Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

Winter Ticks Threaten Moose

https://oodmag.com/winter-ticks-threaten-moose/

Winter ticks threaten moose

by Matthew Robbins | January 22, 2024

Across this province and beyond, ticks are an increasingly troublesome reality for sportsmen and women. These little bloodsuckers are more than just annoying — they carry a host of ailments to which outdoor enthusiasts are especially vulnerable. Along much of their southernmost range, moose are struggling to adapt to the growing influence of ticks, and Ontario is no exception.

Tick troubles

By and large, human-tick encounters involve one of two species: the dog tick (aka wood tick) or the black-legged tick (aka deer tick), the latter of which is responsible for a rising incidence of Lyme disease in humans. Despite their increasing prevalence, however, neither of these species appear to be an issue for moose.

Instead, the trouble for our iconic forest-giant comes almost exclusively from Dermacentor albipictus, otherwise known as the winter tick. These pesky parasites are slightly larger than other species of North American ticks and are considered unique for their use of a single host-animal. While most species of tick switch hosts during their various life stages, winter ticks catch a ride on an unsuspecting ungulate as larvae and remain there until the swollen females are ready to drop to the forest floor, lay their eggs, and die.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Obviously, such a long feeding by upwards of 40,000 ticks on a singular moose will cause severe blood loss, emaciation, and anemia.  

These poor, plagued moose will rub on trees rubbing their hair off leaving them grey earning them the title “ghost moose.”

The article then predictably pushes the ‘climate change’ propaganda, blaming warmer winters for tick explosions, when independent research has shown this notion to be false.  Nobody seems to ever mention our government’s involvement of experimenting and dropping ticks from airplanes.

More specifically, in this link is a 1967 U.S. Army report, on page 600 that shows that ticks were experimentally infected with various pathogens.  For instance, on page 301 Boophilus australis was experimentally infected with murine typhus rickettsia.  Dermacentor albopiotus (the exact winter tick affecting moose) with spotted fever, Dermacentor andersoni with typhus rickettsiae, and so on and so forth.  The link to the army report is conveniently broken (censored) as it incriminates our own government and military.

It’s just easier to blame the climate boogey-man.

Sadly, 90% of moose calves will die due to this blood-letting.

Army Combat Uniform’s Insect Repellent at Center of Fraud Case

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-combat-uniforms-insect-repellent-at-center-of-fraud-case/

Army Combat Uniform’s insect repellent at center of fraud case

The Department of Justice alleges that a contractor failed to accurately apply bug repellent to ACUs and falsified test results.

Adefense contractor may have rigged test results on how bug repellent Army Combat Uniforms were, officials say, leaving soldiers in insect-heavy places vulnerable to illnesses like the Zika virus and Lyme disease.

A federal complaint filed by the Department of Justice on Friday alleges that North Carolina-based Insect Shield LLC and its founder, Richard Lane, who died in 2022, incorrectly tested uniforms for insect-repellent and falsified documents beginning in 2015 under federal contracts worth more than $63 million.

The DOJ alleges that the company and Lane participated in a “multi-year failure” to apply permethrin to Army Combat Uniforms and Improved Hot Weather Combat Uniforms at the correct concentration levels. They also allege that the company submitted inaccurate lab test results to the government for the contracted garments.

The DOJ alleges that the company’s conduct included more than 430 “lots” of Army Combat Uniforms, which may have affected millions of soldiers over the years. (See link for article)

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For more:

Under Our Skin 1 & 2 Lyme/MSIDS Documentary: Another Bioweapon?

A very real U.S. Government laboratory shrouded in secrecy that existed at Plum Island (which has been moved to Kansas state University) was inspired by a Nazi bioweapons expert, and housed Fort Terry a biological warfare defense research facility. The lab had a mission to poison cattle in the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was also connected to an African Swine Fever outbreak in Cuba. It should come as no surprise that strange genetically mutated creatures have washed up on the shores of the mainland.

Tick experimentation by the government has been going on since at least the 60’s due to their ability to spread disease, with certain pathogens never showing up on testing. The “discoverer” of Lyme disease – Willy Burgdorfer, just happened to work at the NIH state of the art BSL- 4 biomedical research facility called the Rocky Mountain Lab (RML) in Montana force-feeding ticks various pathogens.  There is also a record of dropping infected ticks from airplanes to study their distribution patterns.

