Unusually aggressive lone star ticks, common in the south-east, are spreading to areas previously too cold for them
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Nature will always win.
Yep, don’t fuck with nature.
Every time I go hiking with my dog I pull one of these little bastards off his fur. I cover him in permethrin, as well as every inch of my clothing, shoes and hat, so I’m not SUPER stressed about it, but it’s still annoying. A couple days ago I found one in his tail floof (he’s a golden so it’s a giant poof.) The tick was near dead already by the time I got it untangled from his fur thanks to the permethrin though. Usually I spot the ticks on him either because they’re on his head (where they’re easy to spot immediately), or because they got tangled in his fur and couldn’t jump off. I’ve never once seen one bite him thankfully.
It’s wild to me because I have only seen other kinds of ticks twice so far this season, but otherwise it’s all lone star ticks, which are not supposed to be the most common where I am. They’re definitely more prominent this year though. Of all the tick diseases, alpha-gal terrifies me the most, so I’m not thrilled by this increase in lone stars.
Well, the upside is less meat consumption is good for the environment I guess.
And so their task force begins…
Funny, humanity contributing to the reduction of the climate crisis by increasing the number of ticks causing people to become allergic to meat, meaning less demand for meat, meaning less greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere as cattle becomes less profitable.
Life, uh, finds a way.
One time I saw a lone star tick crawl into the headphone jack of my phone.
I tried everything I could think of to get it out, to no avail. Then I googled two things:
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What eats ticks?
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Guinea hen mating sounds
After fifteen seconds of guinea hen sounds, I watched the tick crawl out of my phone… and immediately disappear.
Oh buddy, you should have killed it. ☹️ Stomped it out. Not only is there the meat allergy thing, but idk, they can probably still carry Lyme Disease & that’s a real bitch.
Do you have experience with ticks? You can’t stomp them. They’re too small and flat with hard shells and don’t squish. They have to be cut in half, burned, or drowned. Some people can kill them with their fingernails, but mine are too short.
I found two of them on my body later that night and killed them with tweezers. Or fire, I don’t remember which.
Also, deer ticks carry Lyme disease, not lone star ticks.
I assume they would have, if it didn’t immediately disappear
The tick is now living outside of the environment.
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The syndrome is not caused by a pathogen but spurs an allergy to a sugar molecule found in mammals and an array of other things, from toothpaste to medical equipment.
Lone star ticks are aggressive and can speedily follow a human target if they detect them. “They will hunt you, they are like a cross between a lentil and a velociraptor,” said Sharon Pitcairn Forsyth, a conservationist who lives in the Washington DC area.
A particular horror is the prospect of brushing up against vegetation containing a massed ball of juvenile lone star ticks, know as a “tick bomb”, that can deliver thousands of tick bites. “They are so tiny you can’t see them but you have to take it seriously or you’ll never get them off you,” said Forsyth, who now carries around a lint roller to remove such clusters.
thats fucking terrifying. imma stay inside
Many years ago my dog brought in a tic bomb, and got into bed with me. I awoke to my left arm and hand covered in so many sesema seed sized tics I could not even see my skin.
It took hours to get them off me and my dog.
I dodged a bullet cause I didn’t get any illnesses, nor did my dog.
I’m still freaked out though.
Why did I read this in bed
Straight nightmare fuel, Jesus Christ mate…
This happened to me once (with deer ticks, not lone star) while I was having a nice walk in the woods high on shrooms. Worst trip of my life.
😱 😱 😱 !
Don’t worry. The meat industry will find a cure fast
No crap. Republicans will be requiring vaccinations
The cows are delighted.
And the vegans
And my Ox.
I know in Arkansas a ton of people have been getting this. I knew a guy that lost nearly 100 pounds after getting it. His diet really changes.
Its all natural Ozempic!
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it can be treated with great success using Chinese medicine.
lol
What’s the treatment?
Several practitioners are having a lot of success testing it as an allergy, which it is. Mods deleted my commment but look it up, I have a family member who practices Chinese medicine and acupuncture in the US and treats people will alpha gal all the time.
Those naughty mods.
Gaia hits back.
Vegans:
Honestly, I feel like this is a big fuck you from mother nature, telling us that our industrial farming practices, that are contributing so heavily to climate change, are now worth fuck all. And I am very much not a vegan.
You could join us before the ticks make you :)
I knew they were behind this.
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Ticks can give you fuckers shitty diseases too, so hop off your soapbox buddy.
Yeah, but all ticks can do that. The “meat allergy ones” are a species that is only moving now because of climate change, which in no small part is also caused by emissions from factory farming.
