EXPLORING THE NIAGARA FRONTIER: Those aren’t ticks in your home – they’re pseudoscorpions

With all the press that has been cast upon ticks, especially with Western New York being a hotbed for those that carry Lyme disease, many people have been diligent about checking their bodies and clothes for the little parasites after having spent time outdoors.

Many of those souls have been surprised to find what they believe are ticks in their home which leads to all sorts of fear and paranoia – “If I brought these ticks into my home on my clothes, they could be anywhere!”

Before getting too frightened and then heading off to the doctor for unnecessary bloodwork to test for Lyme, give the little critter a closer look.

The little tick-like arachnids in your home might not be ticks, they are more than likely pseudoscorpoins.

Like the name implies, they aren’t scorpions, but rather fake scorpions. If you looked at them closely you’ll notice that at the end of their very long front legs (even longer than the front legs of ticks) are tell-tale club-like pincers, much like those sported by true scorpions.

Pseudoscorpions lack the tail and stinger that scorpions have and their bodies are very small, averaging about 3 millimeters in length, and roundish, which accounts for the confusion with ticks. It’s any easy mistake for anyone to make – one could say that if a tick and a scorpion had a baby it would look like a pseudoscorpion.

They are relatively common, living in approximately one of every five homes. These long-lived mini-monsters, which can thrive up to 3 years, tend to go overlooked due to their small size and their preferred hiding area: Around old books.

Booklice and dust mites frequent old books because they feast on the starch-based glues that was used to bind them. The pseudoscorpions eat those small critters, catching them in their oversized claws then secreting a digestive fluid into them which allows the scorpion to suck their insides out.

Pseudoscorpions are also frequently found in sinks and bathtubs, which leads many people to believe that when they took a shower a tick fell off of them. They show up there because, once again, that’s where they feed. The humidity around showers attracts small invertebrates that feast on mildew, creatures so small you almost never see them – that’s what the pseudoscorpions feast on.

The “book scorpions” can be found almost anywhere in your home, even a long distance away from books and bath because they are frequent fliers. They don’t have wings, but they’ll occasionally latch on to a house fly to either try to eat the much bigger creature or to consume the even smaller animals hiding in the fly’s hairs. This form of mass transit allows them to spread their range with ease.

Pseudoscorpions not only look weird, but they have a weird mating behavior. The male will prepare an area of a flat surface, putting effort into making it free of fuzz and dirt. He then dumps his sperm onto that surface and encourages the female to walk over it and in turn pick up the sperm. To make her do that, he displays his pincers as a show of strength then he proceeds to dance to coerce her into joining him. This rather unusual and elaborate behavior makes the mating ritual sometimes go on for almost an hour.

Despite their tick-like appearance, nasty looking claws, and strange sexual behaviors, pseudoscorpions pose no threat to humans. Many entomologists and extension offices encourage you to not kill them and let them live in your home because they are doing you a favor and killing pests that might be eating your books and giving you allergies.

So, the next time you think you’ve found a tick in your house, don’t fear for your life. Give it a closer look – it’s probably a pseudoscorpion that you’ve been sharing your home with.   

+Bob Confer is a Gasport resident. His column, Exploring the Niagara Frontier, is published every Thursday on All WNY News.


From the 12 July 2018 All WNY News

Orleans County: Setting the standard for acceptance

Earlier this year, I attended a charity concert in Medina organized by my good friend Bilal Huzair and his lovely family. It was an interesting and eclectic evening to say the least: The celebration began with country-western music which was followed by Pakistani music and then closed with a nice blend of East and West cultures, with songs sung in English, Hindi and Spanish.

I couldn’t help but be enamored by the brotherhood and sisterhood of a shared humanity that night. Everyone was having fun, interacting, and championing a common cause (the fight against hunger here in our region), despite all of their differences – WASPs, Hispanics, Muslims, African-Americans and Mennonites were all equals, all friends.

Realize though, that this shared loved didn’t begin or end there at the Medina Theatre. As my daughter and I sat there entertained and educated, I had a recurring thought: “My goodness, this is what Orleans County is all about”.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a community where diversity and acceptance are paired so well.

Oh, you’ll find many cities, large and small, that will be a little more diverse, but, for the most part, they’re segregated, whether that’s intentional or not. Think of any given metropolis with its clearly defined neighborhoods – you’ve got your “Chinatown” and “Little Italy” or the blacks live here while the whites live there routine. Other than the occasional passing-through to indulge in a festival or an ethnic experience, you rarely see races and creeds interacting in cities.  

That’s not the case along the south shore of Lake Ontario.

Look at these examples of many:

Huzair, his Muslim peers, and their friends at the World Life Institute have been incredibly generous to the community, providing English-as-a-second-language classes to local migrant workers and their families; hosting Project Life, where children from war-torn countries spend summers with local host families; and running a mobile food pantry that served 300 families at a time.

