The topic of our July monthly meeting was "Ticks, Chiggers and Mosquitoes: Critters that Suck" and we had THE expert in the field to enlighten us. NWAMN Dr. Dayton Steelman from the U of A at Fayetteville  honored us with his knowledge and experience. These insects are his specialty. His presentation counted toward our advanced training hours and we had pizza during social time.  Since we ran out of time for questions, Tom Neale asked one last question to Dr. Steelman in his thank you note. 

"The one question that I didn't get to ask is what role do ticks play in the food chain....or ecology...do they have a natural predator or beneficial function that we can discern?"

Dr. Dayton Steelman, NWAMN replied in an email:

"Ticks do have a role in the food chain believe it or not---when the female drops to the ground she is quite vulnerable to predation---rats, mice and other rodents as well as lots of different birds will readily eat them = food chain. Also, the replete female and especially her thousands of eggs provide food for foraging ants of many species. This may seem a little warped, but they also provide a "refuge" for all of those parasites and pathogens that they obtain--and serve as a vector to complete their life cycles by passing them on to other host animals---without which the parasites and predators would not have a successful life cycle---as well as being distributed throughout the host animal range. Lots of things to consider here--to determine if positive or negative in ecology---as their parasitic "life style" has been evolving with the parasites, pathogens, host animals etc. for lots and lots of years---lots of fun to think about and to talk about."