13 ms·

Tick-killing pill shows promising results in human trial

• webninja 3y ago
  If you could give this drug to Deer, cattle, horses, and other livestock, it would significantly reduce the tick population. Remember Lymes disease is caused by a tick biting a deer before it bites a human.
• shrubble 3y ago
  Ivermectin has been tested against certain ticks as well: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34656045/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34656045/
  • salad-tycoon 3y ago
    Been trying to figure out what to do with my liter of ivermectin. Thanks! Supposedly essential oils also kill ticks. I bought some yard sprays in addition to getting some tick hunting birds.
• lupusreal 3y ago
  > In most cases, a tick has to be attached for around 36 to 48 hours before the bacteria can be transmitted That's news to me.
  • goda90 3y ago
    Tick gut bacteria takes awhile, but tick borne viruses that multiply in their salivary glands, like Powassan virus, are much faster. 15 minutes transmissions.
  • CharlesW 3y ago
    I assume they're citing the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html
  • fooqux 3y ago
    It's one of those "the risk goes up the longer it's attached" type things. I can't find studies, but I presume it looks like a bell curve. I know there's also a much higher risk of contracting diseases if you can't remove the tick in a careful way. If you smoosh it, or otherwise cause it enough distress that it regurgitates while still attached to you, that will also increase your chances. If you live in tick areas, get a tick kit, people. They're cheap. Don't do what my dad did and use pliers.
    • bigbillheck 3y ago
      > It's one of those "the risk goes up the longer it's attached" type things. I presume it looks like a bell curve. These two statements contradict each other.
      • mjhay 3y ago
        Not if the GP is describing the rate of change of the probability of transmission as a bell curve. We can assume 0% transmission when the bite first occurs, and assume that chance gradually plateaus at some point. That would look like an S-shaped logistic curve, whose derivative is bell-shaped.
      • thehappypm 3y ago
        It doesn’t— Most tick bites take 36-48 hours before you get infected (bell hump). But sometimes you get infected quickly (left tail) and sometimes it takes longer (right tail).
        • happyopossum 3y ago
          That'd be an s-curve, as it's always going up - a bell curve goes up then down.
          • macintux 3y ago
            I suppose it depends on whether you’re charting the cumulative or the “instant” odds.
  • jajko 3y ago
    Its well known here for past decade. Maybe having wife working as a doctor helps, but this info is freely available. Also, if you ever interacted with any doctor with suspicion of a tick bite, this is first thing they ask. If you are outdoorsy type, this is should be around top of your list, just like knowing inside & out of say various mosquito-borne diseases and their spread vectors when traveling around.
  • thinkingtoilet 3y ago
    I live in Western Massachusetts and I can confirm this is objectively false. We have a ton of ticks here. You won't get lyme if it's on you for a few hours but if you get one on you and go to sleep you can get it by the time you wake up. It's more the longer it's on the more likely it is, but you absolutely can get it if it's been attached for only 12-18 hours.
    • thehappypm 3y ago
      How do you know? I also live in a tick area and typically when i have one tick on me, there are more if i look around for them.
      • xkcd-sucks 3y ago
        I realize there is confirmation bias here, but ticks always seem to cause pain and inflammation after being attached for a bit
      • thinkingtoilet 3y ago
        >How do you know? I've seen it happen multiple times, once to myself.
  • pwenzel 3y ago
    Chronic lyme patient here, been bit twice. The first time a deer tick was attached to me for roughly 6-8 hours. I got really sick. Here's a couple pictures next to a ruler and a penny to show how tiny the tick was: https://imgur.com/7YpvzRb.jpg https://imgur.com/7YpvzRb.jpg https://imgur.com/b5sUUO3.jpg https://imgur.com/b5sUUO3.jpg
    • bilsbie 3y ago
      Any treatments you’ve found to help? It’s a disaster trying to find info online.
      • voidmain0001 3y ago
        Doxycycline worked for my Lyme infection.
      • pwenzel 3y ago
        I have a local doctor in my area that specializes in Lyme care. Doxycycline, Minocycline, herbs, supplements, and sleep. I have also taken the path of acupuncture and medical cannabis for supplemental pain management. Overall I'm doing better now!
  • xkcd-sucks 3y ago
    Central MA, also can confirm this is false. Possibly RMSF or something other than Lyme, but you can definitely get sick from non engorged nymphs.
