Otus the Head Cat

Beware! Longhorned and Yeti ticks here, hungry

The dreaded Yeti dog tick (shown greatly enlarged) has finally appeared in Arkansas. The host dog is being monitored by a team of cryptobiologists from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday.
The dreaded Yeti dog tick (shown greatly enlarged) has finally appeared in Arkansas. The host dog is being monitored by a team of cryptobiologists from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday.

Dear Otus,

No sooner had we heeded your warning about the coming "tick explosion" and slathered ourselves with permethrin, we read in the paper about the infestation in Arkansas of the Longhorned tick from Asia. And now there's some other new, exotic bug that looks like it belongs in Star Wars.

We're getting to where we're afraid to go outside.

-- Tim Timidis,

Gurdon

Dear Tim,

It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and to have the opportunity to congratulate you for taking the necessary precautions.

First, let's be specific.

Although ticks may technically fall under the classification of "bugs" if you are being informal and refer to any terrestrial arthropod, a true bug is an insect of the order Hemiptera, of which there are upwards of 80,000 species.

For example, the lovebug (Plecia nearctica) is either a vintage Volkswagen (the Beetle) or a type of fly, while the May bug (Melolontha melolontha), also known as the doodlebug or cockchafer, and the ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata) are actually beetles.

Ticks, on the other hand, are arachnids -- with eight legs -- and related to spiders and scorpions.

Yes. I know. That makes them all the more heinous. I hate spiders and scorpions, but ticks even more because they are small and insidious. The mere thought of them attaching themselves to some hidden nook or cranny on our bodies and sucking out our precious and vital bodily fluids is abhorrent. It gives me the willies.

My previous warning was based on a May report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's study that found the number of reported cases of disease from tick, mosquito, and flea bites had tripled between 2004 and 2016. People had gotten sloppy and ignored their basic tick prevention measures.

Although permethrin is an adequate choice for a tick repellent, as with DEET (which has the preferred IUPAC name of N,N-Diethyl-3-methylbenzamide), some still caution that it's not supposed to come in contact with the skin. Owner had contact with this stuff during his time in scenic Southeast Asia during the Vietnam unpleasantness, but he turned out OK.

Why take the chance? You can simply concoct your own tick repellent by mixing 30 drops of oil of lemon eucalyptus with four ounces of witch hazel, apple cider vinegar or vodka. It's safe, harmless and leaves you smelling like a California orchard.

And, yes, the CDC was initially concerned about Arkansas' familiar spectrum of ticks -- the usual obligate, bloodsucking, nonpermanent ectoparasitic arthropods of vertebrates. But that was before the discovery a few weeks ago of a Longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) on a dog in Benton County.

Also known as the bush tick or cattle tick, the aggressive biter is not to be confused with the Lone Star tick, which is equally nasty, but so far hasn't ventured into The Natural State.

Arkansas Department of Health cryptozoologist Brian Blutsauger noted that the Longhorned tick, which had previously been confined to New Jersey, was thought to have arrived via airplane from nearby Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, with a layover in DFW or Chicago.

Blutsauger cautions that as annoying as the Longhorned tick is, it pales in comparison to the newly discovered Yeti dog tick (Hirsuta ricinum) found on a giant Alaskan Malamute belonging to Joseph Eugene of Little Rock. By the time the engorged tick was discovered 5 inches down in the dog's thick fur, it was the size of a golf ball.

The critter, with silky blond setae covering its pereiopods, has never before been found east of Utah. How the tick got on the 165-pound pooch is a mystery since the dog lives mainly in the fenced backyard of its Stifft Station home and spends its days destroying lawn furniture, napping in the shade and doing various landscaping projects.

As with the Longhorned tick, the female Yeti tick can reproduce through a form of agamogenesis called parthenogenesis. In other words, no tick baby daddy is necessary. That prospect means a single female tick can breed a population in the billions. We have been warned.

Until next time, Kalaka reminds you that the telltale mark of a Yeti tick bite is an akamaru or red circle about 6 inches in diameter. If you notice this on your person, see a vet immediately.

Disclaimer

Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of

Z humorous fabrication X

appears every Saturday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com


Disclaimer: Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of 👉 humorous fabrication 👈 appears every Saturday.

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