"... that roam the island’s lush woods and beach grass.This is reflected in the rising number of alpha-gal diagnoses. Some 523 new cases were reported on Martha’s Vineyard last year.... [E]xperts fear the situation on Martha’s Vineyard is only going to get worse due to the island’s growing
deer population. [Biologist Patrick] Roden-Reynolds said there are anywhere from 55 to 75 deer per square mile — up from 40 to 60 in 2011. This is up to ten times the amount of deer needed for a healthy forest ecosystem, he said, adding: “Each deer this time of year probably has a couple of hundred ticks on them that are attached and feeding and producing new ticks for the next year.” Locals have called for an increase in deer hunting to manage the island’s population. 'Even doing some sort of hunting tourism-promotion thing here would be helpful in a way,' said [Kate Sudarsky, a 26-year-old teacher on the island who was diagnosed with alpha-gal]."
I'm reading
"'We can no longer eat burgers or ice cream — all because of a tick bite'/A bug-borne disease has taken over Martha’s Vineyard and is turning people vegan, locals claim" (London Times).
Not enough deer hunters on the island. Hard to imagine the kind of tourism they could set up that would bring in enough deer hunters to do the kind of thinning they'd need. Hire professional sharpshooters.
Before you riff on the rich-people problems of Martha's Vineyard, take a look at
this map showing the range of the lone star tick in the U.S.
Posts
99 comments:
They really don't like immigrants up there, do they?
lone star tick...any connection to Texas? If so, I love that it is "busting balls" in Teddy's Playground.
Before you riff on the rich-people problems of Martha's Vineyard, take a look at this map showing the range of the lone star tick in the U.S.
People don’t pay to read about poor people’s problems.
Free range chickens, peahens, etc. They eat ticks and spend all day looking for them too.
@Althouse, the word you want is "cull," as in "They need to hire professionals to cull the deer population." Every hunter should be a "sharpshooter" and able to hit where they aim. In a wealthy place like Martha's Vineyard, I'd expect they'd hire professional bow hunters or use guns with silencers.
Silent but deadly.
"Hire professional sharpshooters."
That means white guys with guns almost exclusively, something I've been made to believe Vineys dislike. Immensely.
Maybe the Vineyard is too densely populated--or too full of vegans--to be able to handle a hunting industry. The Isle of Jura has an excellent whisky distillery, an absolutely superb gin distillery, 258 inhabitants, and about 6000 red deer. Charging hunters to help manage the deer population is a major business: lodging, food, armament, and hunting licenses all add up.
Perhaps they can round the ticks up and send them to a military base. Problem solved.
Hard to imagine the kind of tourism they could set up that would bring in enough deer hunters to do the kind of thinning they'd need
It could work along the lines of the kind of hunting allowed on Monomoy Island. Monomoy is deserted but MV doesn’t have the same open space so population density is a problem. I think there’s sufficient open land from the land bank and private preservation organizations but good luck getting permission to hunt them though. Seasons in the Northeast tend to be coordinated with the rut so empty summer places could be utilized for lodging for recreational hunters so there's that potential benefit…
…our place in the southeast was once exclusively a tony hunting camp. Some of the old guides are still here, still taking residents on hunts. Those guides sometimes do in to the neighborhoods or the golf course with subsonic rounds and silencers to cull deer, so I guess those are the kinds of ‘sharpshooters’ Ann is referring to. Here they’re referred to as ‘hunters’…
Well...you got my attention. Red meat allergy? What sort of new hell is this?
Anyway...my first thought- before I looked at the map- was that they should simply import hunters from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. A lot of deer and a literal army of hunters. Not all of them what I'd call sharpshooters, but they get the job done- as apparently shown by the map. OK, maybe winter gets an assist.
Offer beer, brandy, coney islands and cheese. They'll show up.
Even lowly Marksman like Lee Harvey Oswald are good enough to kill a deer with one shot in the boilermaker.
This tick sounds like a Bill Gates wet dream. Maybe he woke up and ordered it from a lab in China.
Temujin: Pennsylvania is much closer.
Gemini AI Says: "Texas leads the nation in the number of deer hunters, followed by Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Missouri. These states consistently rank high in deer harvest numbers and hunter participation. "
.."Maybe the Vineyard is too densely populated--or too full of vegans--to be able to handle a hunting industry..."
