Teach your kids about....Parasites!
Last I checked, parasites were somewhere near the bottom of most people's most beloved groups o' critters. This is just a shame. Parasites are truly miraculous examples of natures endless ability to adapt. Parasites have the ability to live off of a host without killing them. Some, like pin worms, are hardly noticeable at all...though they can makes one's bum itch at times. In my book, they are far more fascinating than your large predatory species with their less than elegant claws and teeth or your "stupid" pathogenic bacteria and viruses that just mindlessly kill stuff. While Ebola is scary with the bleeding out of one's eyes and the internal hemhoraging and all, its really just a dumb virus that can't spread too fast because it kills its host too quickly. Remember...a pathogenic "germ" is just an organism that always wanted to be a parasite but was never quite good enough.
Parasites are all around us as any Minnesotan knows. Our friends the ticks come early in the Spring and our friends the mosquitos reluctantly leave us only with the first hard frost. Let's leave the ticks and the mosquitos to the entomologists ( OH ICK! BUGS!) and focus on the more microscopic parasites. (BTW, if you REALLY want to get yourself a mess of ticks, take a white sheet and drag it through a ditch and WALLA! TICKS!) On a side note, don't take a first date out on a tick-collecting excursion....just don't do it.
Well, how does one expose one's family to the fascinating world of parasites without doing oneself a mighty mischief? Well, your best bet is to look for a parasite that doesn't infect people. Our less parasitic friends at the MN Dept. of Natural Resources have just the ticket. In the spring, go to a pond where wood ducks are nesting. Find some snails- try looking on the undersides of leaves- sometimes floating leaves. Pop those snails in a small jar with some water. Give it a day or 2 and you will start seeing little white translucent worms wriggling about in the water.
These are Cercariae. The adult organism lives in birds such as ducks or Kingfishers or Egrets. The adults release eggs into the bird which releases them into the water. The eggs hatch to release larvae which go swimming in search of a snail. These larvae dig their way into the snail and shack up in its liver. Later, these are released as the Cercariae that you will see in your jar. Outdoors, these would then find their way to a fish which the bird would eat thus starting the beautiful cycle of life anew! ENJOY! -Kyle
Last I checked, parasites were somewhere near the bottom of most people's most beloved groups o' critters. This is just a shame. Parasites are truly miraculous examples of natures endless ability to adapt. Parasites have the ability to live off of a host without killing them. Some, like pin worms, are hardly noticeable at all...though they can makes one's bum itch at times. In my book, they are far more fascinating than your large predatory species with their less than elegant claws and teeth or your "stupid" pathogenic bacteria and viruses that just mindlessly kill stuff. While Ebola is scary with the bleeding out of one's eyes and the internal hemhoraging and all, its really just a dumb virus that can't spread too fast because it kills its host too quickly. Remember...a pathogenic "germ" is just an organism that always wanted to be a parasite but was never quite good enough.
Parasites are all around us as any Minnesotan knows. Our friends the ticks come early in the Spring and our friends the mosquitos reluctantly leave us only with the first hard frost. Let's leave the ticks and the mosquitos to the entomologists ( OH ICK! BUGS!) and focus on the more microscopic parasites. (BTW, if you REALLY want to get yourself a mess of ticks, take a white sheet and drag it through a ditch and WALLA! TICKS!) On a side note, don't take a first date out on a tick-collecting excursion....just don't do it.
Well, how does one expose one's family to the fascinating world of parasites without doing oneself a mighty mischief? Well, your best bet is to look for a parasite that doesn't infect people. Our less parasitic friends at the MN Dept. of Natural Resources have just the ticket. In the spring, go to a pond where wood ducks are nesting. Find some snails- try looking on the undersides of leaves- sometimes floating leaves. Pop those snails in a small jar with some water. Give it a day or 2 and you will start seeing little white translucent worms wriggling about in the water.
These are Cercariae. The adult organism lives in birds such as ducks or Kingfishers or Egrets. The adults release eggs into the bird which releases them into the water. The eggs hatch to release larvae which go swimming in search of a snail. These larvae dig their way into the snail and shack up in its liver. Later, these are released as the Cercariae that you will see in your jar. Outdoors, these would then find their way to a fish which the bird would eat thus starting the beautiful cycle of life anew! ENJOY! -Kyle
posted by LMI1 at 8:26 PM
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