It’s an exotic tick that’s never been seen before in the United States. It was first spotted on a sheep in Hunterdon County, and efforts to wipe it out have failed.
New Jersey has always been home to different species of ticks ‐ five to be exact. But a new variety of the bloodsucking bug is now in the mix.
It’s the East Asian tick, sometimes called a longhorned or bush tick. Originally found in Asia, thousands of them are now in the Garden State.
Their discovery started with a call.
"A phone call from a resident in Hunterdon County that her sheep was infested with a lot of ticks. She brought some in and, low and behold, she was also covered in the same ticks," research microbiologist James Occi said. "It was kind of an odd looking thing. She didn’t know what it was, she had never seen them before."