They can't handle the hunting, but for different reasons. It doesn't say in the article what one's chances of contracting the syndrome are, if bitten. Maybe the disease is not sufficiently studied yet to know what the odds are. But I have read other stories, maybe fear-mongering, about radical activists that contemplate what a great idea it would be to salt this tick everywhere, in a campaign to get people to stop eating meat. Yes - it's precisely the kind of tactic people from PETA would use.
The all-star when it comes to eating ticks, is the opossum. Let's import 10 million of those to Martha's Vineyard.
It’s fair I suppose. She doesn’t want the harbor scene from Jaws redux, a bunch of nit wits headed out into the brush that won’t tell the difference between a doe and a golden retriever (hint: does it have a collar?). She means guys like the uncle that gets the call when the huge nuisance bear from the movies suddenly becomes too much of a nuisance…
editing using CRISPR-Cas9 technology have opened new avenues for research into controlling tick-borne diseases. Notably, scientists have successfully used CRISPR to edit genes in ticks, including the black-legged tick and potentially the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, which is known for transmitting various pathogens and causing alpha-gal syndrome.
…peacocks like ticks, too. Turkeys, pheasants, quails…now those would make for some excellent hunting seasons, too…
Maybe the Vineyard is too densely populated--or too full of vegans--to be able to handle a hunting industry.
Bigger problem is the inability to access land on which to hunt - MV'ers are very protective of their private property rights.
It does not need to be Hunter Tourism. Make it special and profitable to hunt on your own land. Pricy hotels and restaurants could showcase local sourced humanly harvested deer meat. Make it a rich person trend that you can only get genuine Martha's Vineyard venison on a limited basis. Landowners will pay professionals to hunt, not hunters paying the landowners. Public hunting land would have to be a raffle.
Did you know that Martha's Vineyard is the ONLY placename on the east coast that is allowed to have an ( ' ) symbol in its official cartological name. --Prove me wrong.
If you hated mRNA then you'll really love the introduction of crispr technology to the environment, lol 😂
…a bow season would be more palatable but less effective…
1. I see where most of WI is safe.
2. Couldn’t happen to a better crowd than those on Martha’s Vineyard. Maybe hire illegal aliens to kill the deer.
John E’s Pond on Block Island. Maybe they’re not a allowed or not a place…
We have had a doe with two fawns hanging out under our apple tree most mornings, and another doe and a fawn. I have to admit I am a bit ambivalent about them. The fawns are cute as a button but it's not just that they eat the hasta plants and make growing asparagus all but impossible, but you know they are shedding ticks. But I don't leave the mowed areas without a healthy slathering of deet.
The problem with chickens is that they end up getting eaten by the local predators or roaming pet dogs. Robins do the job pretty well in mowed grass, but this year we seem to have a Cooper's Hawk keeping the robin population at bay, so you can't really win.
In the mid-1800's, deer were introduced to New Zealand, which did not have any native large, huntable animals. There was abundant food and no native predators, and soon after there was such a population surge that the country initiated large-scale culling programs, to somewhat limited effect. Even today, there is no off-season, no bag limit, people are encouraged to hunt early and often, and deer are frequently targeted from helicopters for the terrain that is too hard to walk.
They did create a deer farming industry out of this abundance - if you order venison from a restaurant in this country, there is a very high likelihood that it comes from New Zealand, as there are few other places that raise deer.
Pricy hotels and restaurants could showcase local sourced humanly harvested deer meat.
Legally hunted deer meat cannot be sold in the US.
Although it is okay to give away deer meat.
The all-star when it comes to eating ticks, is the opossum. Let's import 10 million of those to Martha's Vineyard
Ha. Do cane toads eat ticks? Now now, MV serves a good public service in the Summer, rounding up in one place the people we don’t want to see during our Summer vacations…
"'We can no longer eat burgers or ice cream..
am i correct in assuming, that Bill Gate is/will be spending BILLIONS of dollars spreading these ticks and this alpha-gal??
That means white guys with guns almost exclusively, something I've been made to believe Vineys dislike. Immensely.
I'd imagine they'd kick gun toting, pick-up truck driving hunters off their precious island faster that they did the illegal aliens who crashed their snob party for a few days.
Dave Begley said, "Maybe hire illegal aliens to kill the deer."
Then Bondi could indict. Brilliant!
The Lone Star Tick invades a large part of the U.S. so the reporter focuses on tony Martha’s Vineyard? Looks like an enterprising reporter using an expense account for a nice getaway. Well done.
I'll bet a good percentage of the libs on Martha's Vineyard believe Texas released the Lone Star tick upon them.
