US Invaded By Savage Tick That Sucks Animals Dry, Spawns Without Mating (arstechnica.com) 178
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A vicious species of tick originating from Eastern Asia has invaded the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
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 U.S. 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.
Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, I used to trust Ars to bring me researched, objective science and technology news -- but no more.
What a piece of sensationalist tripe this is!
How do I know?
Well I live in New Zealand, one of those countries which has this tick -- in fact we only have two tick species here and this is one of them.
Neither our cattle, sheep nor people have been brought to their knees by this pest and the countryside isn't over-run with a red tide of invading creatures.
Sorry Ars, you've just been relegated to "tabloid tech" in my book.
Such a shame.
Who *can* we rely on for *real* news and not this click-bait sensationalist crap?
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Blame Google, they are the ones who reward it.
We need to retake control of our content and just say no to Google.
Re:Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:5, Funny)
The tick also injects a neuro-toxic venom that makes you think all your wildlife are still OK and haven't been sucked dry.
Re:Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:5, Funny)
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Oddly, it also makes you think you live in New Zealand.
And that cats are not your secret masters.
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You talk too much, human. Go and clean my kitty litter!
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Where can I find one of these ticks? New Zealand is fucking beautiful.
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The Ars Technica article photo further suggests that these ticks can live and reproduce on US dimes.
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They're reproducing on Eisenhower?
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9 species of ticks according to https://www.smsl.co.nz/NZBEL/Ticks.html
Re:Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:5, Interesting)
Your island is too small to have an east coast, everything is still within the ocean-moderated climate.
These ticks seem to be much worse in a continental east coast environment.
New Zealand is totally different, with rain evenly distributed around the year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The whole country is Oceanic.
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Your island is too small to have an east coast
I know geography isn't a strong point of Americans, but this post makes me wonder how you got through 3rd grade geometry.
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Maybe he means it's a Möbius strip.
everything is still within the ocean-moderated climate.
Sounds like paradise.
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“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the US should help the US, uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”
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It was probably intended as a hyperbole laden joke. Another example (and one of my favorites) is, "I was so bad at all sports, I once lost a bye."
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Losing a bye happens in chess all the time. But you still get the point.
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You're like an inverse Turing test; there would be no way to distinguish you from a 1970s AI program.
Is it because I hurt your feelings that you say you from a 1970s AI program?
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Right, right, he was saying he didn't comprehend the difference between a coast that is on the east side of a land mass, and an east coast in the context of continental climates.
I know having the same word being used in two different contexts is too complicated for a lot of you, but don't think I'm going to dumb down my comments or stop making a serious point. If you want a kindergarten-level explanation for everything I say, you'll simply be wanting.
Re: Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:2)
Re:Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:5, Insightful)
I live in Australia. We have cane toads, rabbits etc which cause huge amounts of damage (we also have this tick). There are other countries that have cane toads, rabbits etc where they do not cause huge amounts of damage. The problem with introducing species is that they don't usually balance the same way they did in their native environments.
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"The problem with introducing species is that they don't usually balance the same way they did in their native environments"
A lesson Australia learned the hard way. More than once.
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The problem with introducing species is that they don't usually balance the same way they did in their native environments.
Oh, they reach the same balance, make no mistake.
Check back in 8 or 10 million years and see!
Re:Goodbye Arstechnica (Score:4, Informative)
The introduction of rabbits and foxes into Australia is a textbook case of the devastating effects of invasive species. Bonus points for the fact it was done on purpose by hunters, strictly for sport.
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Actually, for a textbook case of invasive species, take a look at H. Sapiens - No balance forthcoming and mass extinction projected at 98%+.
Ironically, H Sapiens is heading for population balance or decline just about everywhere it is "invasive", but exploding in it's native sub-Saharan Africa.
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"No balance forthcoming, except for this projected balance"
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Yeah, well in the U.S. we have Attack Rabbits, just ask Jimmy Carter.
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I live in Australia. We have cane toads, rabbits etc which cause huge amounts of damage
Australians were originally a small prison colony (invasive species). Now their population is out of control and not at all in balance with indigenous species..Just saying...
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Tick bait sensationalist crap... (Score:2)
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Try the NZ Herald, they don't do sensationalist clickbait!
They just post articles from the Daily Mail and Judith Collins.
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Ormaybe the tick has predators/diseases in NZ and none in the US.
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So you are from New Zealand, one of the most paranoid countries in the world when it comes to invasive species. Where having a blade of grass under your shoe when you enter the country is grounds for a heavy fine. Where, you'd think, people at least understand what a non-native invader can do in a new ecosystem where it lacks predators of any kind. That New Zealand?
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Yah, I read an article on this on either NYT or WashPost. I didn't bother reading this article because the blurb above took too many facts out of context and inflated them.
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Well I live in New Zealand, one of those countries which has this tick...
If the tick is so harmless, why are so many educated people fleeing New Zealand to move to Australia every year? The doom-tick is causing people to flee in panic, you just lack the necessary fight-or-flight mechanism.
