Ticks, Heat and Biodiversity on a Mediterranean Farm in Andalusia

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:01]Welcome to Svirte del Molino, a farm in Andalusia, Spain.

[00:00:12]I was out with a brush brush cutter and I made some footpaths.

[00:00:23]It is not very healthy for me right now with allergies, but you have to do what you have to do.

[00:00:37]And also, I do it for the ticks or against the ticks.

[00:00:45]They are spider-like insects that hang on to these grass and waiting for their once-in-a-lifetime blood meal.

[00:01:07]And uh I like to walk around without them on me.

[00:01:18]Not my favorite pet.

[00:01:22]They actually are quite interesting animals, these ticks.

[00:01:31]They sense lactic acid. They sense carbon dioxide.

[00:01:37]They sense trembling.

[00:01:41]Uh they don't sense sound, it seems like.

[00:01:47]They don't have ears.

[00:01:50]So, anything that is human-like, mammal-like, something with blood that comes around comes by.

[00:02:02]And they will also sit in carcasses and things like that waiting for an animal to come by.

[00:02:14]And they will actually also call each other and say, "Listen, there's something happening here."

[00:02:21]They might actually follow you.

[00:02:24]Not follow like in I'm going to jump on you, but if you stand still 3 m from them, they will actually come to you.

[00:02:38]Okay, so much for ticks.

[00:02:42]The dogs now have a something that they take that rolls around in the blood.

[00:02:54]A enzyme blocker.

[00:02:58]And the tick must actually bite the dog to get some blood to absorb that blocker that blocks the um metabolism of the tick and then it dies.

[00:03:15]Okay, I walked here also to see the water.

[00:03:21]Um this is perhaps the last of the water I can extract into from the underground systems and uh have it here in the swales.

[00:03:47]It's still green, beautiful, lush.

[00:03:53]The mulching is going slow.

[00:04:00]Till next time.

[00:04:02]Goodbye.