Of Ticks, Watermelons and EvoTards

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This seems to have spawned a life of its own so I will tell you what happened.

During one dry summer, after a cook-out, I threw some watermelon rinds (with some fesh still on) into the woods across the street from my house.

A couple-few days later I was out in the same woods with my daughter's dog and on our way out we came across the watermelon rinds. Most were eaten side down, so I flipped one over just to look. It looked all moldy. I flipped another one over and it had "mold" on it to. But one piece didn't have anything but rind- it was eaten side up.

I took the dog home and grabbed two different powers of magnifying glass and went back to the watermelon rinds.

The "mold" wasn't mold. Ticks were all over the rind- I dropped it like a hot potato.

My thinking is that they were after the water or even better they were looking for a place that animals may gather- ie around discarded food.

Did I ever say, imply or think that ticks prefer watermelon to animals? No.

However I did put orange rinds out and nothing happnd so I would infer they prefer watermelon rinds to orange rinds.

I will repeat the process as soon as we have a dry spell -> 2-4 weeks without rain and with hot temps (80+) may do it