The Asian longhorned tick, or Haemaphysalis longicornis, made an unwelcome splash last year, when researchers and health officials discovered it on a pet sheep in New Jersey. Any hopes that the discovery was an isolated incident faded away this year, with sightings of the tick popping up again in New Jersey and eight other states this past spring and summer (Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia). Since 2017, the tick has been found on pets, farm animals, and at least two people in the U.S., and it’s possible that it might have made its way here at least as early as 2010.
There’s a few things that are really worrying about this tick. It can make more of itself incredibly easily, since female ticks can either mate with males or just asexually reproduce (In the U.S. so far, all longhorned ticks seem to be female clones). These bloodsucking female ticks can also devastate the animals and livestock they feed on, with large-enough infestations capable of severely weakening or even killing their hosts. And at least in some areas where the tick has set up shop, it’s able to carry and spread dangerous diseases to its human victims.
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