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I agree with the fact that it's sensationalism but if they're native to a place, they tend to have predators. You're close enough to Australia to know what invasive species can do without effective predation or natural controls.
The best thing though since they're "cloning" themselves, is that the variation in the species will be low and you can target genes relatively easy in order to kill them.
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Quick, call the Government of Western Australia [wa.gov.au] and inform them how "heavy infestations can [not] cause severe anaemia, decreased growth rates and rarely, deaths in younger cattle," because they appare
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Your own veterinarians appear to disagree with you [vetent.co.nz] on this point: "Nymph (larval) ticks can be a major problem on newborn fawns, and young grazing lambs prior to weaning causing anaemia with deaths fr
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So as a New Zealander, you should be well aware of how devastating an invasive species is to an ecosystem that has not evolved to keep it in check. Why else would your country embark on a massive invasive species eradication program:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/new-zealand-invasives-islands-rats-kiwis-conservation/
We in North America are all too well acquainted with invasive species and the havoc they wreak on an ecosystem with few natural inhibitors, from asian pine beetles destroying swath
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There is a northern version of these (Score:5, Funny)
US Invaded By Savage Tick That Sucks Animals Dry, Spawns Without Mating
Up here in Canada, we call these creatures "Tories".
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A craft brewer with an ironclad reputation for quality weighed in on this. In order to sell his beer for a buck under the conditions laid out by Ford, he'd have to supply it for 16 cents a can. He says he can do it, but the beer would be watered down, tasteless swill.
So he won't.
On the other hand, if you want to drink American beer, just go down there and do it. Cheap beer in the US is exactly like this drek will be: rancid cat piss.
One male to four hundred females? (Score:1)
That is one very, VERY happy tick!
Re:One male to four hundred females? (Score:5, Funny)
That is one very, VERY happy tick!
You have not lived in a house with four females.
Just saying...
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Were you mating with all four?
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You have not lived in a house with four females.
Were you mating with all four?
He's from West Virginia and they are his wife, mother-in-law, and two daughters.
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I'm not sure. I picture a long line of ticks saying "rub my feet next", "no mine, he already did yours", "not all eight of them!"
No. (Score:2)
From TFS, these are the velociraptors of ticks. They know no fear and are always hungry. They have no concerns but devouring their prey.
Re: One male to four hundred females? (Score:2)
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Until he realizes the females can reproduce asexually and don't really need him.
Assuming sex of the tick is determined genetically (and not by environmental factors like with some reptiles). The fact that males do indeed exist means that they can still reproduce sexually. If all reproduction was asexual then all ticks would be female.
It would be a deleterious to the species to waste offspring on producing males if the males did not mate- they would all be genetic dead ends.
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If you read the fine print, he doesn't get to fuck any of them.
up to 30% of the victims? (Score:2)
sure, as long as you ignore the vast mayority of the people that get infected with SFTSV and never get more than a slight fever for some days.
Hardly surprising (Score:5, Funny)
It is an election year after all.
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Usually in an election year the blood sucking parasites try to downplay their activity, though.
Exsanguination,eh? (Score:1)
So, Jewish and Islamic ticks. Sounds about right.
And so? (Score:2)
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 U.S.
And there's this other species[*] that has the potential to transmit an assortment of nasty diseases to humans, including an emerging virus that kills up to 80 percent of victims.
[*]: Homo Sapiens Sapiens
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I know. And yet, for some odd reason it's still illegal to hunt them down for fun, profit and food.
Effin' liberals and their bleeding heart politics.
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I know. And yet, for some odd reason it's still illegal to hunt them down for fun, profit and food.
Effin' liberals and their bleeding heart politics.
How many ticks would it take to fill the belly of an average Appalachian man of the woods?
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Ooops- I should pay more attention- you're talking about man.
One man should last several meals assuming you prepare the meat correctly.
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I just take the thigh and ass meat, the rest isn't worth the time to harvest.
Ivermectin (Score:1)
Careful with the dosage though, to much can poison the dog.
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To quote the same Wikipedia article you linked to - emphasis mine:
In veterinary medicine ivermectin is used against many intestinal worms (but not tapeworms), most mites, and some lice. It is not effective for eliminating ticks, flies, flukes, or fleas.
Spinosad [wikipedia.org] based pills like Comfortis work great, though.
Reproduces without mating? (Score:1)
What could possibly go wrong in the long run with such genetic uniformity?
Re:Reproduces without mating? (Score:4, Informative)
What could possibly go wrong in the long run with such genetic uniformity?
Given all the species that do asexual reproduction, not much.
And not just bacteria and plants either. Bdelloid rotifers [wikipedia.org] were sexual at one time, but got rid of their males, and now they're all female and adapting well enough with parthenogenetic asexual reproduction.
Re:Reproduces without mating? (Score:5, Funny)
It's the damnedest thing too, we're starting to see signs of this in the human population as well. My wife just spontaneously got pregnant a few weeks back, and I know it wasn't me because I was out of town. Incredible stuff.