• nyjah 3y ago
  I’m in a rural area. For the last 3 years, we’ve had ticks. It was bad last year. Supposed to be really bad this year. I’m spraying permethrin this year. Unless someone here has a better idea..
  • sarchertech 3y ago
    Tick tubes. Permethrin sprayed directly will kill every beneficial insect as well and will just wash away after the first rain. Tick tubes are toilet paper rolls filled with permethrin soaked cotton balls. Rodents collect the cotton balls to use as nesting material which kills the nymph ticks that live on them before they can mature into adults. You put then out in early spring and again in summer. You can either make them yourself (much cheaper) or buy them ready made.
  • xofer 3y ago
    Chickens and other fowl, if allowed to free range for a couple of hours a day, will completely solve the problem.
• faitswulff 3y ago
  > Thanks to climate change and exploding deer populations, ticks are expanding their ranges—and carrying diseases with them. We’ve had our first run ins with ticks in our suburban Chicago backyard recently. They were never an issue before, and never literally just outside the door. I’m sure the unseasonably warm start to the year is to blame.
  • bmitc 3y ago
    I was under the understanding that any animal with fur or feathers can carry ticks. It's probably also an issue that smaller animals that eat ticks, like possums, are getting squeezed out. Ever since I found out that ticks carry a disease that makes you allergic to meat, I became extra worried about them. However, despite living in a major tick area, I've luckily never seen one. I just make it a point to wear long pants and sleeves when working in the yard and then immediately shower afterwards.
    • nucleardog 3y ago
      If you don’t mind some chemical treatments, a really effective combo is permethrin and picaridin. Pick a set of outerwear to be your yard work clothing. I’ve got a pair of overalls, a light long sleeve shirt, and a hat. Treat them with permethrin. This doesn’t repel ticks and mosquitos, but can actually incapacitate or kill them on contact. Tuck your pants in your boots, and sleeves in your gloves if you’re wearing any. Every time before you go out, spray yourself (particularly any exposed skin) with the picaridin repellent. I live in the middle of a forest that’s sitting on wetlands. The bugs are out of control here. I haven’t found a tick on me (not in me, on me at all) in years. I also get very, very few mosquito bites. (If you don’t want to go this crazy… just long pants tucked in and some picaridin repellent before you go out is all my wife does and she’s had similar results, though spends less time outside and less wandering through dense forest and stuff.)
  • op00to 3y ago
    Look into "tick tubes", which you scatter around your yard. Tick tubes have permethrin impregnated cotton inside them, which mice collect and use as bedding. Mice are a critical part of the tick life cycle. The permethrin kills ticks that feed on the mice, and over a season or two you can seriously eliminate infestations of ticks without indiscriminate pesticide spraying. The good thing is, we're just approaching the best time to apply tick tubes, early spring to summer.
• nightowl_games 3y ago
  I've lived in an area that has dog ticks (not the Lyme carrying ones). I've pulled dozens of ticks off myself. I've never once had one attach, always caught them in time. I got into archery during covid and would haul a target out onto some grasslands and shoot. My buddy and I would pull half a dozen ticks off ourselves at the end. I'd find ticks half dead on my car dash the next day. We bought "tick pants". Pants coated in some chemical that does something like this. Tuck them into our boots. No more ticks. Clothes coated in this drug seems like a good alternative to actually consuming the drug in my opinion. Also I've been trying to spot a tick in the wild before it grabs me and have never done it. I want to see a "questing" tick, ie one that is holding on to the edge of a blade of grass with its arms out trying to grab something.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • Workaccount2 3y ago
    It's called permethrin. Kills ticks but also kills cats, so be careful. I have heard that once it is dry, it isn't a threat to your little furry friend, but I still won't risk it.
    • afandian 3y ago
      And lots of other wildlife. https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/flea-mergency-pet-treatments-taking-a-bite-out-of-the-health-of-englands-rivers https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/flea-mergency-pet-t...
      • gryzzly 3y ago
        In Germany there is a spray based on eucalyptus oil and it works very well. it is marketed as “sensitive”. we have a dog that licks stuff and wanted to avoid the use of the acaricides
    • kamarg 3y ago
      It's also highly toxic to aquatic animals as well and does come off a bit when put in the wash.
