re: Tim Burchett: Bill Gates is behind the massive increase in ticks

I can’t speak to the Gates stuff or the drops, but there’s definitely something going on.

When I was a kid, pretty much lived in the woods and in the fields and would find a tick every once in a while.

There’s a fenced common area in my little neighborhood that is wooded, but is mowed fairly regularly. Gets to mid shin at most, but is cut pretty low most of the time. So far this spring, we’ve found around 20 ticks between him and us. Remember this fenced area is surrounded by neighborhoods not woods.

You do not think it benefits an extreme liberal like gates to force Americans not to be able to eat red meat? You serious? A democrat, if they could and it were physically possible would force you into worshipping satan. Gates would consider making millions of Americans unable to eat red meat his life long achievement.

lol at all the gay leftists showing up to suddenly love Bill Gates.

It pushes his morals. No red meat eating.

When someone says pest control that means elimination of the pest, correct? The research is to eliminate the tick that kills cattle. Therefore more cows, more in the herd, more beef.

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How does it benefit him? And if it did, how does that prove he's spreading ticks? And how does your assertion fit with this?

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Hell, I'm trying to figure out why they're choosing to focus their ire only on Gates and the Oxitec lab when there are maybe a dozen other notable corporations and labs across the country doing the exact same research (many funded by governmental programs dating back to the early 1900s), including research on the actual tick species that actually do spread diseases to humans. Hell, Texas A&M does some tof the most extensive tick research, genetics included, in the country. The Aggies are doing the same type research that Gates is funding at Oxitec.

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When I was a kid, pretty much lived in the woods and in the fields and would find a tick every once in a while.

There’s a fenced common area in my little neighborhood that is wooded, but is mowed fairly regularly. Gets to mid shin at most, but is cut pretty low most of the time. So far this spring, we’ve found around 20 ticks between him and us. Remember this fenced area is surrounded by neighborhoods not woods.

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There are two issues that could be at play here. To your first point, the major change from the time you were a kid to now is to the landscape, or habitat. Every bit of development that happens alters that habitat, decreasing its coverage and fragmenting what suitable habitat is left. Development also degrades what habitat is left, ridding the ecosystem of native plant species in exchange for much less useful non-native plants and grasses. This serves to concentrate all species into smaller and smaller viable areas, leading to some areas within an ecosystem — those of lesser quality — having a much lower biomass while others can be overridden with certain species. This concentrates mammalian species into a smaller footprint, leading to the animals and insects that prey on or parasitize those species to also increase in number within the viable areas.

The other issue at play here centers on control methods that are used. Being that you live in a neighborhood with managed common areas, I'd assume that you all have someone (maybe a company) managing the areas for pests. If that company has sprayed for ticks for an extended period of time those ticks could very well develop immunity to whatever pesticide is being used. That problem is compounded/exacerbated when you account for homeowners doing their own pest control at different times, different, rates, etc.

New research has found that ticks can fairly quickly develop some degree immunity to these chemicals. That's not surprising, the same is known to occur in mosquitos and other pest insects. The more interesting part of that research found that ticks can pass that immunity on to future generations via their genetics, and those generations can continue to develop stronger and stronger immunity.

I would try to ask whoever is responsible for pest management if they are treating for ticks and if they have changed the chemical (not just the product) that they are using over time. Periodically changing chemicals that are used guard against, and slows down, that immunity development.

*This is not AI, and it is, in fact, a wall of text. I don't have it in me right now to proofread.

That is all correct

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There are two issues that could be at play here. To your first point, the major change from the time you were a kid to now is to the landscape, or habitat. Every bit of development that happens alters that habitat, decreasing its coverage and fragmenting what suitable habitat is left. Development also degrades what habitat is left, ridding the ecosystem of native plant species in exchange for much less useful non-native plants and grasses. This serves to concentrate all species into smaller and smaller viable areas, leading to some areas within an ecosystem — those of lesser quality — having a much lower biomass while others can be overridden with certain species. This concentrates mammalian species into a smaller footprint, leading to the animals and insects that prey on or parasitize those species to also increase in number within the viable areas.

The other issue at play here centers on control methods that are used. Being that you live in a neighborhood with managed common areas, I'd assume that you all have someone (maybe a company) managing the areas for pests. If that company has sprayed for ticks for an extended period of time those ticks could very well develop immunity to whatever pesticide is being used. That problem is compounded/exacerbated when you account for homeowners doing their own pest control at different times, different, rates, etc.

New research has found that ticks can fairly quickly develop some degree immunity to these chemicals. That's not surprising, the same is known to occur in mosquitos and other pest insects. The more interesting part of that research found that ticks can pass that immunity on to future generations via their genetics, and those generations can continue to develop stronger and stronger immunity.

I would try to ask whoever is responsible for pest management if they are treating for ticks and if they have changed the chemical (not just the product) that they are using over time. Periodically changing chemicals that are used guard against, and slows down, that immunity development.

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There is no company managing the property. It’s just a guy in the neighborhood with a landscaping company that does it out of the kindness of his heart.


There is no pest control that I’m aware of.