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Comment by progman32 | Hacker News Reader

You're getting a lot of strong reactions here, so I'll just stand up and say I agree with the point I think you're making, which is that the cavalier attitude some people have towards killing harmless insects is misplaced, especially when interactions can be mitigated easily. I'm not so sure it's as simple as turning lights off, though.

I do not hold the same opinion on disease carrying insects. They, regrettably, must be eliminated where people live. It's unclear which insects op is intending to kill. Around here such a campsite trap would net almost exclusively mosquitoes, which count as disease vectors to my eyes.

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Regarding common disease vectors in insects, what is going on with ticks in the eastern US? 20 years ago I could go hiking in thousands of acres of pristine national forest and catch maybe one or two a year. Now I catch one or two per hike from local trails, picnicking, or even from the turf at a soccer game.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148482/mapping-the-...

tl;dr: global warming

Winters don't freeze them anymore.

I grew up in PA in the early 90's, and ticks were everywhere, even in the suburban woods we'd play in. About 25 years ago when my family took a trip to Chincoteague Island in VA, my little sister got Lyme disease.

Even in the late 90's, I must've brought a pregnant tick into the house with me, there were scores of them in my room one summer.

I now live in Anchorage Alaska -- and while there are no deer ticks, ticks that bite dogs have been steadily moving up the coast and are now here.

So I agree about numbers and range extending, but not the timeline you mention. Those suckers were everywhere on the east coast 30 years ago.

Here are a few factors:

- Deer populations are increasing.

- There are no winter killoffs due to warming temperatures.

- Invasive plants like Japanese barberry are becoming extremely common and create microclimates that support mice that ticks live on before attaching to deer.

I believe some tick-borne diseases are becoming more common - I know two people that have had babesiosis, and one person and one dog with anaplasmosis. One of the babesiosis cases was not caught by the hospital in the first go-around and required a blood exchange and almost 2 months in the hospital and rehab.

There is a new invasive insect called the deer ked [0] that crawls like the girl from The Ring and may be a new vector for tick diseases (and they fly!).

Highly recommend checking out the CDC on tick-borne diseases [1], using DEET/permethrin [2] (no permethrin with cats, though), and doing tick checks if you spend time outside.

[0]: https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/index.html

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipoptena_cervi

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin

Note for dogs:

Babeosis is stil rare in the northern US.

When you go to a hospital due to a suspected tick bite, keep in mind the standard tick panel does NOT include babeosis screening

You must do a full panel (some 26 tests) in order to detect it. These are often not available in most vet offices.

Babeosis is extremely common in the tropical climate of LATAM. If you take your dog there, and he comes back to the US sick , Consider that your US hospital may be dealing with an exotic disease (unlike LATAM, where this would be a dime a dozen)

"harmless"

They will do everything in their power to kill and eat you and give you diseases.

We do need them but harmless? Mother Nature is anything but harmless.

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