Re:Reproduces without mating? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the damnedest thing too, we're starting to see signs of this in the human population as well. My wife just spontaneously got pregnant a few weeks back, and I know it wasn't me because I was out of town. Incredible stuff.
It's been going on for a while. It was described happening in Palestine two thousand years ago. The resulting specimen didn't reproduce, though, and died at a relatively young age, so there may be some complications.
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Nah, that's not what happened. There was this carpenter guy who somehow hooked up with a tasty female. Being scared of marriage the dowry it would entail, he kept the relationship going in the hopes of getting break down the line. Then she became preggers. What to do, what to do? The penalties at that time for this sort of behavior were severe. So he thinks hard and in a blinding flash of insight, the story line became, "It's a (*^*&^%$ miracle!!".
Politicians have been spinning variations on this ever s
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What could possibly go wrong in the long run with such genetic uniformity?
You could ask the dandelions in my yard if they think that any genetic issues are holding them back.
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You could ask the dandelions in my yard if they think that any genetic issues are holding them back.
Dandelions (like this tick) do both. They can reproduce sexually or asexually- usually they do it asexually, but occasionally they don't; thus they are not ALL clones of each other- even if many are indeed clones. This means even if a virus wipes out a large number of them- the fact that genetic differences do exist out there, there might be some in the species that can resist the virus.
CHINA. SAY IT! (Score:1)
"Eastern Asia", WTF. You mean CHINA? Why is Ars afraid to say CHINA?
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amazing (Score:2)
Lion Fish.
etc. etc. etc.
I would suspect that China is also suffering. Like Brazil and other rain forest, they have some unique fauna and animals (which is also why they invade elsewhere).
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I would suspect that China is also suffering.
Quite a bit [scidev.net] actually. Invasive species from the US is probably a bigger problem in China than invasive species from China is in the US. Pine wood nematodes devastate pine forests and smooth cord grass smothers mangroves, for example - both originating in North America.
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Ah, this is just China's payback for Kissinger. And now it will continue until the Chinese Communist Party gets to claim Taiwan so they can do to it what they are doing to Tibet. Free Chinese are anathema to the CP.
Re: amazing (Score:2)
Ars Technica article photo (Score:1)
suggests that they live and reproduce on US dimes.
I looked this up on Wikipedia.org (Score:5, Informative)
Here's what I found:
The longhorned tick can transmit an animal disease called theileriosis to cattle, which can cause considerable blood loss and occasional death of calves, but mainly is important to dairy farmers because of decreased milk production and sheep farmers because of decreased wool quantity and quality.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
So the tick doesn't suck animals dry. It's a vector for a disease, theileriosis, which only affects cattle and, if left untreated, kills the host. Blood loss through the nose and bowels are two of the symptoms but infected cattle don't die from blood loss (exsanguination).
The longhorned tick is sometimes also a vector for other common tick-borne diseases.
This is a non-story for anyone except researchers and maybe farmers if the ticks start spreading theileriosis. There are other species of tick in Asia, Europe, and north Africa which are more common vectors for theileriosis.
Ars Technica have published a misleading and factually incorrect article which is apparently intended to cause fear and anxiety among millions of people. They have displayed all the journalistic integrity of Facebook.
Reproduces without mating (Score:2)
means, we're fucked.
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We have to find out how they do it. For ... scientific reasons, of course.
Well... (Score:2)
This sucks.
Biohack (Score:2)
Horror movie plot in there somewhere (Score:2)
The OP writeup sounds like a horror movie script. Bugs that suck the life from people, invading "ticks" (our collective favorite scary bug), marching on us, invaders from space.
Yes - if I were to think of an AI nano-bot script, I'd make it even scarier by replacing them with REAL bugs that collectively work together. The Blob has nothing on this. Oooh -- Chuckie could lead them.
And in a turn of events the Chainsaw dude could come and save us all.
without mating - easier to eradicate (Score:2)
Re: For a minute there (Score:1)
Apparently the brain slug died of starvation. Tsk. Tsk. Poor thing.
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That reminds me!
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords!!!
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Whoever modded you up should be killed.
Ticks aren't insects you asshole. (My entomology class in college was taught by an acarologist--- TICKS ARE NOT INSECTS!)
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Whoever modded you up should be killed.
Interesting suggested use of the death penalty. Are you from Texas?
Re:For a minute there (Score:5, Funny)
Ticks are arachnida, not insects.
This is slashdot, of course the details matter more than the joke.
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Can we mod this one funny? It made me laugh more than the original.
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Well, the joke was overplayed and therefore missed the mark.
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Whatever. They die to the same kind of spray.
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Your ex wife gave many of us crabs. Get tested.
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If it breeds without mating, asexually, then humans can too and we no longer need families.
It's been possible for a long time for humans to not technically "mate" and still have offspring. (not really asexual, although we could probably do that too- but don't for ethics reasons). If a parent has a child- then guess what; that's a family. It is still a family even if it is two Mom's and no dads... or three moms... or four moms... or I don't know a mass lesbian orgy every night...
Sorry, I got distracted there... point being, you say that sex makes a family- I disagree, I think it's the people.