Meat allergy? Unpleasant but ironically good for the environment.
After reading the article I hope they seek out and bite Donald Trump. Wouldn’t that be hilarious if this caused him a meat allergy?
He would starve from hamberder deficiency
He’d live way longer if he stopped eating McDonald’s
Only if statins have been invented. 40 years ago he’d have been cooked, but now the cholesterol riddled assholes live for-fucking-ever
McDonalds would have to admit that there’s actually no real fish in a filet o fish.
Unfortunately for this, the Alpha-gal allergy is only in response to mammalian proteins. Fish and birds are fine. Unless the filet o fish is secretly cat.
Not only the environment, the overall Americans health too. Each year, 700 000 Americans are dying from heart diseases.
heart diseases
There’s more than one? Is this like Second Breakfast?
It would be way easier to be a cardiologist if there were only one.
Of course not, next thing you’ll say is that there’s more than one type of cancer!
Yes. Yes it is.
But I’m made of meat!
Yeah, Lyme Disease can potentially cause that. It’s weird they’re saying “meat allergy” and not lyme disease, but lyme is pretty bad and can cause lifelong complications (post-treatment lyme disease syndrome)Edit: guess I’m wrong
lyme is caused by deer ticks and its a bacterial spirochetes, theres actually a whole cult against chronic lyme which is a pseudoscientific belief thats incurable.
The lone star tick actually usually does not carry Lyme, you are thinking of deer ticks. This is an entirely different condition that is caused by an allergic reaction to the lone star ticks saliva which your body confuses with carbohydrates found in most mammalian meats leading to a long term meat allergy.
Maybe its Mother Nature way of making us stop consuming beef and all become vegan? I mean nature finds a way. The cattle industry is a huge contributor to climate change, so maybe this is a good thing.
Of course if this was to affect everyone, you see how quickly the government would fund a cure. Interesting novel idea…going give that a think.
As an act of revenge on the ticks, we will switch to insect protein.
It wouldnt be pushing people to veganism, considering there are plenty of animal products you could consume even if youre allergic to meat.
Also there are a lot more types of meat than beef. I eat meat often and hardly ever eat any beef
Also there are a lot more types of meat than beef.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome
The alpha-gal molecule is found in all mammals except catarrhines (apes and Old World monkeys), the taxonomic branch that includes humans.
Sounds like you could still eat fish, human and chicken (and other bird) meat as usual.
Bring on the lizard meat
That why nature gave us birdflu. So take chicken off the menu as well. That just leaves apes and ourselves.
It’s like nature is telling us to switch to a seafood and the rich only diet.
Not, entirely correct. Alpha-gal syndrome is not a meat allergy. Gelatin, Glycerin and Magnesium stearate all contain high levels of it and are found in products as diverse as makeup, candy, shampoo, vape juice, energy drinks and toothpaste. High levels of alpha-gal are found in Milk and Milk products. All mammalian meat, organ meat, lipids and derived products. You check labels for the rest of your life if you have this and you’ll probably still come into contact with it out in the wild. You get Fish, Eggs and poultry. That’s only guaranteed if you buy the meat on its own, free from seasoning and cross-contamination. You don’t eat in a restaurant anymore, unless it’s sushi.
My wife has had to follow a low FODMAP and gluten free diet for the last 6ish years. It’s miserable and I wouldn’t wish such a vast allergy as this on anyone. I know there are plenty of haughty taughty vegans in this thread making jest, but these kinds of allergies fucking suck and I guarantee vegans consume shit that has these compounds without even realizing, since like you said, it exists in far more than just basic meat-based foods.
It works against dairy, too
It’s certainly the strongest argument for gaia hypothesis in decades
Oh I think that a solid theory. Maybe why we are busy killing ourselves off. Maybe Gaia knows us humans are the major problem with all the shit going on and wired us to kill ourselves off.
We’re wired to kill ourselves off. She’s just sick of us fucking up the environment with industrial farming methods.
Add in birdflu and man we could see a new era of man kind all being vegetarian. Btw I was working on a novel that contains birdflu and found a way to incorporate this into it.
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They don’t refer to it as Lyme because it’s a different issue. It just happens to also be spread by ticks. Lyme disease and Alpha-gal Syndrome are different things but are sometimes comorbities since both are commonly spread by ticks.
If you bothered to read the article, you’d have known this was Alpa-gal Syndrome, not Lyme.
Payback for turning the frogs gay
Our vegan super soldiers are unaffected.
