5 ms·

This 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 di

This 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 ago
They just didn't have the proper marketing
arbuge 3y ago
If 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 ago
You 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
  My understanding of exponential growth is that if a tick produces a thousand offspring every year over 7 years you would have around 1e+21 ticks. The milky way is only 1e+18km wide. This would suggest at present our solar system should be a massive sphere of infinitely expanding ticks dwarfing out all light, life and matter and further expanding into the cosmos and in another few years of tick exponential growth will overwhelm the milky way with tick mass, and then eventually not long after the entire universe will just become a large sphere of infinitely expanding ticks. And apprently ticks can reproduce more than 1000 offspring and also can live more than one year so this is a conservative estimate. Unless the big bang was tick based....something's not adding up here. Or possibly you and the journalist dont fully appreciate how big exponential growth really is.
  - dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
    Available resources…that’s the term you lack… Ticks don’t care about the Tragedy of the Commons (livestock grazing one area with multiple owners not responsible for the land means they eat everything). Tick population will level off once the resource (blood) is maxed out.
    - strangesmells06 3y ago
      So according to my original comment observation, there are limitations on this tick growth which the article leaves out in favor of fear based journalism. Because they leave out important info it makes it hard to judge appropriate response which makes it clear clickbait to be ignored.
      - onetimeuse92304 3y ago
        So yes, there are limitations on this tick growth. The article does not leave it -- they mention ticks essentially draining cows from their blood. This is the limit of how many ticks a cow can support, biologically.
  - 3y ago
bobmaxup 3y ago
> give everyone tickborn diseases. From the article: > 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.
- dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
  Having livestock drained of blood is the threat to human health. We need to eat.
  - SkyPuncher 3y ago
    No it’s not. These ticks are not going to drain herds of cows. Tick-borne disease is the primary risk. It only takes one bite to get a pretty severe disease. If these don’t carry the tick-borne diseases, they’re a nuisance but not a huge risk.
    - dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
      You may have missed the word Exsanguination…and the fact they don’t need to mate to reproduce…
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

pluc 3y ago

They just didn't have the proper marketing

arbuge 3y ago

If 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 ago

You 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
My understanding of exponential growth is that if a tick produces a thousand offspring every year over 7 years you would have around 1e+21 ticks. The milky way is only 1e+18km wide. This would suggest at present our solar system should be a massive sphere of infinitely expanding ticks dwarfing out all light, life and matter and further expanding into the cosmos and in another few years of tick exponential growth will overwhelm the milky way with tick mass, and then eventually not long after the entire universe will just become a large sphere of infinitely expanding ticks. And apprently ticks can reproduce more than 1000 offspring and also can live more than one year so this is a conservative estimate. Unless the big bang was tick based....something's not adding up here. Or possibly you and the journalist dont fully appreciate how big exponential growth really is.
- dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
  Available resources…that’s the term you lack… Ticks don’t care about the Tragedy of the Commons (livestock grazing one area with multiple owners not responsible for the land means they eat everything). Tick population will level off once the resource (blood) is maxed out.
  - strangesmells06 3y ago
    So according to my original comment observation, there are limitations on this tick growth which the article leaves out in favor of fear based journalism. Because they leave out important info it makes it hard to judge appropriate response which makes it clear clickbait to be ignored.
    - onetimeuse92304 3y ago
      So yes, there are limitations on this tick growth. The article does not leave it -- they mention ticks essentially draining cows from their blood. This is the limit of how many ticks a cow can support, biologically.
- 3y ago

bobmaxup 3y ago

> give everyone tickborn diseases. From the article: > 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.

dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
Having livestock drained of blood is the threat to human health. We need to eat.
- SkyPuncher 3y ago
  No it’s not. These ticks are not going to drain herds of cows. Tick-borne disease is the primary risk. It only takes one bite to get a pretty severe disease. If these don’t carry the tick-borne diseases, they’re a nuisance but not a huge risk.
  - dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
    You may have missed the word Exsanguination…and the fact they don’t need to mate to reproduce…
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]