Tag Archives: ticks

insect-bites-ticks

Blood-sucking ticks which can paralyse and kill humans with ONE bite invade UK

Experts say a new breed of the quick-spreading brown dog tick is fast becoming a UK epidemic.

Their rapid growth as summer looms has been helped by our unusually warm winter.Pest control firms say the parasitic bugs now here are variants from Europe – and bring with them a deadly threat to Brits.Worringly, they now believe the critters – which carry potentially-fatal Lyme Disease – are currently breeding in thousands of UK homes.

The tiny bugs can induce paralysis with one bite, leaving victims in wheelchairs and facing years of painful treatment. The infection can lead to death.
Typically found in warmer climates, these are like regular ticks only a nastier, ramped-up version of the blood-suckers familiar to the British Isles.Unlike the typical tick these nasties can survive inside for up to 18 months without feeding – sparking fears that they are already lying dormant in Brits’ homes before coming out to feast this summer.Female ticks can lay up to 4,000 eggs at time – usually in cracks or crevices in a house.

Pest control experts Rentokil told Daily Star Online they had been warned about an invasion of the new strain of critters in the UK.David Cross, head of the company’s Technical Training Academy explained it would be very difficult to control the bugs – as experts are still learning about how it survives.He said: “The brown dog tick behaves very similarly to bedbugs but it can survive indoors.

“They are very new to the UK – we were alerted about them 12 to 18 months ago but they could already be here.

“It’s hard to advise the public as we are still finding out more about the tick.

“However, traditional ticks found in Britain are usually picked up when people are walking their dogs or when sitting on the grass.

Mr Cross explained that the brown dog tick carries Lyme Disease – a bacterial infection that nestles in the nervous system and can cause brain and spinal cord inflammation – as well as frequent pain and paralysis.And fears of an epidemic come as campaigners and sufferers gather outside Parliament Square today to protest the UK Government over a condition that is seeing 3,000 new cases a year in the UK.

Source The Daily Star