This might sound like a sci-fi summer movie, but it’s real life for US residents now. The Asian longhorned tick is feeding on America’s wildlife and livestock – and it’s the scariest tick you ever heard of!
Warmer wintertime temperatures are allowing ticks to live longer in the United States, and that includes accidentally-imported ticks, such as the Asian self-cloning tick that I have been reading about.
Reputable tick control companies are now offering tick tube programs, which effectively eliminate ticks by-proxy through nesting efforts of mice in the “off season.” Mice will create their nests with cotton that has been treated to kill ticks. The cotton does not hurt the mice, but when a tick bites one of the mice, who have nested with this treated cotton, it receives a lethal dose of the tick control treatment. These extra measures are becoming commonplace measures in the Central Mass fight against these blood-sucking invaders, including the Asian longhorned tick that has us more worried than ever about effective tick protection.
What’s so scary about the Asian longhorned tick?
Not only does this thirsty tick having cloning abilities – females can reproduce without a male – but these tick clone armies are killing livestock by blood loss! A recent report of young bull in Surry County, NC, who was covered with one thousand longhorned ticks, was drained of his blood supply, causing acute anemia (usually associated with hemorrhaging). If this doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will!
This deadly, self-cloning tick was first reported in the United States in 2017, and has since been identified in at least 10 US states, including: North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and Arkansas. It’s likely already in other states too, including Massachusetts, but just has not yet been reported and identified!
Longhorned ticks also spread diseases!
Though their cloning abilities and blood-sucking capabilities are the scariest bits about this hungry Asian import, the longhorned tick is known to spread tick-borne illnesses, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted fever.
The good news is that these thirsty tick-clone armies are eliminated with the same Central Mass tick control treatments used to kill other ticks! I recommend protecting your home and family year-round with professional tick protection measures, including a tick control program! An effective tick control spray can be applied to your property, eliminating ticks on contact, and continuing to work for up to three weeks – killing up to 95% of the ticks in and around your property.