More possums! They eat many many ticks!
Political Junkie said...
lone star tick...any connection to Texas?
pretty sure, it's the star on their bellies (see pic)
@Gusty Winds, I'll bet 90%+ of Vineys got MRNA'd, so they're already cool with biowarfare.
Martha's Vineyard only has 12 years before it's underwater anyway, right? Due to the sea rising since Obama is no longer President to hold back the tides?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblyomma_americanum
The sexually dimorphic adult female lone star tick bears a silvery-white, somewhat star-shaped spot near the center of the posterior portion of its dorsal shield (scutum); adult males conversely have varied white streaks or spots around the margins of their shields.
It is to this spot, not to Texas, that A. americanum owes the name lone star tick, while it owes the name turkey tick to the wild turkeys that are a common host in its immature stages in some Midwestern U.S. states
That means white guys with guns almost exclusively, something I've been made to believe Vineys dislike. Immensely.
Then how about importing Black guys with guns from DC and Chicago. They have proven efficient at killing.
Before you riff on the rich-people problems of Martha's Vineyard, take a look at this map showing the range of the lone star tick in the U.S.
Everybody has the same problem. Why is MV so important? (hint--it is a great place for libs to hang out in August).
It also sounds like Keenan unfortunately is an unusually bad case.
Did a Chinese Communist infest us? Now I'm paranoid.
tcrosse said, "They have proven efficient at killing."
Yes, but mostly what they're NOT aiming at.
Martha's Vinyard? Problem with parasitical bloodsucking ticks spreading foul stuff?
Were we talking about some sort of insect or were we discussing the human residents of the place?
Before you riff on the rich-people problems of Martha's Vineyard, take a look at this map showing the range of the lone star tick in the U.S.
This is the main reason I don't spend much time in the mountains with my kids down here.
Why are ticks such assholes?
Worse than mosquitoes.
@tcrosse I believe black shooters have a higher ratio of injuries to fatalities compared to other groups.
Howard said...
If you hated mRNA then you'll really love the introduction of crispr technology to the environment, lol 😂
This technology is going to grow at the same speed as AI is growing.
Most of the benefits will be positive.
One of the issues with Alpha-Gal Syndrome is that our elite class wants us to eat bugs because low fat low red meat diets produce people with smaller less developed brains and big guts.
crispr is going to democratize health care research. You are going to see an explosion of "Mens Health" clinics who will offer a wider and wider array of hormone, peptide, and phlobotomy treatments.
crispr is going to at some point be a garage project for people trying to make new treatments. They will produce a lot of garbage and some good products that actually help.
Once the truth about Statins goes mainstream it will destroy all faith people have in Corporate health care. Statins will be in the same paragraph as Tobacco in the history books.
I would invest in a local "Men's Health" clinic ASAP.
Is it the tick or the island’s culture that turns red meat eaters into vegans? Let’s not be too hasty to blame the tick.
It appears that there is some dispute about opossums as tick controllers.
https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks
Maybe we can figure out how to make these ticks allergic to blood. That'd teach 'em.
I'd love to see the looks on their little tick faces then.
"But, but, but..."
I'd just laugh and say "Cry me a river, assholes."
tcrosse said,
“They have proven efficient at killing.” (emphasis added)
RideSpaceMountain said...
“Yes, but mostly what they're NOT aiming at.”
I think “prolific” would be a better word than “efficient”.
natatomic said, "I believe black shooters have a higher ratio of injuries to fatalities compared to other groups."
I believe that most 'yoots' are under the impression (criminal attorneys help me out...) that shooting at a person 'below the waist' constitutes felony assault with a deadly weapon, a lesser charge than attempted murder shooting at someone above the waist (shows intent to kill). What a JAG officer told me long ago so I'm unsure if this isn't a penal relic.
A rare summer goes by without me or my wife bringing a tick into the house -- taken care of quickly so no harm. Bug spray works but we try to go easy on that stuff.
tcrosse said...
That means white guys with guns almost exclusively, something I've been made to believe Vineys dislike. Immensely.
Then how about importing Black guys with guns from DC and Chicago. They have proven efficient at killing.
The deer will just end up dying a few months younger from all of the lead poisoning. You have to actually hit specific parts of the deer to kill it.
Also most gang shootings are less than 25 meters with pistols. At 25 meters with a 45 I wild guess I have a 50/50 kill rate and that's pretty close for a deer shot. I sincerely doubt they are as accurate as me.
