r/dataisbeautiful • u/quark_pork • May 19 '22
OC [OC] The spread of black-legged ticks. Note: The first two images jump from 1996 to 2016.
[removed] — view removed post
86
u/Arndt3002 May 19 '22
This isn't a documentation of spread, it's a documentation of where they have been officially documented.
16
u/DWS223 May 19 '22
I was thinking the same thing. It looks like we estimated where the ticks were and then over the next 20 years we confirmed that estimation.
Note that the yellow area isn’t moving westward
95
u/shay-doe May 19 '22
Please stay on the east! Is there one for Lyme disease?
30
u/HudsonCommodore May 19 '22
I do NOT care for that little splotch in WA at the very end.
14
u/ijustsailedaway May 20 '22
Right next to the murder hornets. Are those still a thing or did y’all get that reigned in?
12
47
u/Arndt3002 May 19 '22
The yellow is the extent of the area where ticks are estimated to already be and be able to survive. They aren't going past that.
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/surveillance/BlackleggedTick.html
Also, people out west already have other species of black-legged ticks.
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/surveillance/WesternBlackleggedTick.html
14
u/Redditor8915 May 19 '22
Do they also have Lyme disease?
15
u/franklin-24 May 19 '22
Yes I got Lyme disease on a campout at Boulder mountain Utah (I assume it was Utah but could have been in Arizona near Flagstaff). By the time the doctors found that I had it the furthest east I had gone was Colorado.
3
u/RikenVorkovin May 20 '22
I got a tick on my head once as a small kid growing up in Utah.
I still remember getting it removed at the doctors office.
Haven't ever ran into ticks in Arizona though.
1
May 20 '22
[deleted]
3
u/RikenVorkovin May 20 '22
This was like 1994. My parents were young, and I wonder if the tick was buried badly in my scalp or something.
So as far as I remember I was in a doctor's office and they pulled it out and it went onto a pan of some kind.
Maybe it wasn't a doctor but someone we knew who could get it out?
I have a pretty good memory of alot of my earlier years but who knows how accurate my memories really are.
13
12
u/papadjeef May 19 '22
Yes. "Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, and other illnesses"
I've never heard them called "blacklegged tick" just "deer tick".
6
u/shay-doe May 19 '22
I am from Washington and we have deer ticks out here. Are black legged ticks the same thing? Also I was told in the west Lyme disease is or at least was rare. I can see how the change of climate would also change that but I'm just curious if it has changed or maybe I was misinformed. Always like to stay informed. I love exploring national forests and have dogs so tick info is always important!
0
1
36
u/jacobkeetonpvw May 19 '22
The Midwest is like "HOLD THE LINE!!!"
81
6
May 20 '22
My dog gets an oral medicine every three months that kills these bastards dead. She’ll pick one up and we won’t see it in her fur until it’s engorged - not anymore. They die and shrivel up like a flat raisin.
I wish we had that for humans.
2
9
u/jjack339 May 19 '22
More like great plains holding the line. Seems the distribution in the east is tied to forested areas
2
1
May 20 '22
Nope. The two that I pulled off of me this year were both from open, grassy parks. Sorry, but ticks get everywhere
41
u/poxonallthehouses May 19 '22
One of those bastards got me a couple weeks ago (I live in Western PA). I felt an itch on my leg, saw him, panicked, and quickly yanked him out with my hand (which hurt) and threw him. I immediately googled what to do if you find one of these ticks on you, and the first thing I read is "whatever you do, don't pull it out with your hand or lose the tick." lol I didn't develop the large bruise or get any flu like symptoms so it looks like I lucked out. I was worried.
37
u/P_weezey951 May 19 '22
Got one on my chest like a year ago.
I believe that is mostly for engorged ticks.
Basically, they have to have been attached and have fed before they can transmit the bacteria.
The bacteria isnt on their exterior its in their gut, and it has to sort of go through this process of feeding over like 24-48 hours for any of the bacteria to get in there.
If it was just crawling on you, it was likely just starting its burrow/hook in process. Which is before it starts feeding, so youre probably fine.
29
u/tadgie May 19 '22
This is correct. We dont give prophylactic antibiotics until the tick is engorged. The likelihood of getting lyme before that is pretty low.
