Green Group discussion

The deer ticks are prone to desiccation or drying out, so they need leaf-litter matter to burrow down into when it gets too hot. So because of that, they need to be in brushy wooded areas or mixed deciduous forest.

It is ironic that on the US side of the border excessive numbers of earthworms are eating the leaf litter before it can be converted to humus, thus causing the existing litter mulch and the underlying soil to dry out.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3472203/mor...

The deer ticks are moving northward as the climate warms up, while the Powassan virus, another tick disease, has been moving southward, having first been verified in Powassan, Canada, and is now crossing the border into the northern states.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/health/...

"Although most infected people will never show symptoms, those who do become sick usually do so a few days to about a week after the tick bite." You find tick articles saying this but this is slowly proving to not be true. Just because you don't get sick immediately, doesn't mean you didn't pick up something that takes 20 years to develop.

https://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-we...

Another Day, Another Tick, it's not the lone star tick anymore, somehow it's moving up north, by leaps and bounds.

Oh, Lovely: The Tick That Gives People Meat Allergies Is Spreading

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/o...

I wear rubber boots to walk into my yard. I'm always tick conscious.

They can climb up on to ends of tall grass and low bushes, putting them above the ground and wait for something to brush into them.

I understand that. I keep the grass very low around the house and yard. I wear long pants, long shirt, all tucked in. We go through tick checks, showers after coming in. It's a struggle.

I found a couple since April. It use to be so meaningless, just inconvenient, now it's a big deal. Too bad we can't we get the winters back that lasted from November 1 to March 1. The only request I would make would be lots of cold and hold the snow. It couldn't even stay cold this winter, kept warming up. Now the spring and summer, it can't stay hot, keeps cooling off. Seems like the weather pattern has gone from steady state to pulsating waves.

Shorter winters are a huge problem.

The meat allergy caused by a tick bite fades away after 8 months to 5 years for some or all?, unless you get bit again, then it starts up again.

“Part of me feels as though we have just kind of scratched the surfaces of what tick bites can do,” he said. “I don’t have the data for that, but just this hunch that they seem to be able to modulate our immune system in ways we may not understand.” -Dr. Scott Commins.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Robert wrote: "I found a couple since April. It use to be so meaningless, just inconvenient, now it's a big deal. Too bad we can't we get the winters back that lasted from November 1 to March 1. The only request ..." babesiosis?
I know exactly what you mean. No actual seasons. Warm days, followed by cool days, winter-like weather in May, spring like winter a day at a time in Dec, Jan and Feb.
Tick problem here in MA is really bad and Lyme Disease is like an epidemic in some areas. Babesiosis is increasing and it can be much worse than Lyme, particularly if you already have a compromised immune system from chemotherapy, etc. Scary stuff and global warming is making it worse. Also in eastern Mass, we have had two bad years with Gypsy moths due to the drought MA has had. Drier weather means more Gypsy moths. For about a month, it seems like a plague if you live in a neighborhood that is infested.
:-(

Zika-bearing mosquitoes more widespread in U.S. than expected

Another wishful thinking group of people who don't understand how global change works. Mosquitoes have been spreading throughout the world, every year, more types in more places. In the US, apparently it was hoped the mosquitoes would stop expanding into new areas. I guess a lot of people are still hoping things will go back to the way they were. Like it's a temporary aberration, and all you have to do is wake up, breath in those clouds of supposedly harmless insecticides and it will all be back to the way it was, without anyone having to change the way they do everything.

The people who are hacking your brain through your stupid phone so you will be exposed to more ads, maybe they will disappear all by themselves as well.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2017/0...

So far I don't get any ads on my phone....thank God for small favors!

MORE ABOUT TICKS - For the first time in 37 years, we are taking precautions at our rental cottages on Mount Desert Island in Maine. We cut grass lower than I'd like, make 3' cedar bark barriers around cottages and play areas, and spray those areas with a mix of cedar oil and other organics. I learned recently that 49% of ticks here carry at least one of 5 different diseases. Moose further north are so infested they are dying from blood loss. I wear permethrin sprayed pants and socks when I work outside and take a shower as it takes ticks a while to settle.

And about those ads - infuriating that the spanners use numbers like our own, so we think it is a call from someone local.

How Did Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Pop Up In Spain?

The answer is simple. In today's modern world, if you can see it, you can feel it.

You would think that a place like NPR would watch the documentaries that are run on the various networks associated with them.

"The most important thing is awareness among health care providers about the symptoms," Ko says, "so they can stay ahead of the disease."

That is one way to do it, or the medical industry could start offering free testing that uses DNA identification instead of relying on a doctor making an educated guess, but then, the doctor wouldn't be making any money off the deal. This profit worship thing is a huge bottleneck that is only making things worse for everyone, including the doctors, instead of better.

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsands...

Asian Ticks (Mysteriously) Turned Up On A New Jersey Sheep

And people want to know how this could possibly happen?

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsand...

The explanation is simple, people have written laws that are supposed to protect us from these kinds of events but the ticks just never bothered to read the laws. No insects pay attention to our laws and steel bars.

A researcher said it was unknown if the ticks could transmit american diseases because they were asian ticks. Then the question comes up, what is an american disease?

Many people believe that Lyme disease is an american disease. And some think that the US Department of Agriculture created it on an island off the coast of Long Island, which it escaped from. Truth is Lyme disease was in Austria and Italy 5,000 years ago. It was being scientifically studied in the late 19th century in Europe. The only explanation I have for the reason this information is not known, is that the information does not carry through time because of racism. The inability to think that someone different from us could be just as intelligent, or maybe even more so.

https://sites.newpaltz.edu/ticktalk/s...

People's work needs to be acknowledged no matter what country it comes from. And old information from the past isn't made useless just because it is old, it is made useless by people who think that only "new" ideas deserve to be recognized.

