13 votes

Climate change enters its blood-sucking phase - as winters grow warmer in North America, thirsty ticks are on the move

5 comments

  1. [2]
    DyslexicStoner240
    Link
    Man am I not glad this article didn't contain any pictures; I swear scrolling it while reading was excruciating. Everytime topics about parasites are mentioned I get flashbacks from this one...

    Rather, he exposed not the moose’s skin, but some 50 ticks that completely obscured it.

    This count would later produce an estimated infestation total of just under 14,000 ticks. This was actually far fewer than they often found [...]

    Man am I not glad this article didn't contain any pictures; I swear scrolling it while reading was excruciating. Everytime topics about parasites are mentioned I get flashbacks from this one reddit post I'm not going to search (because it'd just make my skin crawl) of a snake with gigantic ticks on it. I remember I insta-blocked the subreddit it came from that one time.

    In 2016, when much of the study area had received very little snow before January, 80 percent of the collared calves succumbed.

    If something so small as more ticks surviving winters can have this massive of an effect i don't see how anybody can not have a defeatist attitude when approaching Global Warming and other similar topics...

    Is there anyone on Tildes who works with wild animals enough to chime in with his own experience on this topic?

    4 votes
    1. crdpa
      Link Parent
      I had to google that snake with caution because i have some trypophobia. There's more than one case. I felt very sad for the snakes. I'm glad the ones i read about were treated and are fine now.

      I had to google that snake with caution because i have some trypophobia. There's more than one case.

      I felt very sad for the snakes. I'm glad the ones i read about were treated and are fine now.

      2 votes
  2. [3]
    tobylane
    Link
    Similar in Britain, the weather is bringing mosquitos and jellyfish. I can see cherry blossom right now and have seen birds that never used to come this far north.

    Similar in Britain, the weather is bringing mosquitos and jellyfish. I can see cherry blossom right now and have seen birds that never used to come this far north.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      rogue_cricket
      Link Parent
      In Canada we're having a tick problem as well. But not moose ticks - the issue is there's an aggressive variety of tick which bites humans, and it's showing up further north than it ever has. It's...

      In Canada we're having a tick problem as well. But not moose ticks - the issue is there's an aggressive variety of tick which bites humans, and it's showing up further north than it ever has. It's called the Lone Star tick.

      The real kicker is that its bites can in some cases cause people to develop a severe allergy to red meat.

      3 votes
      1. hhh
        Link Parent
        so climate change delivers a solution to climate change (/s). in seriousness, this kind of reminds me of the whole kudzu situation. it was brought over from japan as a gift, but wiped out cities...

        its bites can in some cases cause people to develop a severe allergy to red meat

        so climate change delivers a solution to climate change (/s).

        in seriousness, this kind of reminds me of the whole kudzu situation. it was brought over from japan as a gift, but wiped out cities worth of native plants because the winters are more mild in the southern us.

        2 votes