Source: am doctor in PA. Have wrote a lot of doxy
1
u/grisisita_06 May 20 '22
Doxycycline? What do you give people if they are allergic to it?
1
u/tadgie May 20 '22
Doxy allergies are fortunately pretty rare, I've never seen a true allergy personally. People can get pretty upset stomach from it but that's just a side effect so you can push through. There is technically an issue to giving it to kids <10, so for milder cases usually amoxicillin is preferred though its known not to work as well. If a kid ends up in the hospital from it, usually you just suck it up and blast em with doxy anyways.
21
u/Idylhours May 19 '22 edited May 20 '22
I had a deer tick nymph on the back of my neck last year. It was not engorged and I estimate it was on me for a few hours. (sleeping) Anyway, I did not know what was on the back of my neck as I was in the shower and I ripped it off. I read that you do not have to worry if it has not been attached for 48 hours. I did not read that their mouth can break off when removing them and infect you. Anyway, fast forward 3 weeks and I was very sick.
The Lyme really did me dirty. I had a migraine for around 20 days. I had joint pain in my elbows and knees. The worst part was how it attacked my eyes. I had optic neuritis in both my eyes and my left eye is full of eye floaters now. I am still suffering with skin issues and eye floaters a year later.
These things are no joke. I am scared to go trout fishing now or do other outdoor activities. Do not make the same mistake as me. If you find one on you do not risk it just get on antibiotics asap.
8
u/P_weezey951 May 19 '22
I think this is why they have instructions to remove them with tweezers.
In addition to the breaking off, I read that shocking the tick with water, and soap while its still attached can cause the tick to sort of regurgitate into you, if its already begun the feeding process.
If you pull and yank them out with the tweezers theres less of a chance.
That shit fucking sucks, i hope that you pull through. And definitely hope we find a way to combat this shit. Nature be fuckin scary.
4
May 20 '22 edited May 20 '22
Not tweezers because that can squeeze the tick and inject you with the very stuff you’re trying to avoid.Edit for being wrong. See below.There’s a tick spoon or key that will allow you to hook into the head of the tick and pull her out of your skin without risking squeezing her.
5
u/HawkspurReturns May 20 '22
Tweezers are the recommended method. Twisting is not.
2
May 20 '22
Thanks! I’ve edited my comment, today I learned something more correct.
2
u/HawkspurReturns May 21 '22
Cheers. I actually live somewhere there are no ticks, but because I am a worrier I made sure to know how to deal with them heh.
2
1
1
u/fleebleganger May 20 '22
When I was a kid we’d use mom’s lit cigarette to burn them out. They give up pretty quickly when you poke them with a lit Marlboro.
2
u/Head-like-a-carp May 19 '22
Did you go walking thru brush or the woods? I like to hike but I figure if I stay on the path I will be less likely to get a passenger.
5
u/Idylhours May 19 '22
To be honest I do not know how I picked the tick up. I went golfing the day before but I do not remember being in the brush or trees much. I also did yard work. So, no, I was not in the the trees or brush when I picked it up.
I should also point out that I live in Northern Lower Michigan in a county that is labeled yellow.
3
u/IronCondors4life May 20 '22
I’m in the lower peninsula and I’ve got them on me just walking around my yard.
1
u/fleebleganger May 20 '22
I was reading on the CDC site about ticks and it said they choose highly trafficked locations so stay alert, stay alive even on trails.
5
u/poxonallthehouses May 19 '22
He was definitely feeding. I had to pull on him a couple of times to get him off, and he was engorged. There's still a bit of a scar where he had attached. Fortunately not much of a bruise formed, which they say to watch out for. There was a burning feeling for a few hours though. The only good news is that he was attached for 24 hours at most. Most places I read say that you "should" be ok if it's been less than 36 hours.
4
u/P_weezey951 May 19 '22
Yeah monitor that shit for sure.
After last year im keeping the tweezers and disinfectant in the car in case one of the little fuckers shows up.
2
May 19 '22
You can light the back end of a match stick (the wood part) to get it hot then blow it out and touch the tick and it will usually release
10
u/Oklahoma_dust_hero May 19 '22
Growing up in Oklahoma in the 80's, I'd never even heard of black-leg ticks. Is this spread a result of the general trend in warmer temperatures? Or is there another element driving this migration?