• voisin 3y ago
  Having to take a pill every few weeks seems like a major impediment to use. I could see certain hikers or forestry workers taking these pills but for your average few weekends a season camper, this isn’t the right solution given the cadence with which you need to take the pill. What about the vaccine that was near approval a few decades ago?
  • objektif 3y ago
    Taking a pill day before you hike does not sound like too bad imo. I would looove to be able to not care about getting red meat allergy while hiking.
  • alt227 3y ago
    Sounds about the same as needing to take Malaria pills when going near the equator.
    • voisin 3y ago
      Right, but the average person would go on a trip requiring these pills very, very sporadically. Imagine going camping or hiking irregularly throughout the year but needing to take these pills 20+ times? Seems crazy to me when there was an effective vaccine at one point.
      • happypumpkin 3y ago
        Ticks carry a lot more than Lyme though, and many of the diseases they carry can have long-term or life-long effects. Even with a Lyme vaccine I think it'd be worth it to take these if you're gonna be in a tick-heavy area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powassan_virus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powassan_virus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_spotted_fever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_spotted_fever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babesiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babesiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome
      • resoluteteeth 3y ago
• inglor_cz 3y ago
  There is natural human immunity to ticks, though fairly rare. In those individuals, the immune system detects a biting tick and kills it. https://www.businessinsider.com/acquired-tick-resistance-why-some-people-immune-to-ticks-2023-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/acquired-tick-resistance-why... https://www.statnews.com/2023/07/31/acquired-tick-resistance-illness-vaccine-lyme/ https://www.statnews.com/2023/07/31/acquired-tick-resistance... That would be a superpower worth having. Perhaps a vaccine could confer this sort of immunity to us non-resistant folks?
• nazca 3y ago
  I have hunting dogs that will pickup hundreds of ticks if not protected. I use Bravcto (Fluralaner) on them now, which is extremely effective. Hopefully lotilaner is similar with humans. Most of the older generation of anti-tick meds have pretty substantial side effects and poor efficacy.
  • oldstrangers 3y ago
    Isoxazoline class drugs still come with a lot of risks for pets. https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/fact-sheet-pet-owners-and-veterinarians-about-potential-adverse-events-associated-isoxazoline-flea https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy...
    • pgcudahy 3y ago
      Not at normal doses. The therapeutic window is narrow, but they're used in millions of animals and we're not seeing an epidemic of seizures. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/toxicology/insecticide-and-acaricide-organic-toxicity/isoxazoline-toxicosis-in-animals https://www.merckvetmanual.com/toxicology/insecticide-and-ac...
      • oldstrangers 3y ago
        Merck, makers of Bravecto, say isoxazoline class drugs are safe... That's probably not a great source. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7738705/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7738705/ The consolidated FDA, Project Jake and EMA findings (Table 8) showed notable differences between survey populations regarding the percentage of neurological toxicity and serious AE, and fatal effects. Statistical analysis of these serious AE showed highly significant differences between the findings of the Project Jake survey and those reported by the FDA and EMA. While the number of death and seizure AE reported by the EMA was 7 to 10 times higher than those reported to the FDA, the reported responses for the Project Jake survey for death and seizures fell in between those of the FDA and EMA but aligned more closely with the EMA results. Furthermore, the number of reported death and seizure AE for lotilaner and spinosad were considerably higher than suggested with respect to their product labelling for potential neurological effects (Table 2 and and8).8). But yes, the drug is "generally" safe for use. It's still worth being aware of the potential risks.
• deanc 3y ago
  This will be game-changing if it works for the Nordics. Here in Finland, ticks are an ongoing nuisance carrying lyme and also TBE (which can be vaccinated against). They are almost unavoidable if you go into nature during the warmer months and walk past any bushes, or long grass. Finland is also covered in forest too, and they can often be found falling from trees on top of hammocks and tents.
• h00k 3y ago
  There was a vaccine on the market but was discontinued in 2002 by its manufacturer. I don't know reasons why. Pfizer currently has a Lymes vaccine study that I have some personal knowledge on that should be wrapped up in 2025: https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-valneva-complete-recruitment-phase-3-valor-trial https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-deta... > About the VALOR trial VALOR is an ongoing randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial which has enrolled 9,437* participants 5 years of age and older to receive VLA15 or a saline placebo (1:1 ratio). As part of the primary series, participants receive three doses of VLA15 within the first year at months 0, 2 and 5-9, and one booster dose 9-12 months after completion of the primary immunization.5 The final primary series vaccination for participants occurs just before the peak Lyme disease season for the region. Participants will be followed for the occurrence of Lyme disease. The trial is conducted at sites located in areas where Lyme disease is highly endemic across the U.S., Canada and Europe and has enrolled volunteers with a cleared past infection with Borrelia burgdorferi as well as Borrelia burgdorferi naïve volunteers.
