Wisconsin Got a Brand New Tick. Yea Us :(

It seems the Lone Star Tick has invaded Wisconsin. These are different from our native ticks, the brown, dog, deer, and wood ticks. There are some new diseases and behavior. So...I have questions.

News reports only cover human diseases, and my google attempts have brought up mixed results. The diseases I found that affect dogs are Ehrlichiosis, Tularemia or Hunter's Disease, Southern Tick-associated Rash Illness which is similar to Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, tick paralysis .There is also a rare reaction that causes an allergy to red meat (temporary?)

Are any of these particularly serious? Are they transmitted easily? Do Advantix or Frontline work on these ticks?

They are also described as "aggressive." Apparently they will chase you. I'm picturing hordes of tiny tarantulas chasing us out of the woods, like in a horror movie.

We used to say here " 20 below keeps the riff-raff away." I guess there just isn't enough 20 below anymore. Soon I expect we'll be seeing termites and crocodiles in our backyards.

Any info from you southerners would be appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on August 3, 2013 at 10:12am

Yuck...hope they don't decide to move west into MN.

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Permalink Reply by Julia on August 3, 2013 at 11:12pm

Stinks, doesn't it? Why put up with the cold and ice and snow if you still get vermin?

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on August 4, 2013 at 11:12am

Well at least we get rid of them for a few months...we have no mosquitos here right now due to no rain...that is nice!

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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on August 5, 2013 at 2:10pm

Lone Star ticks are the #1 most common tick in Hampton Roads, I think. I have only had lone star ticks. Waffle has had mostly lone stars...

Any TBD is serious. Erhlichia (or however its spelled) is tested with Lyme and HW in our SNAP tests here. I think Lyme and Ehrlichia are the biggest problems, both can be treated with 8 weeks of Doxy. I get a TBD test yearly for Waffle; these things can be asymptomatic and then cause huge problems down the line--like random pains, autoimmune disease, etc. The sooner the tick is removed, the less likely disease transmission has occurred. The CDC probably has tick disease prevalence charts.