Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
A vicious species of tick originating from Eastern Asia has invaded the US and is rapidly sweeping the Eastern Seaboard, state and federal officials warn.
The tick, the Asian longhorned tick (or Haemaphysalis longicornis), has the potential to transmit an assortment of nasty diseases to humans, including an emerging virus that kills up to 30 percent of victims. So far, the tick hasn't been found carrying any diseases in the US. It currently poses the largest threat to livestock, pets, and wild animals; the ticks can attack en masse and drain young animals of blood so quickly that they die—an execution method called exsanguination.
Key to the tick's explosive spread and bloody blitzes is that its invasive populations tend to reproduce asexually, that is, without mating. Females drop up to 2,000 eggs over the course of two or three weeks, quickly giving rise to a ravenous army of clones. In one US population studied so far, experts encountered a massive swarm of the ticks in a single paddock, totaling well into the thousands. They speculated that the population might have a ratio of about one male to 400 females.
Yesterday, August 7, Maryland became the eighth state to report the presence of the tick. It followed a similar announcement last Friday, August 3, from Pennsylvania. Other affected states include New York, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
-- submitted from IRC
Related Stories
The Asian Longhorn tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis), native to eastern China and Russia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and a few Pacific islands is continuing its spread through the Eastern and mid United States.
In those countries, it harbors an array of bacterial and viral diseases that infect humans, including a potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever. It’s even more feared for the way it attacks livestock. This tick reproduces asexually, laying thousands of eggs at a time and producing waves of offspring that extract so much blood that grown cattle grow weak and calves die.
According to the CDC the tick has now been found in 11 states. It is cold tolerant and feeds on wildlife with long ranges such as deer, increasing the speed of its spread.
It’s a truism among tick researchers that their work is underfunded compared with other insect vectors. After all, the US public health system was founded on fighting mosquitoes
To this day, the CDC maintains national maps of the ranges of different mosquito species. States, counties, and cities operate more than 700 mosquito-abatement districts, and the American Mosquito Control Association estimates those agencies collectively spend $200 million a year on catching, analyzing, and killing the bugs. Ticks don’t get anywhere near that kind of coordinated attention or money.
Four years ago, the Entomological Society of America (ESA) recommended development of an Integrated Tick Management (ITM) program across the country.
Ben Beard, a medical entomologist who is deputy director of the CDC’s division of vector-borne diseases (“vector” is shorthand for “insects that transmit diseases when they bite”), says [the lack of funding] is beginning to change. “We have funded state health departments to begin efforts for tick surveillance,” he says.
This is a start, but the CDC's data, even in its current limited state, shows that the ticks are leaving us behind and we need to catch up.
Previous Coverage
US Invaded by Savage Tick that Sucks Animals Dry, Spawns Without Mating
Savage Tick-Clone Armies are Sucking Cows to Death; Experts Fear for Humans:
Spreading invasive tick spawns without mating and can transmit deadly disease.
Ravenous swarms of cloned ticks have killed a fifth cow in North Carolina by exsanguination—that is, by draining it of blood—the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services warned this week.
Experts fear that the bloodthirsty throngs, which were first noticed in the United States in 2017, will continue their rampage, siphoning life out of animals and eventually transmitting diseases, potentially deadly ones, to humans.
Just last month, infectious disease researchers in New York reported the first case of the tick species biting a human in the US. The finding was "unsurprising" given the tick's ferocious nature, according to Dr. Bobbi S. Pritt, director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory in Mayo Clinic. And it's "extremely worrisome for several reasons," she wrote in a commentary for the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @03:44PM (2 children)
Sanctuary cities stand poised to grant them permanent residence.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:52PM (1 child)
Republicans want to give them voting rights.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:54PM
No, republicans want to give them voting IDs.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 09 2018, @03:45PM (17 children)
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:31PM (2 children)
You joke, but I'm way more worried about lyme disease and rocky mountain spotted fever than I am about not noticing a tick before I literally exsanguinate.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday August 10 2018, @01:16AM
This tick spreads encephalitis. We shall hope to never find out how it feels.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday August 10 2018, @08:55AM
It's not one tick, it's thousands attacking at the same time. And yes, you'd almost certainly notice them. But I'm not sure that makes it any better.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:31PM (13 children)
What's with the SSN?
Can you post your Zip code and address too? I could use a new credit card.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:26PM (10 children)
While I now live in Vancouver and work in Portland, I still use my California ID card.
Just now while looking up my old Zip code I found that the Postal Service quite helpfully announced it was no longer delivering mail to houses that have burnt down.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:52PM (1 child)
Are you using LifeLock? It's showing as stars.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 10 2018, @01:44AM
It's hunter2, everyone knows that.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:11PM (7 children)
What are you trying to prove?
That life lock guy who posted his SSN everywhere had his identity stolen like 4 times.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:40PM (1 child)
I think he's succesfully proving that soylent posters are layabouts.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:55PM
LAYABOUTS!?!?!
Harumph, harumph! I say, old chap me son, I'm gonna go out and steal his identity right now-- oooh, "Some mother's do 'ave 'em" is on. I'll do it later.