  • icegreentea2 3y ago
    LYMErix was withdrawn because there were concerns it was inducing arthritis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870557/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870557/ There is lab data suggesting an interaction between LYMErix and certain genotypes potentially inducing arthritis, but the initial trial and post market surveillance data did not show any meaningfully elevated arthritis rates. However, post market surveillance was definitely hampered by the limited market uptake, fueled partly by the side effect concern. Genetic testing/screening should be significantly cheaper today, and the higher prevalence of ticks as a concern would probably mean that LYMErix could probably be a viable product today, even if its arthritis side effect profile was real, as long as it was combined with screening.
  • SigmundA 3y ago
    It was around the time when vaccine and Autism mania was at its peak: > Despite the lack of evidence that the complaints were caused by the vaccine, sales plummeted and LYMErix was withdrawn from the U.S. market by GlaxoSmithKline in February 2002, in the setting of negative media coverage and fears of vaccine side effects. The fate of LYMErix was described in the medical literature as a "cautionary tale"; an editorial in Nature cited the withdrawal of LYMErix as an instance in which "unfounded public fears place pressures on vaccine developers that go beyond reasonable safety considerations." The original developer of the OspA vaccine at the Max Planck Institute told Nature: "This just shows how irrational the world can be ... There was no scientific justification for the first OspA vaccine LYMErix being pulled. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease#LYMErix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease#LYMErix
• beefman 3y ago
  We should think bigger: gene drive to eradicate ticks.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • jncfhnb 3y ago
    The effort with mosquitos didn’t work. Forcing a gene with negative impact on survivability is touch
    • ed_balls 3y ago
      mosquitos are hard, but with ticks there are a few different vectors of attack. My understanding is that ticks first need to bite a rodent that is infected to spread Lyme, so maybe gene editing on rodents?
    • coryrc 3y ago
      Where has it actually been tried?
      • jncfhnb 3y ago
        Google it. They released female mosquitos with a bad gene and they almost immediately got selected out.
• bilsbie 3y ago
  Has anyone looked into giving these to mice and deer? That would kill off deer ticks really quickly.
• amelius 3y ago
  > The experimental pill that Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is testing is a formulation of lotilaner, a drug that paralyzes and kills parasites by interfering with the way that signals are passed between their nerve cells. Who knows what effect this has on signals between our own nerve cells. Yikes.
  • diggan 3y ago
    I think existing anti-tick chemicals works the same way, at least from my amateur understanding. Flumethrin (which is used as anti-tick in the collar we use for our dogs) targets the nervous system of parasites, which I understand to be the same approach as what Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is testing.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • pgcudahy 3y ago
    They target gamma-aminobutyric acid chloride channels (GABACl) that aren't present in mammals. There is a relatively narrow therapeutic index in animals, but generally felt to be safe at approved doses. They're given to millions of animals, so we'd probably know if there was a problem.
  • mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y ago
    Lotilaner is selective for mite GABA receptors. No activity has been found for mammalian receptors even at doses far above the ones in clinical use.
  • xkcd-sucks 3y ago
    It's easier and more plausible than a rat poison that doesn't hurt people; harder and less plausible than an antibiotic that doesn't hurt people; ultimately the proof is in the pudding. Personally I would not try this in a long lasting formulation, only something oral that washes out completely in a few hours, unless it had been on the market for quite a long time
    • amelius 3y ago
• sunshine_reggae 3y ago
  How do you get the tick to swallow the pill?
  • Pikamander2 3y ago
    Very carefully.
  • sideshowb 3y ago
    I read the headline as implying the humans died...
• cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  It seems to me that what we want is something like this but spread through the deer and mouse populations instead. Because in the case of lyme spreading ticks, their (complicated) lifecycle involves both of those populations. Deer carry huge populations of ticks. If drops of food laced with this kind of thing were given to deer, I'd expect it to drop the tick populations significantly. Without risk of human side effects. That and we need to cull deer populations and encourage predators of mice generally.
