Vectors
"There's no ticks. There's often times not even that many people. But [the beaches are] just a wonderful refuge, all year long, to go to, and to avoid a lot of the insect life that plague[s] me otherwise. But I realize that with climate change, that of course the beaches will be less accessible." - Eileen Lewandowski
Janet Yelch-Weatherbee: As it seems to have been getting warmer, I now have lily-leaf beetles. I now have Japanese beetles. I now... have things like the ash borer, we now have all of those things. I had to cut down all of my tiger lilies cause I just couldn’t use the kind of insect killer – it would hurt the other beneficial -
Kelly Doyle: What was getting your tiger lilies? The little red ones?
Janet Yelch-Weatherbee: Oh yeah, the lily-leaf beetles. They adore tiger lilies.
Kelly Doyle: I had to kill all my roses because the Japanese beetles.
Janet Yelch-Weatherbee: And I have lived here for thirty years and I never had those problems [before].
"Yeah, that’s something that would never have occurred to any of us as kids, to be afraid of the ground. You know maybe a bee sting, a mosquito, but not some bug that’s going to kill you. It's a different world for them." - Stephanie Mattsen
"You never saw a deer tick, you saw dog ticks. The kind of brownish ones. The cat once in a while would come in with something that looked like a great big mole on him and I'd go, oh, you've got a tick, honey. But that was dog ticks and they're harmless. No, we'd never seen a deer tick until maybe four or five years ago?" - Melanie Hodgdon
"While 30, 50, 75 years ago, it was just too cold of a climate for the ticks to survive. But I've heard snow sledders tell of seeing a dead moose beside a snowmobile trail, and they'd stop, and walk back and look, and the moose was covered with ticks. And while 10, 20 years ago, the snow sledders never saw that." - Don Nodine
"It's a sad thing when you have to be afraid of your environment, when you have to be afraid of your yard and your woods and the places you played as a kid and the places you want your kids to play. Except now, you’re like, wait. Let me check what you’re wearing and when you come back in I have to check all over your body to make sure your safe. You feel like you’re living in a war zone." - Stephanie Mattsen
"I will note that the weather has changed since I’ve been doing this. I now have many more bugs I have to contend with. I don’t like using insecticides or anything, so I’m out picking bugs. I have much more mildew than I use to, powdery mildew is something I struggle with now. So the climate change has affected how my gardening is, even in this tiny little area." - Janet Yelch-Weatherbee
"...this is out in the middle of a field where we used to run and romp and play off-leash, chase the smells, practice doggie behavior and all of that. As I shared last week, that's not something I can do with him anymore. It's just not safe because of the ticks. It was brought home to me again last night. We went for a run up at the University Forest. We ran on the bike path and then went off onto a logging road... and we didn't go very far. I didn't have a lot of time, so we only went about two and half miles. Last night, I picked six ticks off of him and I picked a seventh off today that was embedded in him. That's a dog who's been treated not to get ticks." - Linda Mosley
About CHANGE
CHANGE is a climate change research project directed by Dr. Kati Corlew and is dedicated to reaching a better understanding of peoples' perceptions of climate change. Our research was conducted using a qualitative research method called PhotoVoice. PhotoVoice, is a method “by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community”. (Wang & Burris, 1997, p. 369) Our participants met in focus groups to discuss the research topics, and then went out into their communities to take photographs according to their conceptualization, values, and priorities regarding the topic. They then selected photographs to present and discuss in a final focus group (Gleason & Corlew, 2019). By placing participants’ photos, stories, and conceptualizations at the center of the study, we hope to expand the exploratory nature of this research to include themes outside of current climate change conceptualizations. For more information, please visit our Main Page.