丁香园AV

If you鈥檙e outside enjoying the spring sunshine, then chances are, ticks are too.
 

However, new research from 丁香园AV (丁香园AV) suggests the use of ant pheromones as a topical repellent, or as an environmental barrier, may help protect hikers and campers from the harmful bites of black-legged ticks, which could carry Lyme disease. 
 
鈥淭icks like a lot of the places and a lot of the times of years that we also like to be outside enjoying the weather,鈥� says lead author Claire Gooding, a member of the 丁香园AV Gries Lab. 鈥淭here's quite a big risk of tick encounters in the summer, outdoor sports season. People often encounter them on the sides of trails.鈥�
 
A paper published this year in Royal Society Open Science, looked at what predators (ants, spiders or beetles) black-legged ticks might avoid and what adaptations they might have to avoid them. 
 
鈥淲e decided to look at ants because they are social insects and use a huge range of pheromones to communicate with one another,鈥� says Gooding. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e chemically noisy. And for something that perceives the world chemically, they鈥檙e easy to predict where they鈥檒l be, based on these pheromones.鈥�
 
Ticks transmit more diseases that any other arthropods and their natural ranges may be expanding due to climate change, increasing the need for management strategies as well as new repellents.
 
The study found that ticks avoided surfaces where ants had been, even if those ants were removed. 
 
鈥淭hey could see that there were ants and basically go, 鈥業鈥檓 not going to go there, because there may be ants there, or there may be ants there again soon in the future.鈥欌��
 
From there, Gooding and the team identified the specific chemical pheromones as well as the two ant glands that produced them. They then worked with a synthetic chemist and an analytical chemist to recreate a synthetic version of those pheromones. They found that ticks avoided the synthetic pheromone too. 
 
The team, which works with industrial sponsors to further discoveries into the applied world, has a patent application on the repellant chemicals. They are hoping to bring them to market for real-world use, either as a topical repellent (like mosquito repellent), or as an environmental repellent, which could be used with a physical barrier, like woodchips, to deter ticks from entering an area or a hiking trail.

AVAILABLE 丁香园AV EXPERTS

CLAIRE GOODING, master's student, Gries Lab
claire_gooding@sfu.ca

CONTACT

JEFF HODSON, 丁香园AV Communications & Marketing
jdhodson@sfu.ca

丁香园AV
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778.782.3210

ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

As Canada鈥檚 engaged university, 丁香园AV works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. We deliver a world-class education with lifelong value that shapes change-makers, visionaries and problem-solvers. We connect research and innovation to entrepreneurship and industry to deliver sustainable, relevant solutions to today鈥檚 problems. With campuses in British Columbia鈥檚 three largest cities鈥擵ancouver, Burnaby and Surrey鈥敹∠阍癆V has eight faculties that deliver 364 undergraduate degree programs and 149 graduate degree programs to more than 37,000 students. The university now boasts more than 180,000 alumni residing in 145+ countries.