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An Invasive Tick That Can Clone Itself Is Spreading Across the U.S.
- throwaway290 3y agoIf it reproduces by cloning, it should be relatively easy to eradicate at once. You only need one specimen...
- Jtsummers 3y ago"Can clone themselves" but they don't always. They're also capable of sexual reproduction. The asexual reproduction is the part that's letting them spread so rapidly, though. So, no, you don't just need one specimen.
- rf15 3y agoWhat kind of approach do you see here? Yes you can create an infinite amount of samples to test on, but you still have to deal with the millions of copies in the wild.
- throwaway290 3y agoIf it's a copy of the same thing then any measure that works against one would work against all. Other ways of reproduction add randomness and mutations which make it difficult
- closetnerd 3y agoPoint being you gotta get your measure to the millions of other clones.
- zimpenfish 3y ago> any measure that works against one would work against all Modulo any environmental or self-mutation factors, I suppose? Might be that a tick which sucks blood from deer with XYZ picks up a parasite or bacteria which protects it against your measure. Or one crawls through some chemical goop / radioactive slop / gets hit by a cosmic ray etc. and gets a mutation which helps. (Both fairly unlikely, I'll grant, but when you're dealing with millions or billions of ticks, unlikely is likely to happen a lot.)
- throwaway290 3y agoYeah it would be modulo those.
- Angostura 3y agoI don't see why that is true at all. Aphids reproduce through parthenogenesis, killing aphids is still tricky.
- wiz21c 3y agoyou mean parthogenesis ?
- Angostura 3y agoI meant parthenogenesis. Thanks, fixed!
- throwaway290 3y agoBeing able to reproduce by parthogenesis (in addition to reproduction via mating) is not the same as only reproducing by cloning.
- otikik 3y ago- No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese fire ants. They’ll wipe out the ticks. - But aren’t the ants even worse? - Yes, but we’re prepared for that. We’ve lined up a fabulous type of spider that thrives on ant meat. - But then we’re stuck with spiders! - No, that’s the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the spiders simply freeze to death.
- Xylakant 3y agoEnter climate change and warming temperatures in winter.
- Ekaros 3y agoHave you seen any ticks on Venus or Mars? Didn't think so... So the climate change does solve the problem. Just have to take it far enough to combat these species.
- mettamage 3y agoThe US as a whole does not have cold winters. States like Florida would still have those spiders.
- hutzlibu 3y agoI don't understand this comment. Is it a joke? Why would the cloning matter? All of the clones can clone, which just means laying eggs without finding a mate.
- amelius 3y agoProbably because we know its entire genome?
- hutzlibu 3y agoSo you propose a genetically engeneered virus or bacteria to be released into the wild?
- throwaway290 3y agoYou say it like it was not done before (like with mosquitoes), except now there would be more chance of success because they wouldn't unexpectedly mutate. But anyway another comment says these ticks also can repro sexually so whatever
- Ekaros 3y agoWeren't mosquitoes about infertility? Making infertile ones that can't effectively reproduce. With something that can clone itself that isn't much of an hurdle...
- throwaway290 3y agoThe catch is that by mating they can randomly evolve resistance to the thing that makes them infertile I guess?
- hutzlibu 3y agoCan you link to such a trial? I only know of gm modified new insects, to take over and die (they reproduce a lot, but their offspring dies, so other normal reproduce less). But of a manufactored virus or bacteria I have not heard yet. And I think it would be way more dangerous.
- gardenhedge 3y ago"Though Asian longhorned ticks can carry diseases that infect humans, they are not yet considered a threat to human health in the U.S., per the statement"
- 2devnull 3y ago“Yet”?!
- rapjr9 3y agoThe US seems to have no defense against invasive pests, plant, animal or insect, it just lets them spread.
- ipsum2 3y agoYou only hear about the ones that do spread.
- traceroute66 3y ago> The US seems to have no defense against invasive pests, plant, animal or insect, it just lets them spread. A large portion of that is inevitably of the US's own doing through its love of intensive agriculture. Liberal use of hormones and antibiotics in animals, liberal use of pesticides etc. etc. Not saying no other country in the world uses antibiotics or pesticides, but the US does it more intensively and more extensively than almost any other country on the planet. You then end up having to fight fire with fire as things build up resistance.
