Dermacentor Variabilis Syllabus Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

daveandvanessa: There has been alot of muggle activity in this spot so archiving.

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Hidden : 6/4/2015
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:




Welcome to Saskatchewan, home of the American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis). This lovely little parasitic insect is waiting for you in tall grass. They will bite almost any living mammal but your pet dog is their favorite. If Fido escapes, you may not be so lucky.



Ticks satisfy all their nutritional requirements on the blood of mammals, a biological process known as hematophagy. Ticks extract the blood by cutting a hole in the host's skin, into which they insert their hypostome, and keep the blood from clotting by excreting an anticoagulant or platelet aggregation inhibitor. They find their victims by detecting animal breath, body odor, heat, moisture or vibration. (Good luck going undetected). They are known to do a behavior known as questing. A tick will quest by going to the end of tall grass and stick two long legs out waiting for you to brush up against it. Once you have it will quickly jump on and come back to the car with you.




Ticks have four unique stages of life. The process starts when eggs hatch in the spring. Once the eggs hatch the tick becomes a larva. Larva typically feed on small rodents and birds. The following spring the larva will become a nymph. Nymph will feed on larger mammals such as deer, dogs, and you. Throughout the summer and fall the nymph will become an adult and will also feed on larger mammals such as yourself. Unfortunately, the females of the species will then be ready to deposit eggs and then die. Then, to your dismay, the process starts again.

You can learn more about ticks at http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html. Please don't blame us if you start randomly scratching for the next few hours.

Please bring your own pen, the cache is too small to include one.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Jngpu bhg sbe gebyyf.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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