Slashdot Mirror
US Invaded By Savage Tick That Sucks Animals Dry, Spawns Without Mating (arstechnica.com)
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.
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?
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.