The sun's blazing, the meat is marinating and the BBQ is firing on all cylinders - what could possibly go wrong?
Well, if you're Stateside, you could be in for a shock.
This little arsehole of a tick is spreading its way around America and it has a really mean trick up its tiny sleeve.
Forget about Lyme disease, cast itching out of mind; this tick hasn't just come to fuck up your health, he's come to fuck up your BBQ, too.
A bite from the lone star tick, aka the 'reverse zombie' tick, can cause everything from intense itchiness and stomach cramping to difficulty wit breathing, and even death. But far worse than that, it can cause a severe allergy to a sugar molecule found in red meat.
Credit: Flickr/Lisa Zins (Creative Commons)
Advert
To put that simply: a bite from this tick will stop you from eating meat.
As if that wasn't horrific enough, you might not even know straight away, as the allergic reaction takes so long to come on.
"The weird thing about [this reaction] is it can occur within three to 10 or 12 hours, so patients have no idea what prompted their allergic reactions," said Dr. Ronald Saff, an allergist in Tallahassee, Florida, and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine.
The symptoms aren't too pretty either. Hives and shortness of breath are both common and extreme cases can result in anaphylactic shock and, as a result, death.
Usually these symptoms will begin to present themselves the night after having consumed the meat, leaving victims unaware of what brought them on.
"They're sleeping and they have no idea what they could be allergic to because the symptoms occurred so many hours after going to bed," Dr. Saff told Business Insider.
Lone star ticks are currently mainly in the south-east of North America, but they're spreading out and infecting new people, making them severely allergic to as little as one bite of red meat. There have been reports of the allergy breaking out as far north-east as Maine, New Hampshire and Long Island.
These ticks are truly horrible bastards - not only are they aggressive, but they bite at all stages in their development. They will even bite in their larval state, which is something that no other species of tick does.
Despite the growing presence of these ticks and the allergy they bring with them, relatively little is known about either.
People seem to be affected differently: some are able to eat small quantities of meat, while others can't even stomach meat-related products, such as milk or cheese.
The worst part of the whole thing is that nobody yet knows whether or not the allergy ever wears off, meaning that one bite from the reverse zombie tick could mean that you'll never eat a burger again.
Chilling.
Advert
Words: Paddy Maddison