"One tick that a new study shows is endangering cattle in Virginia is able to clone itself, making colonizing new locations that much easier."

"It didn't take long for one of America's newest tick species to find Thomas Mather.

Mather, an entomologist who specializes in the tiny disease-carriers, had taken a team of scientists to Staten Island, New York, in hopes of collecting at least one Asian longhorned tick.

They were all of 50 feet from their car and had just unfurled a banner of white fabric, known as a tick drag, when the first longhorned tick landed in the fabric. Dragging a nearby patch of grass with the fabric, more longhorned ticks appeared. On a grass blade, Mather spotted an unusual clump and discovered dozens of tiny, seed-like tick larvae waiting for a victim to brush past."

Nina Pullano reports for InsideClimate News July 5, 2019. [2]