The summer of 2015 produced the perfect conditions for oak trees to produce acorns, the main source of food for white-footed-mice that live in Eastern forests. More food for these mice leads to an exploding mouse population. The white-footed mice are the most popular hosts for black-legged ticks, the main carrier of Lyme disease.
http://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/newswire/east-coast-will-lyme-disease-war-zone-year/
A sample of mosquitoes collected from a trap in Thousand Palms recently tested positive for West Nile virus They are the first mosquitoes in 2017 to test positive for the virus in all of California. The sample contained about 30 mosquitoes from a trap located on Varner Road between Cook Street and Monterey Avenue and the test was conducted in the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District lab.
Experts say warmer winters caused by climate change are allowing ticks to expand into new regions of the U.S.
Like a scene out of a horror film, adult western black-legged ticks (Ixodes pacificus) dangle on tips of grasses and other low-lying vegetation in their ghastly host-seeking posture called questing. In this stance, they spread their two front clawed limbs wide open and wait patiently for hours or even days for unexciting creatures to brash by so they can dig their metal-like mouthparts inside their host and gorge themselves on blood.
The nickname given to the insects that spread Chagas disease is somewhat bittersweet: kissing bugs.
Their name stems from the fact that they like biting humans around their lips and faces as they sleep, after which they defecate into the wound with feces that harbor an infectious parasite, Trypanasoma cruzi.
There’s no known cure for the Powassan virus so reducing the risk of being infected needs to be a top priority for all of us. Powassan is also sometimes fatal. It is spread by the same deer tick that carries Lyme disease and once you’ve been hit, it’ll attack your nervous system and cause your brain to swell.
http://wow1043.com/deadly-tick-carrying-brain-swelling-virus-in-idaho/?trackback=fbshare
A normal bedtime routine turned into a trip to the emergency room for an Oregon couple and their 3-year-old after she experienced partial paralysis because of a tick bite.
