A powerful New York Times opinion piece is sounding the alarm about shifting tick ecology — how ticks are spreading into new regions, thriving in new conditions, and bringing new risks with them.

The article — We’re Living in a Tick Nightmare. It’s Time to Go to War — digs into what this ecological shift means for all of us, and then connects the dots between Lyme disease, alpha‑gal syndrome, and the growing public‑health challenges that come with rapidly changing tick‑borne threats.

As journalist Jonathan Mingle writes: “Ticks are expanding their range faster than our public‑health systems can track them.”

And his description of the lone star tick is riveting: “The lone star tick, especially, seems as if it crawled out of a horror flick. With its aggressive approach to hunting and unusually long, barbed mouthparts designed to anchor into our flesh, it resembles a miniature version of the alien in the ‘Predator’ movies.”

You can read the full article using our gift link which bypasses the paywall. (It may appear crossed out due to a site glitch, but it works.)

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease and of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.