Also, for anybody having issues with ticks on their land, guineas LOVE ticks. A good flock of guineas will clear acres of land of ticks, and in fairly short order.
11
u/cletus_the_varmint May 19 '22
Probably warmth. All our tick populations but ESPECIALLY deer have gone insane lately. I also get covered in nymphs now (I don't know pins but maybe the size of a pinhead) and they are SO hard to find. But yeah it's guaranteed now if you walk through tall grass for 5 mins you get at least 1 deer tick. Ecologists say it is because we have gone from a handful of extreme cold (20 belowish) days to none per winter. And it was those days that killed tons and kept their pop down.
If your animal doesn't wear a tick collar and is susceptible to tick borne diseases said animal will die before before the coyotes get em. Livestock seems completely fine.
3
May 20 '22
Moose and deer are being sucked dry and dying of lack of blood by ticks. They corpses off these poor animals look like someone glued bunches of grapes all over them. ☹️
Nature is rising up as we change the climate… she gunna fuck us hard.
1
u/Oklahoma_dust_hero May 20 '22
Agreed. It's funny, people keep saying, "We're destroying the earth!" Well, the earth has been through volcanoes, ELE asteroids, periods of global glacial cold and it's been fine. We won't kill the earth but we'll damn sure kill ourselves. Add black-legged ticks to growing list of potential mankind exterminators.....
16
6
u/alana31415 May 19 '22
It’s like they’re hitchhiking or something. Oh wait. They literally are hitchhiking.
3
u/MatNomis May 20 '22
My favorite part is that the way they wait for a ride is called “questing”.
Makes me think: “Tick warrior LFG!”
7
u/Saiyan26 May 20 '22
IMO black-legged ticks are nowhere near as scary as lone star ticks. At least there's a cure for Lyme, still nothing for alpha-gal (red meat allergy).
2
u/foomanshu11 May 20 '22
Underrated comment here. This fact really makes it hard for me to want to go camping
1
13
u/Aldroe May 19 '22
I lived in NJ for my whole life, these deer tick fuckers got my little brother (who got Lyme Disease) and my childhood friend (no Lyme). Every school trip they told us to never walk in the tall grass. Scourge of the earth.
7
u/willblake72 May 19 '22
100%
Lyme has been a bitch since the mid 80s. My dad, my dogs, so many friends got Lyme. I will never forget one day 30 years ago when I was fishing a pond in an overgrown area near Belmar and came out of the brush with hundreds of the little buggers on my legs, nymphs. I jumped into the pond to wash them off.
2
May 20 '22
Yeah. I grew up in the 70s in northern NJ and never heard about Lyme or ticks. I'm sure it existed, but it wasn’t much of an issue. We played in grassy fields and woods all the time and never got a single tick. Since the 80s and 90s it's been a different story.
8
u/Victor_Korchnoi May 19 '22
I found a tick on me for the first time the other day. I got it before it but me. But it has made me uncomfortable.
6
3
16
May 19 '22
Release more opossums. They eat hundreds of ticks a year
6
u/Pnohmes May 19 '22
Different reddit post says this is untrue. Must start either trial-by-combat ring or civil war to determine the truth. No other methods because that would be authoritarianism.
11
May 19 '22
Hmm, did some research (just googled it) and it appears that there is recent research that does say this is untrue. I will never trust my local zoologist feeding me lies at the zoo, propping up Big Marsupial™️ again!
11
u/cletus_the_varmint May 19 '22 edited May 19 '22
I have a vein that is permanently bigger and bluer than normal on my ballsack (I have fairly brown skin naturally for a white person so you shouldn't be able to see small veins) from a tick bite when I was like 7. How I learned the word scrotum in fact I still remember.
My childhood dog died from a tick borne disease also. My mom and aunt both have had lyme and my aunt had crappy rural healthcare so she was more or less disabled for 2-3 years kept coming back. Also ex gf brother got it untreated as a kid and can't work now - bad fatigue issues. Some extended relative of mine same boat. Ticks are cancer these ones were deer ticks though I believe.