Martha's Vineyard is roughly triangular, and most people live and stay close to the coast. There is lots of room for deer to roam (and to be hunted).
Hunters have been hunting deer for a long time. There are a few instances of them accidentally shooting humans-although the woods may be safer than most city streets in this regard. Most reported "Deer hunting accidents" seem to involve people falling out of tree stands, or having heart attacks.
The deer (and the ticks) are out of control here in Eastern MD. My wistful hope is that the overpopulation of deer leads to them contracting some devastating disease (for the deer) and wiping them out. Hope is not a plan. In the meantime, I am in favor of letting the hunters have at it.
The Martha's Vineyard residents--the rich dudes--successfully defeated the construction an offshore wind farm, something each and every one of them would publicly praise as an unalloyed good for humanity everywhere, because it would have spoiled their horizon. Next, they cleared their island of illegals by deporting them to the mainland, again contradicting their words by their deeds. Expected them to continue this pattern regarding the culling of the island's deer.
Without reading other comments - some fifteen years ago or so, my suburban Philadelphia area (the end of the Main Line) issued a limited number of bow hunting deer permits to be fulfilled in the neighborhoods, because the deer population was so high and destructive. Bow hunting, I assume, because committed bow hunters kind of are sharpshooters.
Neighborhood were warned that on this one weekend the hunting would take place. My own neighborhood wasn't part of the effort so if don't know for sure, but if I were in charge of that township I would have gone door to door in addition to the many physical postings on every lamppost.
From Google AI: "Island biology deer overpopulation occurs when high deer densities negatively impact the ecosystem through habitat destruction, loss of plant diversity, and reduced food/nesting sites for other wildlife, leading to a decline in songbirds and other native species. This overpopulation is often caused by a lack of natural predators, human-introduced deer populations, and inadequate management, and can result in malnutrition, mass die-offs, increased disease, and traffic collisions."
The Bambi/PETA syndrome responsible for this needs to be addressed and defeated. No ambitious politician wants to be Mr. Grumpypants McMeanyface. That's how we got here, and that's why we'll stay here for the foreseeable future.
Opening the island to sporting hunters will help control those deadly ticks, but what's to be done about that other nuisance species that has overrun Martha's Vineyard?
Nuke the island! No, wait!
"An atomic blast could provide it with enough energy to grow into a gigantic super colony!"
I was trying to imagine what requirements the typical Martha’s Vineyard resident might have before they would approve of hunters on their island. So I came up with the following question:
What caliber of bullet is needed to take down a tic? I imagine a typical .22 is massive overkill.
" I see where most of WI is safe."
Yes, but with global warming the line will creep up. They'll be here soon enough, right after the killer bees and the murder hornets, which hurt like hell but did not ruin dinner for the rest of your life.
"An atomic blast could provide it with enough energy to grow into a gigantic super colony!"
That was great!
Quaestor said...
“Opening the island to sporting hunters will help control those deadly ticks, but what's to be done about that other nuisance species that has overrun Martha's Vineyard?”
Jordan Peterson, Jesse Kelly, Matt Walsh, and Charlie Kirk podcasts.
Olson Johnson is right at 758am asked for additional examples of east coast placenames with apostrophes. Swan's Island, Maine.
Those of you who believe Martha’s Vineyard lacks deer hunters are wrong. The problem now is that the risk of getting bitten by a tick while out deer hunting is scaring away the deer hunters.
@Achilles: "The deer will just end up dying a few months younger from all of the lead poisoning. You have to actually hit specific parts of the deer to kill it."
If drive-by hunting rules were enacted, the deer would be completely safe. The bunny rabbits 100 feet away would get shot. Search for "Shooting Micro Draco with one hand" on Youtube.
Hunting by sharpshooters is inefficient compared to poison bait for deer. Of course, if it is a corn spreading bait system, the local critters such as raccoons, opossums, birds, etc., will also be poisoned. The mammals all have ticks as pests, too, and likely carry the disease (google it yourself if interested), so a total mammal purge on the island is likely the only solution to the ticks, and then you'd have to prevent re-introduction each year, somehow. Looks like the ticks and the disease are here to stay.
For an interesting side quest, google "how texas defeated tick borne disease for cattle ranching" and see if you can find a parallel method applicable to deer. So far, nobody has.
A couple of solutions which should gain approval on Martha's Vineyard: Gender affirmation care for young bucks, to transition them to does. Female deer health care to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
I think culling Martha's Vineyard is a good idea.
