IdentifyUS

Hey Chicagoans, if you think you have bedbugs send us a specimen for confirmation and identification to be sure.

Major American city again takes top honors for worst possible travel reason Experts warn summer travelers to inspect hotel mattresses and furniture as bedbug activity surges across top U.S. cities hosting major events.

https://open.substack.com/pub/outbreaknewstoday/p/spain-reports-crimean-congo-hemorrhagic

Spain reports Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever case in Salamanca Health officials in the Spanish autonomous community of Castile and León reported last month on a confirmed locally acquired Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) case in a 68-year-old man in Salamanca province.

IdentifyUS is a local resource for tick identification and testing. We work directly with consumers and health care professionals to offer fast, expert and confidential information on all types of biting arthropods. If your health provider is sending your tick to a pathology lab to ID and test, it’s likely going through IdentifyUS behind the scenes. You can interface with us directly to offer patients a superior comprehensive report on their tick specimens and associated test results. https://idmybug.com/

https://substack.com//note/p-206499711

Repost:: Tick Doc It’s the time of year for disease-carrying parasites

IdentifyUS offers a comprehensive tick identification and testing resource that includes the Bourbon virus, Heartland disease and 28 other tick-borne pathogens.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer announced a request for $273.5 million in funding for research of ticks and tickborne diseases in the 2027 federal budget. The initiative would add $90 million more than what was allocated in the 2026 fiscal year toward these efforts.

What prompted Schumer’s request, however, was the case of Michael Larkin, a Suffolk County resident who was recently diagnosed with Bourbon virus — named for Bourbon County in Kansas, where it was first identified. Bourbon virus is a rare tickborne illness contracted from an infected lone star tick.

Larkin’s diagnosis came after the completion of a long research study conducted by infectious disease specialist Dr. Luis Marcos, alongside a team of colleagues at Stony Brook Medicine.

The study began five years ago. At the time, Marcos and his team took samples from patients who had received a tick bite. After sending the data to the Department of Health for research and results, three diagnoses were returned: one older Bourbon virus infection, one recent Bourbon virus infection (Larkin’s), and one Heartland virus infection — another rare disease carried by the lone star tick.

Ticks have 4 life stages and live for about 2 years. They require three bloodmeals in order to survive and complete their life cycle. Nymph and adult ticks carry the highest risk of disease transmission. Nymphs pose a unique risk due to their small size and ability to feed for longer while going undetected. Keep in mind that deer do not play a role in disease transmission to ticks, as they do not carry or spread Lyme disease, but instead serve as important hosts to support deer tick populations.

In Massachusetts, the tick associated with the syndrome has started to expand to new areas of the state, officials say.