Some of you that do yard work and in Lyme tick areas

I just looked at the video. This is ridiculous to cite this one type of plant as a home for ticks. I have quite a few of them and just planted a few more. They produce berries. Birds go into them for the berries and also to be safe from hawks because the plant has stickers. Possibly the birds are carrying deer ticks and the ticks get off in the barberry. Possibly the white footed deer mouse that also carries Lyme disease virus eats the berries to and the virus gets spread to birds that way.

If so then don't have anything on your property that gets berries or that birds sit in. They mentioned that deer do not eat barberry. So they identified the prime method of spreading Lyme which is having deer in the yard or going into the forest where the deer go.

Another poorly researched news piece. Barberry is far from invasive. It grows so slowly that in 40 years, one that my mother planted was only four feet tall and three feet wide when it was destroyed by an awful tree removal crew this past summer.

If you want to avoid ticks in your yard, keep the deer out, spray the bushes and check your clothing and body for ticks. The young ones are the size of a pin head so look carefully. It's time they invent a vaccination for this disease.

Sorry Ally, barberry IS invasive. Look at vtinvasives.org/invasive/japanese-barberry. Maybe your soil is not conducive to spreading where you are but they are in my area. I prefer to not spray poisons on my plants and birds are a big part of the problem as they disperse the seed.

Barberry also competes with wild blueberries and steals nutrients from them with there larger and more aggresive root systems.

As far as harboring a vector for Lyme, well this is so important, life changing that I take this seriously. I've had Lyme for 8 years, believe me, you don't want to get it. New information is that DEET products are much poorer than thought to repel deer ticks.

Yes the ticks are so small that chances are you won't see them, they often crawl in places you cant see,..only 50% of people that bulleyes rash.Best blood tests are perhaps 60-65 % accurate for a positive , leaving a lot of people falling thru the cracks. Also if you don't find the tick and it has been attached for more than 36 hours, you probably now have to face chronic Lyme. Its been said to people who say "I HAD Lyme" that, no, you HAVE Lyme,..it may resurface months and years later.

Mice are the big vector for carrying deer ticks.

I've run into 3 people one was DXed with MS and the other 2 was DXed with ALS and was found to have Lyme instead! The ALS pts were sent home to die and perhaps would have if someone hadn't pushed them for aggressive Lyme treatment.

Ever watch that show "Monsters Inside me"? Just today they had a segment about Lyme and another co infection babesesia that is also carried by the the same deer tick. These ticks can carry a number of other diseases, lots of anaplasmosis from them around here.

There are a number of other plants with berries that birds actually prefer. Small birds escaping from hawks can use any dense bush, A hawk can't fly into most dense bushes.