Free Republic

Israel's Mitam is a tick's green nemesis By Karin Kloosterman October 12, 2008 Send to a Friend Printer Friendly View Who doesn't love bringing our favorite furry friends into the house - even to curl up on the bed? But the freeloading ticks Rover brings under the covers with him are a nuisance and a health hazard, causing Lyme disease in North America, and a host of other ailments. While chemical solutions can control ticks, the cost is adverse health effects to humans, animals and the environment. Now, an Israeli company Mitam has developed a chemical-free, environmentally safe anti-tick spray...

ROMA — Texas border cattlemen have a message for Homeland Security officials grappling with publicity nightmares over the Rio Grande Valley segment of the border fence: Bring it west, to their ranches. That way, the fence can deter not only undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers but also the dreaded fever tick. "For the whole cattle industry, it would be great," fourth-generation rancher Hector Guerra said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 102-year-old fever-tick eradication program saves the country's livestock industry an estimated $1 billion annually in potential losses from the disease that the ticks spread. Border ranchers are working feverishly to...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the...

Awesome Animals More Weird Mating Habits: The longest-lasting copulation, according to University of Arizona biologist John Alcock (interviewed for an August Knight Ridder story), is that of the lowly "stick insect" (of the phasmida family), which goes on for several months at a time, even though, he said, it is "not clear this is welcome to the female." The male attaches himself to the female's back, which allows her to continue with her daily routine during the mating, while also discouraging competitor males. According to other biologists, some ticks spend up to eight hours on what resembles foreplay, and butterflies,...

Riders work to keep cattle fever ticks confined to a quarantine zone LAREDO - This federal employee works along a treacherous stretch of high Rio Grande riverbank known as No Man's Land. His work uniform: leather chaps, sturdy Wranglers, high-top bullhide boots and silver spurs. His tools: a .357-caliber revolver, a lariat, a machete, a walkie-talkie and his beloved brown-and-white Appaloosa, Payaso. snip It's hard and lonely work in unforgiving terrain. The cowboys live away from their families in remote shacks four to five nights a week. They ride solo six or seven hours daily in 100-plus-degree temperatures, cutting trails...

<p>THE FACTS Ever notice a tiny speck on your skin and then discover that what looked like a piece of dirt was actually a tick? For most people, that moment is about the only time exposing an arm or a leg to an open flame can seem like a good idea.</p>

Only in Pennsylvania would insect control stand a chance of becoming a significant issue in a gubernatorial campaign. Many political observers believe Republican state Sen. Jeff Piccola of Dauphin County will emerge as Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's GOP challenger next year. Piccola's insect-related criticism of the proposed 2005-06 state budget that Rendell unveiled Wednesday leaves little doubt that he will seek the office. Piccola blasted Rendell over the planned elimination of the Department of Environmental Protection's $4.4 million black-fly control and suppression program. He strongly opposes ending state-financed spraying to reduce the summertime population of black flies -- more commonly...

With a $2.5 billion overrun on the new span and only about $140 million left in the bank, the Bay Bridge project is in danger of running out of money before a solution to the funding gap is found. Caltrans was expected to brief the California Transportation Commission today on the span --now estimated to cost $5.1 billion, according to a draft Caltrans budget document -- but agency spokesman David Anderson said Wednesday the status report has been postponed until next month. That has put the link between Oakland and San Francisco in legislative limbo. Legislators are waiting for Caltrans...