It doesn’t take a rock-scientist to realize the implications of these actions.
But despite efforts the government says, “Nothing to see here!”

https://rumble.com/v43vmkx-under-our-skin-part-1-and-2-both-lyme-disease-movies-in-one-video-is-lyme-d.html

Under Our Skin 1 & 2:  Is Lyme Disease A Bioweapon?

Under Our Skin: Part 1 (2009)

https://amzn.to/48znBOJ

In the early 1970’s, a mysterious ailment was discovered among children living around the town of Lyme, CT. What was first diagnosed as isolated cases of juvenile arthritis, eventually became known as Lyme disease, an illness triggered by spiral-shaped bacteria, similar to the microorganisms that cause syphilis. Today, many of those untreated will suffer chronic debilitating illness. Some unknowingly will pass the disease onto their unborn children. Many will lose their livelihoods, and still others, their lives.

Yet Lyme disease is one of the most misunderstood and controversial illnesses of our time. Difficult to test accurately, tens of thousands of people go undiagnosed — or misdiagnosed with such conditions as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, autism, MS and ALS. The Centers for Disease Control estimates more than 300,000 people acquire Lyme disease each year, a number greater than breast cancers and AIDS combined. And yet, the medical establishment — with profound influence from the insurance industry — has stated that the disease is easily detectable and treatable, and that “chronic Lyme” is some other unrecognized syndrome or a completely psychosomatic disorder.

UNDER OUR SKIN is a powerful and often terrifying look not only at the science and politics of the disease, but also the personal stories of those whose lives have been affected and nearly destroyed. From a few brave doctors who risk their medical licenses, to patients who once led active lives but now can barely walk, the film uncovers a hidden world that will astound viewers. While exposing a broken health care and medical research system, the film also gives voice to those who believe that instead of a crisis, Lyme is simply a “disease du jour,” over diagnosed and contributing to another crisis: the looming resistance of microbes and ineffectuality of antibiotics. As suspenseful and hair-raising as any Hollywood thriller, UNDER OUR SKIN is sure to get under yours.

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Under Our Skin: Part 2 (Emergence) (2014)

https://amzn.to/48znBOJ

In this dramatic follow-up to the widely acclaimed UNDER OUR SKIN, EMERGENCE takes the viewer on a journey from horror to hope. We witness the emerging epidemic of Lyme disease as infection and education spread globally. We watch as the truth emerges about the disease’s persistence and reach, about promising new research, and about medical collusion and conflicts of interest that continue to impede progress. We revisit the characters from UNDER OUR SKIN as they emerge into better health, reclaiming their lives and dignity, and offering hope to the legions now suffering. As Lyme disease surges, EMERGENCE shines a probing light on the issue and becomes a beacon in the dark.

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons (Book)

By Kris Newby

https://amzn.to/3NKAUUq

Amazon Description:

A riveting thriller reminiscent of The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time — Lyme disease — and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

While on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year.

As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe’s discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War, and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes readers on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat, and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease.

A gripping, infectious page-turner, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.

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December 27, 2023

Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya writes:

I just finished @krisnewby’s Bitten, which tells the history of the US government’s secret program in the 1950s and 1960s to weaponize ticks to deliver deadly bacteria to incapacitate unsuspecting populations.

Newby, a talented journalist and science writer, structures her history around a biography of Willy Burgdorfer, the Swiss-American scientist who discovered borellia burgdorferi, a spirochete bacteria often found in Lyme disease patients.

It’s an incredible, infuriating, well-written book worth your time.

A few lessons:

1. The mid-20th century US biomedical research establishment was psychopathic, whole-heartedly embracing reckless, deadly investigations in the name of developing vaccines and bioweapons.

2. It is possible (& perhaps likely, though not proven) that the emergence and spread of Lyme disease may have been caused by this research program, which included large open-air testing of intentionally infected ticks on US soil.

3. The bioweapons program used combinations of viruses and bacteria infecting the same tick to hide the body’s immune response to infection from detection by standard medical tests.

4. Lyme disease and related syndromes are likely caused by more than just borellia burgorferi. Newby makes a circumstantial case for a shadowy rickettsia bacteria that Willy Burgdorfer studied, which he called the “Swiss agent.”

5. The financial interests of biomedical researchers and testing companies peddling faulty tests — alongside their control over the official pronouncements and policy of the National Institute of Health and the US Infectious Disease Society of America — have frozen in place a diagnostic doctrine that has led to countless Lyme disease patients misdiagnosed and gaslit about the symptoms they are suffering.