Alpha-gal is no joke. I know someone in VA who has it. He has to carefully read every ingredient of every food and toiletry he uses, even the wrong shampoo can put him into anaphylactic shock.
Time to reintroduce wolves on the island. Win-Win.
Alpha-gal is no joke.
THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!!!!
I'm reminded of the tremendously successful screw fly eradication (irradiation) program. I'm no entomologist, but I wonder if there isn't some kind of similar trick in tick ecology that could be hijacked to significantly reduce their numbers. Female ticks only breed once as well...just sayin.
Forget hunting or sharpshooting, they need to bring in more deer to accelerate population collapse. Then just scoop up the corpses.
Alpha gal syndrome? Does that turn you into Maggie Thatcher?
RR
JSM
tcrosse said...
“…Female deer health care to terminate unwanted pregnancies.”
You know what a female deer says when she discovers she has an unintended pregnancy: Do(e)’h!
The Deer Hunter 2: Martha’s Vineyard
Lance said...
“Forget hunting or sharpshooting, they need to bring in more deer to accelerate population collapse.”
Especially if they’ve dyed their fur blue and/or have a nose ring.
Hire bow hunters, libs.
“ Martha's Vineyard only has 12 years before it's underwater anyway, right?”
I think that was 20 years ago.
A lot of hand wringing when a solution exists.
And though they get bit by the Lone Star Tick,
People don't seem to care.
They just keep on lookin to the East....
Talking bout the Lefty 'Yard,
Whoaoahoh, whoahoh Lefty 'Yard!
RR
JSM
Left Bank of the Charles said...
"Those of you who believe Martha’s Vineyard lacks deer hunters are wrong. The problem now is that the risk of getting bitten by a tick while out deer hunting is scaring away the deer hunters."
No. No it doesn't. You obviously don't hunt.
Mr. Mosby hittin’ teh doobies!
The Redditors of r/vegan are having orgasms over this story.
I checked but, alas, iguanas do not eat ticks. We got about 200,000 of them here in South Florida and the number is rising. I'd love for DeSantis to bus some up to Martha's Vineyard. .
And I'd like to issue a huge thanks to our exotic pet owner friends for gifting us iguanas and Burmese pythons.
Swan's Island, Maine or Swans Island Maine? Locals use the apostrophe--NOAA and the federals and goggle do not. Whom to trust?
A place full of ticks, vegans, and alpha gals is not the place for me.
" I see where most of WI is safe."
This article says differently, especially in northern Wisconsin. I ended up with an embedded tick in Vilas County this spring, despite being very careful. Happens most years.
I contracted a mosquito-borne virus last summer. It was bad, and I continue to suffer some symptoms. Deer are also a host for this virus. I'm not a big fan of deer anymore.
Alpha-gal would be terrible. I need to redouble my efforts re: tick prevention.
Why would a species evolve a bite that does that? Perhaps it's trying to reduce the amount of competition for local meat sources.
You got about a thousand Indians on the island (casino, not motel). Give them bows and arrows and let them loose on the critters. If they happen to hit a few billionaires by mistake call it retributive justice and move on.
The islands in Portland ME harbor suffered from the same deer over population issue in the recent past. As I recall a couple of special bow seasons solved the problem. Of course ME still has a healthy hunting culture. I can just see the nervous nellies of the Vineyard welcoming the numbers of hunters needed to clean up the herd. They would rather die. Just think of the number of needy who could be fed from the culling of the herd.
Is it warmer than it was in the thirties yet? I doubt it, but I know that they cook the numbers, same as the DC crime statistics. They tell us what they think they need us to believe in order for them to get what they want.
Two "bioethicists" from the University of Washington and Western Michigan University published a controversial proposal in the journal Bioethics. They argued that intentionally spreading tickborne alpha-gal syndrome could serve as a "moral bioenhancer" to reduce human consumption of meat, citing the environmental impact of the meat industry. The proposal suggested that inducing alpha-gal syndrome, which causes an allergic reaction to mammalian meat, could compel more people to adopt vegetarian or plant-based diets, thereby mitigating ecological harm.
I spend a lot of time outside tending to my several acres of landscape gardens and I get bitten by ticks several times a week. The culprits are mostly lone star ticks and itty bitty deer ticks. I hate the latter the most because they are so small. I'm fortunate that I have a strong itch reaction to a tick bite and usually know it's tweezers time once I come back inside. I don't understand why there can't be a product the safe for humans like there is for dogs that when a tick bites you, it dies.
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