this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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Today I Learned

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"Alpha-gal syndrome is triggered when a tick bite causes a person’s immune system to develop an allergic reaction to meat, including beef, pork or lamb."

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[–] Tim_Bisley@piefed.social -2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Do people on the east coast just not care about the diseases ticks carry? I feel like nobody is doing anything about ticks or the diseases. Back in the 80s they used to fly planes a few hundred feet over my house and open the back bay where a cloud of deet would come come pouring out. We'd stand out on the porch and watch and run inside before the cloud hit the ground. They did all that for mosquitoes.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Turns out that horrific for the environment and it's easier to just tell people to stop killing opossums.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Opossoms don't really eat many ticks. The methodology of that study was flawed because they only fed them ticks.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 12 hours ago

birds like eat ticks of mammals though.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

They are predators of mosquitoes and ticks, they aren't supersoldiers of pest control like the study implies they are however a limiter in the ecosystem along with other animals people tend to kill and not think much about. It's cheaper and easier to educate about not killing x than to eradicate a species and eat the consequences.


so it turns out Statesians eat nothing but donuts. in this proposal to the IRB i would like to investigate...

[–] Tim_Bisley@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

Well I used that as an example of the effort expensed not that it was a good solution. Similar to how opossums aren't a solution. It's been mentioned a number of times now they don't help as much as first thought. Sounds like chickens or guinea fowl are better

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

so i googled alpha gal tick and this is the first map i found. it is not authoritative it came off social media. but i remember when the map didn't include the west coast and lone star ticks were way further south.

so that might be why they don't care, because they don't know they need to care.

[–] GalacticRobot@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

They care, but there isn't a 'lot' that can be done. These ticks range is expanding due to climate change, and even with proper precautions (sprays, clothing, monitoring) it still can happen. Lyme disease is a big thing in on the east coast, so they do know about ticks.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

I seen a weird story where a helicopter was dropping boxes of ticks in fields.