Some rocks on the hillsides around these inland county areas have ancient human-made markings whose age are hard to determine. It's possible they predate even the Pomo people of today and recent centuries. This deeply incised boulder is on display on the grounds of the Mendocino County Museum on Commercial Street. Present still longer have been Western Fence Lizards. They are an attachment host for deer ticks at one of its youthful stages. The ticks that take the lizard ride are astonishingly cleansed of Lyme Disease, reducing the rate of infection for their adult stage victims. Something about Western Fence Lizard blood does the trick, but not all ticks are afforded this treatment so we still have to be careful to avoid bites. So many reasons to love lizards, and now this.
MORE INFORMATION: New York Times article
20 comments:
Neat picture, that rock is neat. I would keep my distance from the lizard I guess.
I love lizards too :)
Nice photo---the old and the older but new. You have a nice blog about your corner of the world. MB
I've always been fond of lizards; I am drawn to their spirit. And also, I like to sit and soak up sun, like they do. I like this photo, with the lizard being off center in the picture - makes it interesting.
Lizards and lichen, a double-barreled post. Those incisions on the rock are interesting too - they look like too much work to be idle doodling but their purpose is hard to imagine.
Thank you for visiting my blog today! I really like the rock...especially the texture of the lichen! I have to agree with Jim though. I would steer clear of the lizard, although I appreciate his help with the ticks. I love reading your posts!
very interesting indeed
It looks like folks either love the lizards or they don't. The ones here are harmless, so please don't hurt them! And yes, I found a way to sneak in some more lichen, wonder plant that it is. Thank you all for visiting.
Fascinating photo, lizard and that amazing rock with the lichen.
thanks for comment re number of posts on my blogs. I limit them to four days only on a page, for the very reason you said. More than that and with the larger photos they simply take simply too long to load. thanks for appreciation!
Elaine, I love the petroglyphs and lizard. I had never heard that about it being a cleanser of Lyme disease. One of my sons got Lyme twice so I'd probably feed the little reptile and try to find him/her? a mate!!!
I agree with Kym. This is amazing.
Send me a dozen Western Fence lizards! Has it been researched?
Old rock is cool too.
Dina, here's the New York Times article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E6D9133CF93AA25757C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Well, if that "permalink" doesn't work, it was in the NYT about ten years ago, and can be found by a search of their archives with: Lyme disease lizard.
Elaine,
Here is a link that will help you use words as links instead of having to put the whole url in and having it get cut off.
One of my readers gave it to me a month ago and I love it.
Hmm. Thanks for trying Kym, but it doesn't seem to work when I click it. On the other hand, I hope you saw that I edited the main post with the link to the article about the lizards.
I've got a copy of the html code string that does it, but I'm too lazy in the heat of posting to find it....
;^)
Ok, Let's try again
Whoops, I was fixing my mess while you were writing. I saw the link. (I went looking too when I read your post yesterday.) Very cool little reptiles. I think I'm in love.
Thanks for sending us to the lizard article, Elaine.
Funny, I can never get the code-thingy to work for link-making inside the Blogger comments, only in the posts.
I love how you claim to be "too lazy in the heat of posting to find the code"! LOL Me too.
Cool information. I know Long Island in NY state has a problem with Lyme Disease. So this is definitely a good thing.
I'll never speak disparagingly of lizards again. Mea culpa! To think I actually killed a little gecko that decided to share my shower stall with me in my hotel on the Cinque Terra in Italy. Shame on me. And shame on him, too, for scaring me. Great information in this post.
Post a Comment