legs. So it makes sense given this information, that ticks aren't "falling"but are making a deliberate jump onto a preselected target. Professor will be proven wrong eventually. (I've had a tick jump onto me from a tree.)

[@SpareSpacesuit]

If ticks need humidity why are they found in San Diego?

[@eyeofthebeholder7936]

🧐 so, tick climbs onto racoon, racoon climbs into tree, and before it can sink its fangs into the racoon is scratched off (therefore still hungry) and lands on the human.... Regarding identification, am I correct then in thinking that as you said humans misidentify ticks, so then also the app INaturalist is misidentifying them as well? 🤨 While I can possibly see a tick NOT climbing a tree that is trimmed 60ft high, how can you be 100% convinced ticks aren't on branches or vines that are 6-10 ft up? I propose some field research is needed to prove that as you say it is 100% certain a tick will not fall from a tree, if you are up to the challenge?

[@EdHunter55]

Yes, hypothetically, ticks can end up being scratched off before latching on, but how likely is it for them to hit the tree and not just fall straight to the ground? Imagine a racoon standing on a tree limb and scratching, only a tick hanging on to the belly fur stands any hope of falling straight down onto the branch beneath. Even if it does hit the tree and even if it does "jump" while you are walking underneath and even if the wind doesn't carry it away dozens of meters and happens to coincidentally hit you. how does that explain people swearing to their mother's grave they saw or even heard dozens of them jump down on them at the same time. It must have been an entire trashpanda football team and entourage having a party in that tree with an epically improbable chance of all their scratched of ticks hitting the tree and holding on to all "jump" at the same time hitting you in an audible hailstorm of ticks. Damn, you must be the unluckiest person on the planet. Please tell me you're lottery numbers so I know which ones NOT to pick... >_> As for apps like INaturalist, they are wrong rather often (try being a moderator for them 90% of your time is spent correcting misidentifications), especially with small critters. cameras on phones or even most camera lenses(even pro ones) don't have the magnification to capture the small details required to identify them correctly.

[@eyeofthebeholder7936]

​@@EdHunter55 😆 never said I hear them fall, LoL! I've heard sap fall from trees, and other twigs etc.... Although, I have been considering this reply for a while, as I walk about the property - not sure how plants grow where you are, and if ticks can read, and if trees put out 'do not enter' signs on their branches 🤭, however - when the grasses that ticks climb on are upwards of 5-7 ft tall, and tree branches hang low enough through said grasses to nearly touch the ground, it is definitely feasible that ticks can and probably will climb the branches (unless as joked about before, there are traffic signs that they can read, or signs saying "keep off the branches") to then land on the human as they navigate through the overgrowth. As far as inaturalist goes, it must be pretty good (have you used it?) if biologists and other scientists recommend it - I have yet to have the app misidentify a well taken photo; with the community also vetting and suggesting as necessary, it is an app well worth the usage. Example, an albino skunk uploaded was subsequently picked up, given a necropsy, and is now on display at the nearby university. Come to Texas to meet our ticks, and try out the app sometime 🤗

[@EdHunter55]

@eyeofthebeholder7936 that was a reference to what was said in the video... I made that quite clear but in your haste to reply you must have missed that......... Ticks live where they find food. More food is more reproduction, which results in more ticks.. Deer don't walk through trees like they walk through grass. Making grass a more ideal for ticks. Of course ticks can't think or read so they will on occasion end up in odd places. If there's enough food great for them if there isn't, we'll they won't be there for long. And yes I have used it and moderated it(as stated before) Mamals are easy odd colors or not. Please try something small like a mite or a tiny spider. I spent 90% of my time correcting wrong identifications. One of the reasons I quit..

[@eyeofthebeholder7936]

@@EdHunter55 LoL, haste to reply to your comment from a month ago? 🤭 Should I have waited a second month, Sir? 😏 I am sorry that the Inat users you moderated were not schooled on how to use the app appropriately - guess myself and my associates were fortunate enough to be taught by Parks and wildlife as well as other professionals that utilize the app on a regular basis. I am happy that you apparently found another venue in which you are happier than you were as a moderator. Have a wonderful day, week, and life - 🤗 and if you ever do field research, the invitation to come to Texas still stands; just be sure to wear appropriate clothing for walking through the brush 😁

[@Sphicks1919]

I spend a TON of time in marsh and forest in Michigan. Permetherin has been transformative, 100% effective in my case. So good, I just wear mid calf socks, shorts, and whatever shirt. I use Deet and Picaridin and can still fail against mosquitos but have been successful in fighting ticks. Before permethrin, I ended up at the DR from a tick dug in my back. I rejoice knowing that my clothing and great are harbingers of death for these psycho tics!

[@tomkimball9361]

You are wrong. After seeing them falling from trees and having 100s of ticks all over my daughter, dog and myself. Hundreds. I am from NH. I've gotten real familiar with what a tick looks like. If that's the best you can do, we are screwed.

[@EdHunter55]

well if you see that many take a picture and send it in? ^^

[@morenothing4u]

This Dr should maybe spend more time in the field with the graduates in his program. I know it's hard work staying in the office researching new grant funds so you can bring in revenue to the university and stay gainfully employed.

[@brendametube]

OMGOSH. I’ve never heard of this man, but I can’t even watch the rest. I know immediately when I hear someone who cannot be told they are wrong about anything. His heels are dug in, and he would never consider that he could be wrong even if he really was proven it. He thinks we’re all idiots and we don’t know what a tick looks like. It doesn’t matter to him that he is talking to Hunters, fisherman and women, very experienced hikers , animal/ dog lovers… Nature lovers but unless you have the letters behind your name, you’re too stupid to be able to identify a tick? Please! Anyway… Why debunk this if it were a myth? Why not air on the side of caution and be extra careful for ticks everywhere? Why let people relax and feel safe to go out in the woods under trees without checking themselves? What a waste of time. Yes, people. Ticks DO fall from trees, and without even realizing it this -(I’ll be nice and not say dingdong brain) - this MAN just admitted that tick are in and do fall from trees. . He literally just told us that ticks fall off of birds and animals that go in trees. He said that just because they’re blood-full they won’t attach. So that means that raccoons and birds don’t clean and scratch and clean themselves to get the unfilled tick off, which we know is not true. All animals will scratch and clean and get their parasites off of themselves when they can. Even if it was a tick that was full it can still land on you. It doesn’t have to burrow into you. Sorry, people just know that sometimes people with big letters behind their name dig their heels in and close their minds. Ticks Definitely fall from trees. They’re in trees all the time because deer brush through trees constantly and the deer will lose the ticks or tick has not attached yet and end up getting brushed off on a tree and the next being that walks by will pick it up . SHEEESH! This hosts seems like she is trying very hard in the most diplomatic way possible, to help him see his error, but he’s the god of ticks and so he will never be wrong. Ever. Moving on. 🙄🙂‍↔️