Ticks need to be controlled

When I was young wood ticks were a nuisance and going outdoors in the summer — especially if you spent time in the woods and in tall grass — meant tick checks before bedtime.

The ticks were relatively harmless, other than giving me serious heebie jeebies.

I remember once my sister had a tick that got dug into her head. My parents used hot matches to get the tick to back out so its head wouldn’t remain in her scalp. I don’t know what would happen if the head remained in her scalp, but I sure didn’t want to find out.

We also spent a lot of time pulling ticks off of our pets.

Today’s ticks, especially the lone star tick, are more deadly.

As you might have heard, a bite from the lone star tick can cause alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), which is a potentially life-threatening allergy to alpha-gal that can develop after a tick bite. People with AGS can have allergic reactions after eating red meat or being exposed to food containing alpha-gal, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“More than 110,000 suspected cases of AGS were identified between 2010 and 2022. However, cases of AGS are not nationally notifiable to CDC. The actual number of AGS cases in the United States is not known, but as many as 450,000 people may be affected,” according to the CDC.

If we don’t want to live in a world where people can’t eat red meat because of AGS, we need to invest more money into controlling ticks or developing vaccines to prevent the condition.

I have read several articles about President Trump pulling back research funding. I don’t know if it is true because the mainstream media seems hell bent on discrediting him at every turn. But, if it is true, he needs to fully fund research into lone star ticks and ASG.

Remember when we thought we had to deal with swarms of mosquitoes ruining summer outings? That came to an end in many communities, especially after it was determined that they spread West Nile virus. Larvicides were developed to treat water and kill mosquito larvae and pupae and adulticides to kill adult mosquitoes.

Although we haven’t eradicated mosquitoes, we do have a level of control that we can be comfortable with.

We need to make the same efforts in regards to ticks, and quickly.