• DowagerDave 3y ago
  What's super interesting about Lyme disease is that the cycle is larval and nymphal ticks get infected from (typically) a rodent, then if they feed on a deer, not only does the deer not get infected, it appears to cure the tick. Also female ticks do not pass this on to their offspring.
• zzzeek 3y ago
  there's a vaccine for Lyme. I'd like that. not a pill that is literally poison, putting deet on our skin is bad enough.
  • josephcsible 3y ago
    There are a lot more tick-borne diseases than just Lyme.
    • zzzeek 3y ago
      of course, but Lyme is most prevalent and, I'd like vaccines for rocky mountain etc. as well, and there are efforts towards each (Well probably not for the alpha gal sensitivity caused by lone star ticks). there was an actual ready to go vaccine for Lyme, LYMERix, which was pulled because it was not profitable. That's the problem there, which is that vaccines should be made available even if they are not "profitable".
• mattwdelong 3y ago
  I bought property in 2021 with significant tick pressure. I’ve pulled dozens of ticks off me in the first couple years. The past two years I’ve been spraying Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and have seen significant improvement in that time. I have a tractor with a boom sprayer, which helps with large coverage. Obviously this is not a variable you can control in the wild, but for me, it has been super helpful on private land.
  • test1235 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterorhabditis_bacteriophora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterorhabditis_bacteriophora "Heterorhabditis bacteriophora is a species of entomopathogenic nematode known commonly as beneficial nematodes. They are microscopic and are used in gardening as a form of biological pest control." That's fascinating. Have you noticed any knock-on effects? E.g. fall in the number of other wildlife which might normally feed on those insects?
    • mattwdelong 3y ago
      Nothing of note. I still see plenty of turkeys, frogs and possums. I spray the beneficials so that it does not harm other beneficial insects and I assume if there is a healthy population of insects in general, there is still enough food source for wildlife. I can’t think of anything that prefers ticks as their main diet.
      • uticus 3y ago
        > I can’t think of anything that prefers ticks as their main diet. not 'main diet,' but can confirm free range guineas, chickens, etc help with the tick pressure.
• verisimi 3y ago
  > Tick-killing pill shows promising results in human trial Surely they could have given the treatment to ticks rather than humans? :)
• w10-1 3y ago
  No, no, no. Why bother killing the tick after a tick bite has delivered Lyme's Borrelia burgdorferi spirochete? Even if it's effective at killing ticks, it won't stop Lyme transmission. And for it to be effective at killing ticks, the human has to be completely steeped in this GABA channel blocker paralytic. The eye drops offer no real safety guarantees because the dosages are no where near comparable. The human study of surface skin had no data on bites and a short observation period of 6 weeks (roughly the 11-day half-life x 5 half-lives to wash out the dose?). ---- The reported cost for ophthalmic 10ml solution of 0.25% lotilaner/Xdemvy for mites is ~$2k. Reported adverse effects in dogs of lotilaner from 2013-2018 were only ~250, compared to 4k-18K for other drugs (no data on prevalence/usage). It works as a GABA channel inhibitor (neurologic paralytic), specific to mites and perhaps ticks. No effect found in mammalian cells at ~11K/daily dosage for the ophthalmic drops. Human blepharitis study had ~400 people in treatment arm over 6 weeks, ~50% effective. Half-life of 11 days. No reported reversal agent. So if it is toxic, you're out of luck. The optical solution is a tiny amount in the eyes, so little systemic exposure risk. The tick pill involves much more systemic exposure via blood, so the eye drop experience says almost nothing about risk to humans. I imagine the exposure to the tick from a blood bite is 10-1000x what it is from walking on the skin, so it's not clear to me this would stop lyme's Borrelia burgdorferi from being transmitted with the initial bite. So: no.