Truth is diseases are not restricted to any particular country or nationality. If it isn't in your country yet, it's on the way. It can take a long time for diseases to travel, but travel they do, and they will continue to travel at an ever increasing rate speed caused by our ever increasing need to live a faster and faster life fueled by the diminishing returns that fast money always rewards it users with. One more thing, there is no such thing as slow money, it doesn't exist.

Studies show that a lot more studies need to be done to get a handle on the tick situation.

The New Jersey Long Horn ticks made it through the winter just fine. Apparently they have been here for years.

People who fill their yards with insecticides run the same risk of contracting Lyme disease as those who don't. Apparently the only thing being accomplished is enriching the pesticide business when it comes to ticks. Apparently the only line of defense is to put the stuff in your clothing and wear it all the time.

Doctors argue about what the best treatments are or even if chronic cases of tick caused illnesses even exist. Bug experts can't agree on which animals are most responsible for where the Lyme disease reservoirs are.

In the US, 3,000 to 10,000 people a year get mosquito borne diseases while 300,000 people get Lyme disease a year. That's only one disease carried by ticks. Yet the bulk of the money goes towards mosquito control and research. Its either very well covered or we might be barking up the wrong tree.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...

Worst year ever in my yard and home for ticks.

Researchers Study Thousands Of Ticks Collected By The People They Bit

There are no unified efforts to document the extent of tick populations, the diseases they carry or don't carry, the number of people bit, or the number of people treated. Unlike the mosquito which is nationally tracked by everyone and certain diseases such as malaria, are required by law to be reported. That is why the expected number of new cases of Lyme disease in the US this year is pegged between 30,000 and 300,000. Someone's gotta be wrong. Nothing compares to the ills of saving money, especially when applied with backwards priorities. The solution, don't ask if you got it, and your doctor will never give you a blood test to detect it. The trick is, you need around a half dozen or so tests to really test what you got from a tick if you got anything at all. If they fall off too soon, there is a really good chance that you never got anything from the tick as it was still inhaling.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-s...

Tiger mosquitoes spreading in Spain.

https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...

I'm reading that pet fleas are not only spreading and surviving winter in greater numbers, because winters are milder, but they are getting smaller. This makes them harder to dislodge by a comb or a pet's tongue.

Through no fault of their own, the insects are carrying what they are only finding in the environment, spreading what has become to be known as poor man's cancer.

Spain sees the above-mentioned mosquitoes intensifying.

https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...

More ticks. These are being spread by and spreading to the pig population. If you are a pig (no offence meant) you need to be really worried. Half of the world's pigs are in China apparently and swine fever spreads fast.

https://www.independent.ie/business/f...

" He said the spread reflects the global movement of pork and people but also the effect of tariffs and trade barriers, which sends those obtaining pork to seek out riskier sources. Dr Schipp said quality control is difficult for products such as skins for sausages, salamis and similar foods.

"Those casing products move through multiple countries," he said.

...An emerging issue in the crisis is a potential heparin shortage, Dr Schipp said.

"Most of it is sourced from China, which has been badly hit. There are concerns that this will threaten the global supply of heparin," he added. "

Heparin is a blood thinner and a pork product.

Heparin is also in cinnamon. It's strength varies from country to country. Supposedly Vietnam has the most heparin potent cinnamon. Puts a new slant on just what is our food is doing for us. Sometimes industrialized food and drug sources aren't always the best choice.

Ticks and the flu virus are viewed like they are invasive species. Both are a way of transferring genetic information. It is a natural function that has been around since life began. It has to have a purpose in advancing life. I doubt it is supposed to reduce populations for no apparent reason. One reason why it may not have such good effects is that the recipients may look like they are in good health but are not actually in the best of health. Because we have reduced the health of everything, we are the ones who now have to improve the health of everything, or we will reap some very poor results. It looks like it is coming down to literally cleaning up the way we act or everything alive gets free medical treatment. Cleaning up afterwards is not the same thing.

The ticks only pick up what is already in the world around them, they don't make up the diseases they carry. The bugs live in a dirty world we created, not the bugs fault. Like in don't shoot the messenger, instead, find out where the bad news is coming from and change it. Yeah right, nobody is going to change what they are doing until it generates a loss. In a mindless market driven economy, fewer means bigger profits for less, not a situation that will change anything.

More news about ticks. Yes, all around the northern hemisphere it seems, they are marching north; also marching up mountains.
Scientists are conducting experiments to find out exactly how climate change is affecting them.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-disease...

Thanks Claire. It's amazing how much the ranges of plants and animals have shifted in living memory. In Texas, the tropical thorn forest from Mexico has taken over much of the former open cattle range, with armadillos moving ever northward. But I worry all this movement is going to inspire generalized blowback, with climate-migrant plants, animals, and people all regarded as "invaders" to be walled out or eliminated. Maybe we'll hear calls for eradication dangerous invasive ticks from North American forests.

They are also moving south in some parts of North America, those are probably just expanding their territory into areas they aren't already found.

Ticks with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are now present in all of South, Central, and North America.

The ratio of warmer to colder is increasing in a lot of places which probably expands the territory the ticks are able to cover on their own in between cold spells. Our ever expanding commerce networks are also helping all insects to expand into new territories.

I think that ticks in the southern hemisphere are also moving south where possible, and probably most ticks are expanding in all directions as the climate change is more like swirls than horizontal zones.

Brian wrote: "Thanks Claire. It's amazing how much the ranges of plants and animals have shifted in living memory. In Texas, the tropical thorn forest from Mexico has taken over much of the former open cattle ra..."

The problem with eradicating 'new' flora and fauna, is that they are moving in because they can adapt and survive there, and the changes may be such that nothing else can after a time.