- autoexec 3y agoGlobal warming isn't helping things either. Lots of pests that used to stay down south are marching north as the years warm.
- b112 3y agoA new mosquito appeared in Quebec late this fall. Tiny, 1/2 the size of our normal mosquitoes. I've never seen its kind before, and I've lived all over Canada. And yes, it wasn't a one-off, I've seen many, and a friend commented on the same. I imagine it is invasive. Bah.
- supertimor 3y agoProbably the Aedes aegypti. Super invasive mosquito species that are currently spreading across North America. They like to feed during the day and will bite a person several times for their blood meal. Their eggs can remain viable outside of water up to 8 months to a year and they require only a very tiny amount of water to hatch.
- bell-cot 3y agoComplaint, Journalism: There seems to be an endless supply of "Yet Another Tick Menace!" news stories. But none of those stories ever seem to mention what natural predators ticks might have.
- wiz21c 3y ago> to mention what natural predators ticks might have. Lazy to duckduckgo it: What are those predators ?
- sva_ 3y agoIt is often said that having chicken in the garden will decrease the tick population in that area. I personally am not convinced that this is due to the chicken eating them though - it is more likely due to the fact that the garden will be fenced keeping wild animals away (who spread them.) Chicken are also very territorial, so that adds to it.
- bell-cot 3y agoGuess: That will depend on the breed of chicken. "Optimized" modern breeds (high weight/low cost/fast-to-market) may be lacking in aptitudes (such as bug eating) which industrial-scale agriculture doesn't value.
- giantg2 3y ago"because they congregate in the thousands and can drain an entire animal of blood." I didn't think the blood loss was what kills. I thought it was a reaction to all the bites/saliva/pathogens.
- dirtyhippiefree 3y agoWhat if the hide is carpeted in ticks. This is the first tick species in America that can reproduce •without• pesky Needing to Find a Mate.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoSure, but that can already happen. It simply doesn’t.
- dirtyhippiefree 3y agoTicks reproducing by parthenogenesis. Name another species…
- giantg2 3y agoWith regular ticks, it's possible that longterm high rates of exposure causes anemia or heath issues from pathogens. I've simply never heard them cite blood loss from ticks as the acute reason. Supposedly a cow can loose 3L of blood at a time and ticks average about .5mL per feeding. So you'd need 6k fully engorged ticks to loose that much blood to cause problems, and more to actually kill them. I would think most farmers would notice something like that pretty quickly.
- strangesmells06 3y agoThis article makes it sound like the entire country is about to be infested by these ticks and they will kill all of the livestock and give everyone tickborn diseases. However these tics have been around since 2017 so I'm assuming there's some limitation that isn't mentioned in the article that has stopped them from taking over.
- pluc 3y agoThey just didn't have the proper marketing
- arbuge 3y agoIf they've been here only 7 years and are now found in states from Ohio to Connecticut (mentioned specifically in the article), I'd say the taking over is going pretty well for them. That doesn't mean they won't hit some natural limitation on their range at some point but it's not obvious to me they're there yet.
- onetimeuse92304 3y agoYou are probably mistaking ticks with viruses. Ticks are not viruses. Ticks have to travel from places to places and then spend a long time in one place to multiply and establish a colony. Ticks themselves do not fly, they need to be carried by the host animal. It takes time for them to travel long distances especially when the host is a farm animal that can't roam freely long distances. And even once they travel somewhere, it would probably take couple of seasons to spread locally and establish large numbers. So I see no logical contradiction by saying "these ticks have been around since 2017" and "entire country is about to be infested". The old math question asks, "Duckweed is spreading on a lake. It takes 1 year to double the area of duckweed. From start to end, it took 15 years to cover entire lake. Which year the duckweed covers half of the lake?" Exponential growth has this feature that for a long time it seems fine and then suddenly it is over as it overload's the physical capacity to handle it. And I would say 7 years to get to the current state is extremely fast rate and definitely cause for alarm in my opinion.
- strangesmells06 3y ago
- heikkilevanto 3y agoMisread the title as some kind of Tik-Tok chat that can clone itself and is spreading.
- pvaldes 3y agoPredators or diseases. Choose one