https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ing-across-us-may-spread-diseases/2189393002/ CDC says tick-borne illnesses have now TRIPLED. Are you removing ticks correctly? Here’s everything you need to know about ticks and how you can combat Lyme disease. Just the FAQs The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a tick that is spreading widely across the United States. Nine states have reported finding the Asian longhorned tick, which is known to carry a variety of pathogens. The CDC said late last week it is investigating how the tick could impact the U.S. “The full public health and agricultural impact of this tick discovery and spread is unknown ... We are concerned that this tick, which can cause massive infestations on animals, on people, and in the environment, is spreading in the United States,” Ben Beard, deputy director of CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, said in a statement. Asian longhorned ticks are somewhat unusual in that a single female tick can reproduce up to 2,000 eggs without mating. So, hundreds to thousands of ticks can be found on a single person or animal. New Jersey was the first state to report an Asian longhorned tick, first on a dog in 2013 and more recently in August 2017 on a sheep. Since then, eight other states have reported finding the tick on animals, people and in environmental samples: Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Health officials do not know whether the longhorned tick is capable of transmitting Lyme disease, but it has been shown in Asia to spread other serious diseases such as SFTS virus and the pathogen that causes Japanese spotted fever, along with many diseases in animals. In New Zealand and Australia, the Asian longhorned tick is known to hurt livestock, reducing production in dairy cattle by 25 percent, according to the CDC. The tick can also cause blood loss and death in calves. Unfed ticks can live nearly a year. To prevent tick bites, the CDC recommends using Environmental Protection Agency-registered insect repellents, avoiding wooded areas and examining yourself and pets when coming indoors.
I have two friends dealing with Lime Disease, both from tick bites. You don't want Lime Disease. My wife and I do some bird watching and I've had more than a couple occasions that I had the little bastards on me. Creeps me out when you come home and suddenly feel something crawling on you. Now when I come home I strip down completely, thoroughly inspect all clothes, take a shower, and then inspect ourselves again. It's funny, one day we can go out and no ticks at all, the next day come back with a half dozen of the bastards on us. Ya can't kill'em just by stepping on them either, it's like they're crush proof. I cut the little fuckers in half.
Horrible critters. At the beginning of every summer I put tick repellent on my dog I get from the vet just in case, before I developed that habit I had to constantly check him. I still constantly check him though.