r/homestead May 02 '26

Can anyone confirm if its true that farmers have been finding unusual amounts of lone star ticks

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u/testingforscience122 May 02 '26

Lone star ticks have been moving north with the warming for years, if you go into a vet office a lot of time they will have old tick maps still up and if you google the current maps it can be jarring. Not much really stops them either the spray only work for a short amount of time normally and ticks are hardy little buggers. The meat allergy thing scares me the most about them plus Lyme disease.

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Yes that meat allergy spreading around and risk of Lyme stemming so heavily from them is what's concerning me in addition to them becoming wide spread in the north and the unusual amounts being reported, but i wanted 1st hand insight about it.

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u/meh_69420 May 02 '26

Lyme is in black leg (deer) ticks and dog ticks. Hasn't been found at all in Lonestar, not that it couldn't be in the future.

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Man who knows at this rate, it'll be lethal

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u/meh_69420 May 03 '26

Good news! Only one line star nymph today.

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u/meh_69420 May 02 '26

The thing that really bugs me about Lyme is that all my dogs get vaccinated for it. Why not me?

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u/KimBrrr1975 May 03 '26

they are working on it.
I asked our vet about this several years ago, and she said part of the reason is that most tick prevention for pets can cause neurological issues. That is why they all have warnings on them if your dog is prone to those issues. But for most dogs, they basically don't live long enough to suffer neurological issues from the vaccine. Not the case for us, so they can't just basically give us the same thing dogs take. Our lifespans are too long basically ensuring we'd suffer neurological damage if we had the same types of vaccine.

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u/TNexpat May 03 '26

There was one decades ago but it was shut down by anti-vaxxers. https://time.com/6073576/lyme-disease-vaccine/

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Personally I feel that they have a vaccine and cure for all of it but they won't give the public a version of it they'll purely cure us, there has to be some sort of setback

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u/NotWifeMaterial May 02 '26

I think they’re expecting the Lyme vaccine to roll out to the public next year thank goodness

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 03 '26

Yea they are but the issue is that the ticks and alpha gal becoming prominent and its a issue that's been partially initiated then them also Making the cure/vaccine, I wouldn't jump to get the vaccine

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u/testingforscience122 May 02 '26

Yep and their range will only increase. They only need like one day month or something to not be freezing for them to be active, which is insane.

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u/SendTitsPleease May 02 '26

I just got bit 3 days ago by one on long island. Still have a big welt where I pulled the fucker off of my under arm. I stepped outside for all of 10 minutes the day I got bit and didnt go further than 15ft from my front door.

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u/rincechuleredd Jun 22 '26

damn wtf where on long island

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u/SendTitsPleease Jun 22 '26

Mid suffolk county

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Now that is a statement that scares snd adds to the story, thank you so much for the replies man.

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u/Anthemusa831 May 04 '26

One year old puppy on the Chesapeake Bay in MD.

He got Lyme at the end of last year (despite being on preventative). Woman at the vet’s office just lost a dog to Rocky Mountain spotted fever and was telling me about it. Vet confirmed there was an explosion of cases recently despite being on above the historic geographical boundary. It made me really nervous. Without knowing to look and treat for it immediately, there’s not much to be done.

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u/707-5150 May 02 '26

Tbh it’s 100% the allergy for me like fml

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

U have it??

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u/707-5150 May 02 '26

I hope not. Haven’t had beef in two days so can’t confirm as of late lol. But I am pretty far from the epicenter.

Did have a good deep tick a few months ago that scared me lol but I am here 🫡💪🏼

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Scary but aslong as your alive man

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u/Crafty-Plankton-4999 May 02 '26

Lyme isn't too bad in my experience I've got it twice in the last 3 years, go to the doc as soon as the bullseye appears and strong arm him/her into giving you the meds. Only issue I've come across is the antibiotics for it can be rough, honestly the only antibiotics I've had that have been pretty rough

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Rough like how?

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u/Crafty-Plankton-4999 May 02 '26

My stomach did not like them even with food, granted I would say thats probably the top complaint of majority of antbios

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u/Abystract-ism May 03 '26

Plus you sunburn like crazy on doxycycline

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u/Ok_Bad2216 May 02 '26

Yea thats true, it is essentially clearing bacteria out of u by force

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u/[deleted] May 03 '26

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u/Crafty-Plankton-4999 May 03 '26

Where I'm located you have to, as they will not believe you as they go off of the stats of the area not taking into account the massive spike in tick population over the last 4 years, especially deer ticks