One-time farm workers Leonel Rosario and his family have been welcomed with open arms by local residents, their impeccable Mexican restaurant, Mariachi De Oro, becoming so popular that it has expanded 3 times in its first 7 years and has become something of a tourism destination in itself. The Rosarios also opened up a retail store – Monte Alban – and have given of themselves to Orleans County and its people.

A few years ago, Amish farmer Marcus Miller lost the milking parlor at his dairy farm in Ridgeway to a fire. Once the ashes cooled, dozens of his friends, be they Amish, Catholics or competing farmers from his neighborhood, were there with him to help rebuild that complex, laboring in single-digit temperatures.  

His Amish friends have also created furniture, window, and roof businesses, as well as the super-popular Miller’s Bulk Food and Bakery on Route 104, that are all successful thanks to their attention to their customers and those customers’ appreciation for them, despite having a lifestyle and religious path so different than theirs.

Driving through sleepy Orleans County, you might not, at first glance, realize how diverse these towns are. But they are – according to the Census Bureau, Orleans County is 86% white, 5% Latino, 7% African-American. 3.5% of county residents were foreign born.

Those numbers aren’t far off the numbers of Niagara County, which has to its benefit three cities, which, as a general rule, tend to add to the diversity rolls.

So, why doesn’t Orleans County seem like other places? Why don’t diverse populations catch your attention as they do when you drive through Niagara Falls, Lockport or Buffalo?    

It’s because diversity has not become an oddity or a wedge as it has elsewhere – it’s not used as a means to divide people but rather as a way to bring them together. You have families of different colors and religions doing business with one another, living next door to one another, standing in the trenches together serving those in need, and creating friendships that know no boundaries. Acceptance is something that many if not most diverse communities lack, but Orleans County possesses in spades.  

As America continues to be grossly divided -- and even embarrassingly ugly -- along lines of color, religion, education, income, and politics, it would behoove policymakers and university think tanks from across this country to spend some quality time in Medina, Albion, and Lyndonville. Just why does acceptance work so well here and how can we make it work elsewhere? We could be the United States again if others took the time to learn from the humble and loving people of Orleans County.        

From the 09 July 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Never overlook vocational training

Be it through the Boy Scouts or numerous school tours at the factory, conversations that I regularly have with high schoolers center on the job market. They can’t help but wonder what might be the best path of study and, in turn, what sort of career should they prepare for to ensure a comfortable adulthood.

For years, I have been suggesting that many should go after a career that is not predicated on a college degree. Economic and employment trends both show immediate and long-term needs for skilled tradesman. A teenager would be far better off by abandoning the college preparatory, general education tract in high school and, instead, entering BOCES and/or preparing for trade school after graduation.

It’s an outcome of supply and demand; there’s just too much competition for a finite number of job openings that require college degrees to warrant the mindset that everyone needs a diploma.

This wasn’t always the case. Just a generation or two ago, the college-educated were at a premium and, accordingly, could fetch a premium. Following World War II, only 5 percent of Americans could claim a college degree. In 1970, only 26 percent of the middle class workforce had received any education beyond the twelfth grade. Now, more than 3 in 10 have a degree, while 70 percent of young Americans enter college within 2 years of their high school graduation.

Due to this glut of educated workers, employers either can’t match candidates to jobs for which they became enlightened or they can dole-out lower wages for college graduates.

Newspapers have been chock full of reports of college graduates having to accept what they perceive to be menial jobs since businesses in their career field aren’t hiring while many more have had to move back into their family’s homes to make ends meet, inspiring the title of the “Boomerang Generation”. Roughly half of college graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree while 34 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 live with their parents.

It doesn’t help that they leave college with an average of $30,000 in bills. Without the job opportunities to make good on the alleged potential they have, they are saddled with the burdensome debt for a while, which is why total college debt in America exceeds $1.2 trillion.

While the reality of the economy paints a grim picture for young college-educated Americans, that same economy paints a rosy picture for their peers who instead opted for tax-payer funded in high school or paid a nominal fee to a trade school.

Teens and young adults who develop vocational skills see immediate rewards, long-term gain, and stability because they are marketable, in demand, and in relatively low supply.    

A perfect example is machinists. Numerous studies have found that in upwards of 400,000 manufacturing jobs across the United States remain unfilled due to the lack of qualified candidates. As for being “qualified”, a college degree doesn’t cut it – but a certificate from a trade school does. High school seniors who took machining are guaranteed a job immediately upon graduation and, in most cases, were claimed by area machine shops and factories in their junior year. A young machinist, fresh out of high school, could command a starting pay in the range of $15 to $20 per hour throughout upstate New York, more if he left the area.

