Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation Bulletin Board

[Charolette]

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If anyone has access to the following journal it might be interesting to see any results in the use of fungi in controlling tick populations and when this research may have started.

Just tossing this out there… but since many/most people who report Morgellon’s symptoms also test positive for Lyme Disease – could the Morgellon-specific symptoms be related to a new class of Fungi or something similar?

http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ento.44.1.159


Annual Review of Entomology
Vol. 44: 159-182 (Volume publication date January 1999)
(doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.44.1.159)

PATHOGENS AND PREDATORS OF TICKS AND THEIR POTENTIAL IN BIOLOGICAL CONTROL

M. Samish ­
Department of Entomology, Kimron Veterinary Institute, Beit Dagan 50250, Israel;
e-mail: msami_vs@netvision.net.il
J. Rehacek ­
Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, 842 42 Slovak Republic;
e-mail: virukoc@savba.savba.sk

▪ Abstract
This review summarizes the literature about pathogens and predators of ticks and their potential use as biocontrol agents published since the beginning of this century. In nature, many bacteria, fungi, spiders, ants, beetles, rodents, birds, and other living things contribute significantly toward limiting tick populations, as do, for instance, the grooming activities of hosts. Experiments with the most promising potential tick biocontrol agents—especially fungi of the genera Beauveria and Metarhizium and nematodes in the families Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae, as well as oxpeckers—are described.