"Fraaaank!?!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:46PM (4 children)
... a laptop computer?
_After_ it was stolen from a parked car, Community Services Northwest started using encryption.
But that doesn't answer the question as to why they had my SSN on a _laptop_.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:11PM (1 child)
Why haven't you sued them for violating HIPAA by failing to use encryption?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday August 10 2018, @03:43AM
Community Services Northwest has done me a lot of good to the extent they weren't letting their laptops get stolen.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snow on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:23PM (1 child)
Is your solution to a sinking ship to drill more holes in the hull?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:56PM
I think he's going for the insurance money, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:59PM (1 child)
> I could use a new credit card.
Given MDC's credit score, I predict the maximum credit line on your new card will be about ten cents (USD $0.10).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @06:09PM
You'll have to pay off the old debts before you dream about a 10 cent credit line.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:24PM (2 children)
Where's the line to sign up dying by sharknado ? That sounds like a much better deal.
No sharknado in the forecast ? I'll take one death-by-Godzilla, please.
> from the tick-talk dept.
Too bad I can't upvote the dept line. That's a great one.
(Score: 3, Funny) by archfeld on Thursday August 09 2018, @06:12PM
Also from the Tick-Talk dept. ;
Little Wooden boys says, "SPOON"
I am the Evil Bomber what bombs at midnight !!!
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:17PM
I wouldn't worry too much about these ticks. We have them in New Zealand, and when the infestations get too bad the Tick Patrols come around with their flamethrowers and burn off all the grass.
You get used to it, usually we just have to stay inside for a day or two.
It's the farmers I feel sorry for, they have to do their own burnoffs, and of course their production goes down until the grass grows back.
It's better than being sucked dry of course, which does happen every now and again.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:31PM
It wasn't clear from TFS. Is that "sucked dry" in the fun, sexy way?
Not a bad way to go, I guess.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:24PM (2 children)
"Exsanguination" means "blood loss". No more, no less. It seems like the author doesn't know this ("draining of blood is called "exsanguination").
We say this word for the execution method because "blood loss" can easily be fatal, but "exsanguination" is also, for example, a valid modern medical treatment for blood iron overload disorders like hemochromatosis (blood is too high in iron -> remove some blood (exsanguination) -> the body makes new blood that isn't high in iron -> average iron level goes down).
It is very impressive and a little scary that a tick that accomplish this in a decently large animal.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:55PM (1 child)
> It is very impressive and a little scary that a tick that accomplish this in a decently large animal.
I'd go for "stuff of nightmares". It's the combined work of thousands of ticks on a single animal.
The pics on TFA are really creepy. Even college rugby teams don't drink multiple times their body weight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:34PM
I'm not so sure. I think my team would have given that a pretty good run (we had a fly half intercept a pass and run it back over 3/4th of the pitch where he touched it down in the back of the try zone, then threw up--after that I made a mental note that if I was going to score, I'm only going to go for just over the line).
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:39PM (1 child)
Clearly, these folks just met my ex!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @12:07AM
Ticks have equal right too you know. They come in "peace."
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:33PM (7 children)
Lucky bastard.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:49PM
The narrator, softly: "And this, is a very rare male specimen of the dreaded Asian longhorned tick. You can tell it's a male by the biiiiig smile on his face".
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Thexalon on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:57PM (3 children)
Really? Imagine the amount of annoyance most guys get from 1 partner, then multiply that by 400! Sure, you get laid a lot, but you also now have to fix 400 appliances and open 12000 jars every week.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:01PM (1 child)
And when they get to the point where they all sync: a week of being told how lucky he is by 400 females, 400 times a day.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday August 10 2018, @01:25AM
Those ticks can hold sperm, I guess.
Consider the fate of American water turtles. Females need to mate perhaps 2-3 times over the lifetime as they can store sperm for years. However, when they migrate to special children bearing ponds, they are ambushed and repeatedly raped by males; pregnant already that is. As they are territorial, males are actually fight with each other for the good location based on a likely female migration route. Did I mention the girls are run down by similar behaving American motorists?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @10:47AM
And compare that to the amount of annoyance the entire internet gets from a few guys who have no partner.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:40PM
Whatever floats your boat. However, this is what the females look like: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haemaphysalis_longicornis_1.jpg [wikimedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:13PM
Lotsa ticks, not very many tocs.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:06PM
No I'm not joking. Ticks have many natural preditors. Un/fortunately most of those preditors are quite tasty. Which is why there are so many ticks, and so few wild Turkeys and Bob White Quail.
Turkeys and Bob White eat ticks. Guinea Fowl LOVE to eat ticks. But Turkeys can be (and have recently been) restored to many areas of the eastern seaboard and will create sustainable wild coveys. Many of these states have abundant parklands, that can support Turkeys, but currently don't have any. So their folks need to ask their states: "Why aren't you restoring birds to curb the tick problem?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @05:21AM
You are describing my old girlfriend.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Friday August 10 2018, @01:53PM
Time to start farming opossums. Wonder how their meat tastes.
----- 10 turns around