  • streptomycin 3y ago
    https://www.uptodate.com/contents/what-to-do-after-a-tick-bite-to-prevent-lyme-disease-beyond-the-basics https://www.uptodate.com/contents/what-to-do-after-a-tick-bi... > Even if a tick is attached, it must have taken a blood meal to transmit Lyme disease. At least 36 to 48 hours of feeding is typically required for a tick to have fed and then transmit the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
• oblib 3y ago
  I live in rural area of the Ozarks where there are a lot of ticks. Treating shoes and clothes with permethrin is the most effective way to keep them off you. And doing "tick checks" when you come inside your home is a habit here. Getting them off you fast is the best way to keep from getting lyme disease. And either burning off or grinding up and piling up all the leaves to make compost this time of year is the best way to get them out of your yard. I learned this the hard way. Here's a video of how bad they can get here and one of my first attempts at trying to get rid of them. It didn't really work very well: https://youtu.be/TFVDv8swzxQ?si=C4R064iTgRjdvSwv https://youtu.be/TFVDv8swzxQ?si=C4R064iTgRjdvSwv
  • ben7799 3y ago
    Your video is crazy. I have never seen anything like that up here in New England. That towel has more ticks on it than I've seen in my life, and we're not exactly a low-Lyme area. Good luck!
  • below43 3y ago
    I know it's not the intent, but this video is a very good advert for pesticides.
    • oblib 3y ago
      I did end up nuking the yard with pesticide that year. Since then I've ground up the leaves this time of year and pile them up to compost them. In spring and summer I bag grass clippings and stuff those into the pile of composting leaves and it's amazing how hot those clippings get. Hot enough to roast any ticks in there for sure. So for the past few years we've had almost no ticks at all during the warm season. And I haven't had to use any pesticides.
      • nicoburns 3y ago
        Have you considered keeping some tick predators (e.g. chickens)?
        • 3y ago
• projektfu 3y ago
  I tried to interest any researcher in using an isoxazoline as a method of malaria control by offering it to people infected with malaria to protect their villages. The idea would be that mosquitoes that bite infected persons would die, reducing the population of infected mosquitoes. Nobody wrote me back. If you are studying malaria and are interested in this approach, please run with it. I won't be sore.
  • mwpmaybe 3y ago
    They've been doing that with ivermectin in some parts of the world.
• 1letterunixname 3y ago
  Good start as another layer of defense with DEET, clothing, and such. The next iteration should be a pill that causes ticks to avoid humans altogether. Bonus points if there were a pill that also causes mosquitos to avoid humans.
• ecommerceguy 3y ago
  Its so crazy, and I've lived in rural areas, been hunting in Ozark woods, I've never gotten bit by a tick. A friend of mine was literally covered in them one day after shooting stuff, he put one on my hand and it jumped off. Needless to say he was jealous.
  • syedkarim 3y ago
    I thought ticks could not jump or fly.
• e40 3y ago
  Are ticks a new phenomenon? What about in the 1800s? Did explorers get them? How did they deal with them?
  • flurdy 3y ago
    I would suspect in earlier times they were not aware of why they got sick or had a fever. I think people are just not aware of how frequently ill the population was in general several hundred years ago, especially in cities, though not tick related.
• bee_rider 3y ago
  It is really impressive that they managed to get the ticks to eat the pills.
  • kstrauser 3y ago
    You have to put it in their little mouths and then rub their throats until they swallow it.
• alphazard 3y ago
  > The experimental pill that Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is testing is a formulation of lotilaner, a drug that paralyzes and kills parasites by interfering with the way that signals are passed between their nerve cells. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotilaner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotilaner Couldn't find a good description of mechanism of action on Wikipedia. I also have nerve cells that need to communicate and damaging them just to spite a tick seems counterproductive.
  • rozap 3y ago
    Not sure about the effects of lotilaner as described in the article, but flurolaner is the active ingredient in bravecto, a flea and tick medicine for dogs. There's a class action against the manufacturer as thousands of dogs have gotten seriously ill or killed from the drug. My 2 year old collie (no previous health issues) was poisoned and died after we gave her bravecto. She had several seizures within hours of giving her the dose and was dead within 48 hours. I'm surprised that similar sounding drugs are making their way to humans. I'm not a chemist and I'm not sure how similar lotilaner and flurolaner are, but damn if I'm not suspicious.
    • tazu 3y ago
      > My 2 year old collie (no previous health issues) was poisoned and died after we gave her bravecto. She had several seizures within hours of giving her the dose and was dead within 48 hours. That's awful and way too young. I hope the class action has a good outcome.