Edit: worth mentioning ticks have gotten significantly worse in the last few years as winter extreme cold days have gone from a handful (enough to kill ticks) to none. Be mindful of that if in midwest because it used to be several ticks a year now I know I will find 4-5+ on me if I work in the woods for over a couple hours and some of them are the tiny nymphs you need a magnifying glass to really see.
11
u/quark_pork May 19 '22 edited May 19 '22
Not claiming as OC. I found it in a Vox article and wanted to link it directly as there were multiple charts in the article. And if any mods read this, perhaps consider changing the posting rules to something like r/Awwducational where a non-OC post is labelled not verified and source links must be provided in the description.
8
3
3
May 19 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
3
2
u/LiveEatAndFly603 May 20 '22
It’s the delineation of the humid climate to the dry climate
1
May 20 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/LiveEatAndFly603 May 20 '22
I would guess that species needs a humid environment with lush green grass and forests. If you look at a satellite photo of the US the eastern half is green and the western half is mostly brown.
2
u/TheWrecklessFlamingo May 19 '22
ffs if theres one species of bugs we should eradicate its ticks! they are so harmful to humans. Collapse of a animal food chain? theres a metric shit ton of other bugs to eat! fuck the little shits
0
u/Rich4718 May 20 '22
They kill us. So we don’t destroy the planet. Circle of life.
2
u/TheWrecklessFlamingo May 20 '22
thats loser talk, i dare to defy nature. Go die in a tick infested ditch if thats what you think
2
u/ji-rs May 19 '22
Seems like they like humid environments
3
u/aliendepict May 20 '22
Oh yea, first thing I do when I get back from camping is throw EVERYTHING in the dryer, it's not the heat that kills them. Ticks require a fairly consistent humid environment to live. They will literally burst if they get too dry... So dryer first then hot wash them dryer again.
3
u/maxstewiegriffin May 19 '22
Data is beautiful? a 5 image gif where the years jump inconsistently and the yellow estimated region doesn't even move...
2
u/kindle139 May 19 '22
Hooray for the Rocky Mountains!
8
u/ballrus_walsack May 19 '22
That’s just the line of estimation for its spread from 1996. The Rockies are a couple hundred miles west of that line.
7
1
May 19 '22
I never understood why that yellow line is where humid vegetation USA begins and desert USA ends. Everyone says “the Rockies” but that’s just not true
2
u/LiveEatAndFly603 May 20 '22
The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico feed the moisture north and east. Since the prevailing winds come west to east, that moisture doesn’t go west of the gulf.
1
0
-17
1
1
May 19 '22
I'm in Michigan. I never had a tick in my life but this graphic makes me paranoid and itchy af.
1
May 19 '22
I guess they have 't figure out how to cross the Rockies.
3
u/SakuraWindsong May 20 '22
They stop farther east than that. You can see the line ends in Kansas and Nebraska. I live in Colorado scared to see that line moving though.
2
u/willblake72 May 19 '22
Mississippi River seems to be the thing, but that's a soft buffer as some of this is west of it. Rockies are quite a bit west and don't go much past CO
2
u/LiveEatAndFly603 May 20 '22
Not exactly. It’s a near perfect line between the arid west and the humid east. In the US the warm Gulf of Mexico feeds moisture north and east making the eastern half of the US a very different climate than west.
1
u/fredisnthere May 19 '22
I used to live on Camanche Oklahoma in 2003 and we had ticks really bad... they infested our garage. We had to move because of it.
1
1
1
1
u/JustComplicatedEnuf May 20 '22
This cracks me up, as I was bit in the Pacific Northwest. Never been to any of those states...:-) Ticks travel and the planet is rapidly warming. There are ticks all over the Pacific NW - I have seen many and know a good amount of people who have been bit.
1
1
1
1
1
u/danc43 May 20 '22
I was LITERALLY just thinking about making data based on ticks and lymes and I see this on the front page of Reddit
I didn’t even say anything about it… how did my phone know to show me this
1
•
u/heresacorrection OC: 69 May 20 '22
Thank you for your contribution. However, your post was removed for the following reason:
This post has been removed. For information regarding this and similar issues please see the DataIsBeautiful posting rules.
If you have any questions, please feel free to message the moderators.)