Let us just hope that this tick called Asian Longhorn tick (
Haemaphysalis longicornis) never reaches serious numbers.
This scary tick that attacks with hundreds to thousands of ticks at a time. All clones too !
Eight states reporting the little suckers. No evidence they’re carrying disease—yet.
arstechnica.com
Small excerpt from text, click arstechnica link for full text :
"
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.
Just stepping foot in the paddock, the owner and health investigators were inundated with thirsty ticks that instantly began clawing up their pant legs. DNA analysis ultimately determined that the ticks were
H. longicornis. Investigators found only one male out of 1,058 ticks collected.
"
So many people never understand why it is good that it freezes for a couple of weeks. To get rid of the insect pests. If the planet warms more and more because of manmade accelerated global warming through manmade pollution, we will get more and more insect pests, mosquitos, ticks, other blooddrinking insects like some flies do. And more through insect bite transmissive diseases like Lyme disease, but also maleria, sleeping disease and so on...