The latest news about entomology, brought to you by the Entomological Society of America
Millions of years of evolution have made ticks highly specialized bloodsuckers. In fact, researchers who have studied tick saliva have found a range of compounds that fight back host defenses like clotting and tissue repair and allow ticks to feed for extended periods. In another context, though, those same chemical properties could be seen in […]
A long-term study of managing Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) shows that clearing the invasive shrub from a wooded area once can lead to a significant reduction in abundance of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) for as long as six years. Published last week in Environmental Entomology, the new research follows up on previous findings of the […]
A new species of bacteria that causes Lyme disease needs the same amount of time for transmission after a tick bite compared to previously implicated bacteria, according to new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Existing guidelines for frequent tick checks and prompt removal of attached ticks remain the same. The […]
By Leslie Mertz If you have ever found a deer tick crawling on your shirt or sock, you know how difficult they can be to spot. Adult females are about the size of a small freckle and nearly as flat (at least until they begin feeding and plumping up on your blood), and immature ticks—the […]
Ticks have been pathogen-carrying parasites for a very, very long time. A new discovery in a specimen of fossilized amber, roughly 15 million to 20 million years old, reveals a tick encased adjacent to mammalian blood cells infected with microbes resembling those in the order Piroplasmida. Today, related pathogens are known to cause Babesiosis and […]
