The world is teeming with bugs, and they're getting worse. From mechanical disease vectors like houseflies to self-cloning ticks and flesh-eating flies, the bugs are spreading out and inventing new ways to torture us. The situation is particularly dire in the United States, where ticks are posing an ever-larger problem. Reported cases of vector-borne diseases doubled between 2005 and 2019, and we keep discovering new pathogens. Ticks in the US can transmit more than a dozen diseases, with Lyme being the most prevalent. The trajectory of tick-borne maladies is described as "explosive," and not limited to Lyme. As many as 476,000 people a year in the US may be diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease, an estimate based on insurance claims data. The best predictor of tick numbers is the number of white-footed mice, which are themselves influenced by the number of acorns that fall from oak trees. This year, visits to emergency departments across the US for tick bites are at the highest they've been at this point in the season in the past seven years. Part of the problem is that ticks are spreading out, with blacklegged ticks doubling the number of counties in which they're considered established between 1996 and 2015. Climate change is playing a role, but so are "factors related to landscape changes in the United States since the turn of the century." The Southwest is expected to have an especially pesky year for scorpions, as they and other arachnids are driven indoors by monsoon rains. The good news is that prevention of the plagues brought by bugs is possible. Wearing EPA-registered repellent and treating clothing and shoes with permethrin are recommended. Maintaining the environment around your home to make it less enticing to bugs can also make a big difference. And as the bugs make their moves, science isn't standing still. Drug giant Pfizer has said it's applying for approval of a Lyme disease vaccine, which would be the first on the market in two decades if cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration. Work is also underway to develop other methods of protecting people from ticks, including a pill in clinical trials that aims to kill them after they bite, preventing them from spreading pathogens. For alpha-gal syndrome, the tick-caused meat allergy, doctors are increasingly turning to the allergy and asthma drug Xolair to tamp down the risk of bad allergic reactions. And then there are the more futuristic approaches: genetically modifying mice, for example, so that they can't carry the Lyme-causing bacteria, a potential endeavor on an island in Nantucket. But all of these methods come second to taking steps to protect ourselves directly, experts emphasize. "The most important thing that people can do is personal protection," said Molaei. "Nothing can match this one." Personally, I think that the situation is dire, and we need to take proactive steps to protect ourselves and our loved ones from these bugs. What makes this particularly fascinating is the complexity of the factors contributing to the spread of bugs, from climate change to landscape changes and even the behavior of animals like deer and mice. In my opinion, the best way to combat this issue is to invest in research and development of new technologies and treatments, while also educating the public about the importance of personal protection. From my perspective, the future of bug control lies in a combination of innovative solutions and individual responsibility.
