ticks

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Invasive Tick Can Clone Itself, and It's Spreading Quickly

Asian longhorned tick has spread to 19 states, poses a threat to livestock

(Newser) - An invasive tick species is making its way across the US from the east, with particularly worrisome news coming from one of the 19 states where it's been spotted, reports Smithsonian Magazine . After researchers confirmed the Asian longhorned tick killed three cows in Ohio, there's growing concern over...

Many Americans May Have Alpha-Gal Syndrome, Not Know It

Tick-borne meat allergy may be severely underdiagnosed, researchers say

(Newser) - If eating red meat makes you sick, you may be one of hundreds of thousands of Americans unaware that they have an allergy spread by ticks . In two studies released Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 110,000 suspected cases of the allergy, alpha-gal syndrome, have been...

A Tick in Delaware Doesn't Bode Well for Hikers

Tiny parasite showed up in February, weeks earlier than normal

(Newser) - In Delaware, ticks don't usually show up until early March. This year, however, Backpacker reports that state environmental scientist Wil Winter discovered a lone star tick on February 11, three weeks earlier than usual. Lone stars don't usually carry Lyme disease , one of the most commonly-known tick-borne...

Look Out, West Coast, Here Comes the Meat-Allergy Tick

It's been documented as far west as Nebraska, but California is in its sights

(Newser) - When scientists first figured out years ago that a particular tick was making people allergic to meat , it was an odd malady mostly confined to southern states. But the New York Times reports that the Lone Star tick has been busily expanding its territory in the interim. Researchers have mapped...

Ticks Collected From a Cave in Kenya Break Records

In a lab setting, this tick species revealed several amazing adaptations

(Newser) - Back in 1976, entomologist Julian Shepherd received a delightful gift: 13 ticks. Specifically, they were Argas brumpti, a species of large argasid (soft-shelled) ticks native to dry regions of southern and eastern Africa; these had been collected from caves near Nairobi. Shepherd, an associate professor of biological sciences at Binghamton...

Ticks Are Sucking the Life From Maine's Moose

The state will see if allowing hunters to kill more moose than usual can help

(Newser) - Biologists in Maine think the best way to save its 65,000-strong moose population might be to kill off more of it, and they're engaging in an experiment to that end. As the Wall Street Journal explains, moose are currently dying at the hands of ticks, and climate change...

Ticks Have Invaded an Unlikely Place

Those that carry Lyme disease are just as likely to be found at the beach as in the woods

(Newser) - Love the outdoors but hate ticks? Well, a new study has unfortunate news for you: Even the beach is not safe, at least in the northwestern part of California where it was carried out. Researchers found that adult black-legged ticks carrying Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, were just as...

Researchers Find Another Disease Carried by Ticks

In the US, there are at least 16

(Newser) - Researchers have identified a new disease carried by a tick in Inner Mongolia. In the US alone, at least 16 diseases have been identified that ticks can pass on to humans, NPR reports. The discovery, disclosed in a study in the New England Journal of Medicine , means that we don'...

Red Meat Allergy From Ticks Easier to Get Than Thought

Study causes scientists to revise their theory

(Newser) - It's perhaps the weirdest ailment related to ticks—one bite can make people allergic to red meat . Now scientists have done some more research, only to conclude that the risk of getting this allergy from the lone star tick may be higher than they originally thought. It all has...

Tick That Can Cause 'Massive Infestations' Now in 9 States

Asian longhorned ticks have been found on pets, livestock, and humans

(Newser) - Putting the word "exotic" in front of "tick" doesn't make the arachnid any more appealing, especially since one type is now proliferating across the US and bringing potential sicknesses with them. USA Today reports on a new warning from the CDC , which notes that the "fast-multiplying"...

Just What We Didn't Need: a Brand-New Tick in US

Asian longhorned tick, an import, is spreading fast on the East Coast

(Newser) - Because ticks that make you allergic to meat or give you Lyme disease weren't distressing enough: A new tick from east Asia is now spreading rapidly along the East Coast, the first new species to arrive in 50 years, reports the New York Times . It's called the Asian...

To Avoid Ticks, Follow Lead of US Military
To Avoid Ticks,
Follow Lead of US Military
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

To Avoid Ticks, Follow Lead of US Military

Permethrin-treated clothing proves effective in new study

(Newser) - The US military was apparently on to something when it began treating soldiers' uniforms with permethrin in the 1980s. The move was based on tests showing the EPA-registered pesticide, which mimics extracts from the chrysanthemum flower, prevented tick and other insect bites. Three decades later, it still holds up to...

Spray Your Clothes With This Chemical to Keep Ticks Away

The CDC says an insecticide called permethrin causes ticks to fall from clothing

(Newser) - In an especially nasty year for ticks, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a statement about a possible method for preventing the spread of diseases carried by their bites, Live Science reports. By spraying clothing with an insecticide called permethrin, experts believe you can cause the...

A Mom's Natural Tick Spray Shows Promise in Tests
A Mom's Natural Tick Spray
Shows Promise in Tests
in case you missed it

A Mom's Natural Tick Spray Shows Promise in Tests

Lisa Ali's AtlanTick spray wards off most ticks in studies at Canadian university

(Newser) - The story begins in all-too-familiar fashion: A mom discovers that her two young sons were bitten by ticks and developed Lyme disease as a result. Then comes the not-so-typical twist: The same mom develops an all-natural tick spray that is showing promise in tests at a Canadian university. As the...

Tick, Mosquito Infections Have More Than Tripled

Bloodsucker season is getting longer, CDC warns

(Newser) - The number of Americans catching diseases from tiny bloodsucking creatures is going up at an alarming rate, federal authorities warn. According to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of reported illnesses caused by ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas more than tripled between 2004 and...

Lethal Tick Bite Claims Woman in Missouri

Tamela Wilson is fifth known person to have contracted the Bourbon virus

(Newser) - Tamela Wilson was no stranger to tick bites. The 58-year-old assistant superintendent at Meramec State Park in Missouri had worked at a state park for more than a decade and would pick the bugs off her skin routinely, reports CBS News . But in late May, just four days after she...

Tick Linked to Unusual Malady Appears to Be Spreading

Bite from lone star tick can give you an allergy to meat

(Newser) - Ticks are out in force this year, and there's one species in particular you should watch out for if you'd ever like to eat meat again. Experts say the lone star tick appears to be spreading from its home base in the southeastern US. Whereas other ticks can...

Family Says Girl, 2, Died After Tick Bite
Family Says Girl, 2,
Died After Tick Bite
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Family Says Girl, 2, Died After Tick Bite

Doctors suspect it was Rocky Mountain spotted fever

(Newser) - A grieving family in Indiana wants a little girl's death to raise awareness of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which, despite the name, has been found in almost every state and has killed people a long way from the Rocky Mountains. Doctors believe the tick-borne illness caused the death of...

3-Year-Old's Partial Paralysis Has Surprising Cause

Tick bite caused temporary paralysis in little girl

(Newser) - An Oregon family got quite a scare on May 12 when their 3-year-old daughter got fussy around bedtime and had trouble standing. Lantz and Amanda Lewis ended up taking little Evelyn to the ER, panicked, when by the next morning she could barely even crawl or use her arms. Lantz...

Mosquitoes, Ticks Are Coming for Us All This Summer

Warm winter means a pest-heavy summer is likely

(Newser) - America is about to be hit with a major infestation of ticks and mosquitoes, with the National Pest Management Association's chief entomologist predicting a "pretty buggy spring and summer." Popular Science reports this year's unusually warm winter—the sixth warmest ever recorded in the US—means...

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