Glenn Coin is reporting for Syracuse [dot] com the lone star tick, more common to the Southwest U.S., is slowly pushing its way north and into New York. They are already abundant on Long Island. The ticks do not transmit Lyme disease, the most common illness caused by the deer, or black-legged, tick. but they can carry several other serious bacterial and viral diseases, and can also cause a bizarre allergy to red meat. The lone star tick is about an eighth of an inch long, about twice the size of a deer tick. “You can feel them bite,” said Brian Leydet, an epidemiologist and tick researcher at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. “They are very aggressive ticks.” Deer ticks are questing ticks, meaning they climb onto grass and then attach themselves to a passing mammal. Lone star ticks are hunter ticks; they seek out mammals, including humans, and crawl quickly toward them. “Sometimes you can see the forest floor moving because there are so many of them,” Leydet said. None of the lone star ticks recently examined at the Thangamani Lab in Syracuse carried any disease, but they can carry and transmit several including ehrlichiosis, a bacterial disease with similar symptoms to Lyme, Southern tick-associated rash illness and heartland virus. Read the full story at Syracuse [dot] com.