Closing thought: similar tendencies in the biomedical research and medical establishments are still extant and may help explain many things about the covid pandemic. History does not repeat, but it rhymes.

Source:  https://twitter.com/DrJBhattacharya/status/1740029782967148624

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**Comment**

Please read these articles to get a bird’s-eye view of the topic:

Americans Warned About Travel to Mexico Due to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/americans-warned-about-travel-to-mexico-due-to-rocky-mountain-spotted-fever-

Americans Warned About Travel to Mexico Due to ‘Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever’

An advisory has been issued for Americans traveling to parts of Mexico, warning them of a potentially deadly disease called Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
12/9/2023

Americans are being advised to exercise caution when traveling to Mexico, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issuing a travel advisory due to reports of an illness known as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which can be deadly.

“There have been reports of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) in people traveling to the United States from Tecate, in the state of Baja California, Mexico,” the CDC said in the advisory, which was issued on Dec. 8.

The CDC said there are reports of the disease being found in urban areas in some states in northern Mexico (including Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo León). However, the illness isn’t exclusive to those regions, the CDC noted in its warning.

Bacteria that causes the disease isn’t spread from person to person but through ticks, the agency said.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

The article mentions that there is also an increase in Babesiosis.

For more:

Must See Video: Can Ticks Fly With the Help of Static Electricity? Yes.

https://danielcameronmd.com/can-ticks-fly-with-the-help-of-static-electricity/

CAN TICKS FLY WITH THE HELP OF STATIC ELECTRICITY?

tick-fly
Many have asked – can ticks fly? Apparently they can, using static electricity.

Scientists from the University of Bristol studied the naturally occurring electrostatic charges in animals. They reported their findings in a study entitled “Static electricity passively attracts ticks onto hosts.”¹

“Mammals, birds, and reptiles are known to carry appreciable net electrostatic charges, equivalent to surface potentials on the order of hundreds to tens of thousands of volts,” the authors wrote.

“Therefore, we hypothesize that their parasites, such as ticks, are passively attracted onto their surfaces by electrostatic forces acting across air gaps.” (An electrostatic charge is equivalent to walking on a floor or rubbing one’s head with a balloon.)

“These findings open a new dimension to our understanding of how ticks, and possibly many other terrestrial organisms, find and attach to their hosts or vectors.”

“Using statically charged rabbit fur and other charged materials in the lab, researchers were able to pull castor bean ticks (Ixodes ricinus) across gaps of air three to four times their body length,” writes Christie Wilcox in Science News.

This electrostatic force is so strong it can overcome gravity, enabling lateral or vertical lifting motions.

The investigators found that ticks used static electricity to help them launch and attach onto a passing human or animal.

Watch: A tick flying through the air using static electricity.

(Source: Christie Wilcox at Science News)

Authors conclude:

  • “Our results show that electrostatically charged hosts passing within a few millimeters of a tick, but without making direct contact, can generate electric conditions that enhance the capacity of ticks to successfully bridge the gap and establish contact.”
  • “… strategies and technologies can now be developed to disrupt this electrical interaction. For example, the treatment of livestock, pets, or human clothing with anti-static coatings may well reduce the rates of tick infestation in these contexts.”
References:
  1. England SJ, Lihou K, Robert D. Static electricity passively attracts ticks onto hosts. Curr Biol. Jul 24 2023;33(14):3041-3047 e4. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.021
  2. C. Wilcox. Watch ticks fly through the air via the power of static electricity. Science News. June 30, 2023. https://www.science.org/content/article/watch-ticks-fly-through-air-power-static-electricity

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**Comment**

That video!  Wowza.

I’m skeptical of anti-static coatings as they might be just as toxic as a tick bite. Teflon is a perfect example.

But the topic of “ticks flying” is an important one and one that is flat-out denied by researchers.  Of course, the definition of “flying” is also important.  While ticks do not have wings that allow them to actually fly in the common sense of the word, anyone with a brain that has experience with ticks understands that the wind can blow them from point A to point B, and they have been known to drop down from trees.  

Both of these realities are denied by researchers – despite reality.

Many are also unaware that ticks are in caves, on beaches & picnic benches, the cracks in sidewalks, and on rocks.

Birds, mammals, and reptiles transport ticks everywhere and to say otherwise is foolish.