  • quatrefoil 3y ago
    I mean, we had this stuff for pets for a long time. The basic idea is that yes, it's a lipid-soluble neurotoxin. Because it is fat-soluble, it spreads throughout various tissues and lingers for a good while, which is these pet formulations last for weeks or months. And yes, it is technically a mammal neurotoxin too, although our bodies are better at compartmentalizing and managing the risk. Similarly, you don't drop dead if exposed to caffeine or nicotine, even though they are insect neurotoxins produced by plants to kill bugs. But it cracks me up that we are flipping out about herbicides such as glyphosate or 2,5-D - both of which are plant growth regulators that have no real mechanism to cause obvious harm in animals - but we're a lot more flippant with actual animal neurotoxins such as permethrin.
• BinaryBuddha 3y ago
  As in... it also kills humans???
• whyenot 3y ago
  Sign me up! As a botanist I used to work in some areas where it would not be unusual to remove hundreds of ticks from my field clothes in a day. Inevitably one or two would slip through.
• joe8756438 3y ago
  I’m outside a lot. Live on a farm in mid-atlantic US. I’m not opposed to chemical solutions, but I have a pretty effective mechanical approach to ticks [1]. Basically it takes advantage of a tick’s inclination to walk upward. Tuck your pants into socks and shirt into pants. Wear colors that contrast with the tick body and CHECK YOURSELF! 1. https://hedgerider.farm/blog/ticks-go-up/ https://hedgerider.farm/blog/ticks-go-up/
• cyberax 3y ago
  I grew up in an area where tickborne encephalitis is endemic. For those who don't know, tickborne encephalitis is a delightful viral disease, with 5% lethality rate and a real chance of neurological damage in case of recovery. Oh, and the virus also persists throughout the whole life and can re-activated by antibiotics or other kinds of immune stress. Our trips to the woods looked like a visit to a BSL-4 lab. Tightly buttoned shirts, long sleeves, checking each other after a visit, etc. Fuck ticks.
• nntwozz 3y ago
  I'm still waiting for nootkatone products to take off after reading about it in The Ultimate Hang back around 2011. "The active ingredient, nootkatone, is found in Alaska yellow cedar trees (also known as the Nootka cypress), some herbs, and citrus fruits. Biologists in CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases have found nootkatone to be an effective repellent and insecticide for use against ticks and mosquitoes." It's super effective and completely natural without any drawbacks, but apparently hard to synthesize on a commercial scale.
• deleted 3y ago
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• coderenegade 3y ago
  I grew up in an area with pervasive cattle ticks. I've pulled them off of myself, and pulled thousands from our dogs. My father claims to have once seen a lizard with a tick on its eyeball. Our solution was a bit of sulfur powder in the dog's food, and around the edges of the verandah, which was a home remedy suggested by the grey beards in the area. We never had any problems after that.
• dotBen 3y ago
  A lot of us didn't grow up with ticks but have moved to places like the Bay Area where we do get them. I think this serves as a good reminder that folks should be aware of common tick procedures like checking at the end of a walk if you have any and knowing how to remove them carefully (you don't just pull them, you have to get the mouthpiece out - tweezers are recommended). I've already had a tick bite this year from a walk in Marin county which is quite early. Fortunately, I felt it bite me and was able to remove it quickly. It's also worth noting you can get ticks tested for Lyme disease but it's about $40.
• berniedurfee 3y ago
  What’s the mechanism? You swallow a pill and it what? Enters your bloodstream and eventually makes its way out of the pores on your skin all over your body? For weeks?
• bbsz 3y ago
  I've browsed through the topic. Here in central europe ticks are a massive problem. Lyme's caused serious year long health issues for a family member. It also almost killed my dog when he caught one of his first ticks ever. I also do "checks", avoid tall grasses and have the whole system for management of my family's "tick security" (sometimes with their complain in the background). However, studying this problem basically every single summer I once found the alternative explanation as to why tick population today explodes globally in moderate climates. Collapsed deer predator population[0]. Deer and small rodent populations are unchecked because predators can't thrive in ecologically stressed areas (There's little to no wild forests of enough of the size for wolf in most of Europe). Herbivores had far easier time adapting to the transformed environment compared to their natural predators. They also get less hunted by humans, obviously. [0] https://hal.science/hal-03015707/document https://hal.science/hal-03015707/document (ctrl+f > "tick") No amount of DEET will solve that. There's also no need to CRISP'r anything or spend a decade of research on poor quality vaccination. This is system's fragility problem. Then again... ticks were a very common occurrence for the first settlers in North America. There're diary entries mentioning them "in swarms" explicitly. But, what's different today is that you don't need to be even close to a deer trail to get 23 ticks of your dog after the walk.