Those who pursue nursing, either in high school or afterwards, also face a welcoming job market. Due to the aging Baby Boomer population and the stress it places on the health industry, there will be a nursing shortage over the next decade and beyond when demand is expected to outstrip supply. Licensed Practical Nurses earn an average of $42,400. Those wages are expected to rise with demand. Plus, the role of LPN is often used as a stepping stone for those looking to become Registered Nurses who bring in an average salary of $69,000.

We can’t forget truck drivers, either. Someone who invests $2,500 to $4,000 into a CDL will find himself desirable: there are literally hundreds of thousands of openings for drivers nationally and that mismatch of supply versus demand will be in favor of the licensed drivers for the long haul as a good portion of truck drivers are entering their retirement years.  Because of that, the starting salary for truck drivers ranges from $38,000 for local work to $45,000 for over-the-road haulers. Experienced long-distance drivers net $75,000 and many top out at $100,000.

It’s not surprising that trade certificates earn just as much as – and, in most cases, even more than – college diplomas. The opportunity is there. You just have to take advantage of it. We should encourage our kids to do just that.

From the 02 July 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Unemployment remains underreported

Throughout his presidential campaign Donald Trump dismissed the jobs reports coming from Washington, saying they underreported unemployment and failed to recognize the true economic conditions. “Phony” and “unbelievable” were recurring themes.

When he spouted those statements back in the day, one would have hoped that were he to be elected he would develop a wholesale change to the statistics, reflecting the reality of the job market.

But, alas, he hasn’t.

Worse yet, he’s using the same methodology to push the narrative of how good he is for the economy, just as his predecessors did before him.

The June jobs report showed the economy added 223,000 jobs which pushed the unemployment rate down to 3.8%. Among Trump’s follow-ups was a June 17 tweet that read, “Our economy is perhaps BETTER than it has ever been. Companies doing really well, and moving back to America, and jobs numbers are the best in 44 years.”

Yes, the economy is doing quite well, and will be for a while thanks to some of his economic policies -- first and foremost the cut in corporate tax rates which is a real winner for the 70 million people employed by small businesses – but, when you know that a statistical measure that’s important to Wall Street and Main Street is broken, fix it.

How broken is it?  

First off, the Labor Department’s long-held means of recordkeeping discounts so-called discouraged workers, those who have given up looking for work, at least for the time being, because of a lack of prospects. Despite those workers being willing and able to work, government economists do not account for them in the general unemployment statistic, making the misguided assumption that they have dropped out of the workforce entirely. If they were taken into consideration they would add 378,000 to the ranks of the unemployed.




The generally-accepted unemployment rate also excludes another group of what the feds consider marginally-attached to the workforce. Currently, there are another 1.5 million able-bodied and un-retired Americans who had worked at one time yet have not looked for work for a variety of reasons that, according to the Labor Department, include scholastic and family responsibilities.

Accounting for both sets of workers there are 1.878 million people who are left out of economic concern. Were their numbers to be added to the general population of job seekers, as they should, total unemployment would rise to 7.978 million, pushing the unemployment rate to 5 percent.

The undercalculation does not end there. A good many non-government economists and those who take an active role in the analysis of private sector trends (financiers, entrepreneurs, etc.) believe that those who are underemployed should be accounted for. An underemployed individual is someone who, due to economic conditions, is working part-time at what was once a full-time job or, in some cases, is working at a new job that’s a considerable step down in terms of hours, income, and responsibilities than what was once had. There were 4.9 million Americans who fit this bill in May.



Add the underemployed to the unemployed and the total workforce available or active that is not meeting its full potential is 12.878 million. The resultant underemployment/unemployment rate is 7.9 percent.

That number – which is still likely underreported due to the Labor Department’s suspect methods of data collection -- is closer to what many families are feeling as they try to make ends meet. This “real feel” was never made more apparent than during the Great Recession when everyone knew that job rolls were even worse off than advertised. Then, it was widely accepted that the real unemployment rate was something close to or in excess of 20 percent although we were told that it never exceed 10 percent during the downturn.  

This is par for the course – the federal government openly manipulates data in its messages to the masses to paint a prettier picture of the circumstances they have some control over. This deliberate act is entirely political in nature, a means of saving face for and promoting, one, the executive branch and its myriad agencies and departments and, two, the elected officials who choose to inappropriately meddle in economic affairs through legislation.

By making unemployment appear lower than it is the powers-that-be ensure the media deliver a message that keeps enough Americans on their side, clamoring for more government intervention by making them believe that all previous regulations and stimuli have been meaningful and successful.


But, anyone who has been looking for gainful employment knows better. 

The President knows, too. He said us much on the campaign trail. 

It’s time for him to follow through on his statements and change the way we view and use the numbers. The decision makers in businesses and homes – and at the polls -- need to see the job market for what it is and not through rose-colored glasses.    

From the 25 June 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News