Pennsylvania
What to know about the invasive tick that’s taking over local Pa. forests
A big part of the reason they’ve managed to spread so quickly, Price said, is that they’re parthenogenetic, which means females are capable of reproducing asexually without the aid of male ticks.
“So the implications of this mean that a single individual female that lays around 2,000 to 2,500 eggs, all without mating, can create an entire population just by that individual,” Price said. “There’s no other tick in North America that reproduces in this manner. And it’s this unique reproductive strategy that enables the Longhorn tick to very successfully and very rapidly invade new geographic regions across the state and the country.”
He added that migratory hosts, including white-tailed deer and black-capped night herons, are capable of carrying the ticks across vast distances, which also accounts for their rapid geographical spread.
Potential threats to public health
One of the biggest questions researchers are asking about longhorned ticks is how much of a threat they pose to humans.
Past research out of Asia has found that longhorn ticks can carry a large variety of pathogens that affect human health.
“But it’s not 100% clear if it actually vectors those pathogens,” Phillips said. “So even if it has the bacteria or the virus inside of it, is it going to give it to you if it bites you? That’s not 100% clear. So that’s part of what we were trying to figure out in our research.”
To investigate that question, Phillips, along with Temple University ecologist Jocelyn Behm and undergraduate student Jackson Fahey, collected longhorned ticks from forested areas around the Philadelphia area, and tested them for pathogens. The results were good.
“None of the ones that we collected carried any pathogens,” Phillips said. “So if you get bit by one around Philadelphia, you hopefully aren’t going to get a disease right away.”
Those findings match with other, previous rounds of testing that likewise found that longhorned ticks aren’t yet carrying some of the pathogens most dangerous to humans.
But that’s not the end of the story. Price said that some of his lab’s current research has discovered multiple pathogens of human health concern in longhorned ticks collected from Pennsylvania parks and public use areas. Among the pathogens they found is the bacteria responsible for causing Lyme disease, though Price added that studies from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that longhorned ticks are less likely to spread Lyme disease because the bacterium tends to be lost during their molting stage.
Still, Price said, the tick is so new that the role it plays in terms of disease transition remains largely uncertain.
However, past studies have found that longhorned ticks are capable of spreading several pathogens that can be found in Pennsylvania, including Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Powassan virus, a rare but serious disease that can cause encephalitis and meningitis.
“Typically with Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterial agent responsible for Lyme disease, the tick has to be attached for 36 hours before that bacteria can be transferred through the bite to an individual,” Price said. “But with Powassan virus, it’s only about 15 minutes, and that’s just because the virus is maintained in the mouth parts and the salivary glands compared to the Lyme disease bacteria that’s maintained in the midgut of the tick.”
Price added that Phillips’ study helped demonstrate that there is significant overlap in habitat between longhorned ticks and local ticks, which provides a potential pathway for pathogens to be transmitted between the species.
Also of concern is the fact that longhorned ticks are more aggressive in their pursuit of hosts and more likely to swarm than other ticks, as well as findings indicating that they’re more likely to be found in areas where local ticks typically don’t reside, like manicured lawns. They’ve also been found to affect domestic animals, like dogs, and can pose significant threats to livestock like cattle.
Luckily, longhorned ticks can be protected against using the same methods recommended for local ticks, including keeping your skin covered, and the use of repellents approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, like permethrin.
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Pennsylvania State Police is investigating an incident in Salisbury Township on Saturday.
Lancaster County dispatch confirmed that troopers were called to the 4900 block of Strasburg Road for an incident that was reported around 11 a.m.
Fire and EMS was called to the area but have since been cleared, dispatch said.
This is a developing story. CBS 21 is working to learn more.
Pennsylvania
What’s old is new again in Pennsylvania as the Penguins and Flyers renew a long-simmering rivalry
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Sidney Crosby would not take the bait, even though the smile on his face and the gleam in his eye hinted that maybe the Pittsburgh Penguins captain kind of wanted to.
Told that Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet – an assistant with the Penguins when Pittsburgh won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – knew his current team was going to have to “get after” Crosby and longtime running mates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang when the cross-state rivals open their first-round series on Saturday night, Crosby just grinned.
“I mean, to be expected, what else can you expect me to say?” the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer said with a small laugh. “We’re all out there competing. We all are after the same thing. That’s how it works.”
Technically, that’s how it always seems to work whenever the Flyers and Penguins get together, regardless of circumstance. Things only figure to be ramped up considerably during the eighth – and perhaps most unlikely – playoff meeting between two teams separated by 300 miles geographically and considerably more in terms of postseason success.
The three Cups that Crosby has won during his 21-year career are one more than the Flyers have in the franchise’s nearly six-decade history, and yes some are still keeping track of Philadelphia’s long nuclear winter since its last championships.
The chances of either club being the last one standing when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands the Cup to the victors in early June are slim. Oddsmakers put the resurgent Penguins in the middle of the pack to win it all, while the Flyers – who needed a 14-4-1 sprint to the finish to return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 – are among the longest shots in the 16-team field.
Not that any of that will matter when the puck is dropped and the venom that has long defined the contentious relationship between the clubs bubbles back up to the surface.
That venom on Philadelphia’s side has long been targeted at Crosby, who has beaten the Flyers three times in four playoff meetings, with the one loss coming during a frantic six-game series in 2012. Almost all the faces from those teams are gone.
Except, of course, for perhaps the most important one. Crosby, the only player in NHL history to average a point a game in 21 straight years, remains a threat and highly motivated by the return to the playoffs following a three-year absence.
“We have a ton of respect for Sid,” Tocchet said. “He’s an unbelievable person and player. But we’ve got to get him in the ditches right? We’ve got to make it hard on him.”
A long-awaited debut
Rasmus Ristolainen’s agonizing wait to feel the vibe of playoff hockey is over.
The Flyers defenseman will make the first postseason appearance of his 13-year, 820-game career when he hops over the boards at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.
Ristolainen’s wait before his playoff debut is the third-longest in NHL history. The 31-year-old even played in the Olympics before a postseason game. He won a bronze medal in February while playing for Team Finland at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
“Just really excited to play meaningful games this time of year,” said Ristolainen, who played in just 44 games this season while battling elbow injuries. “It’s been a really, really fun last month or so.”
Skinner or Silovs?
First-year Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse has flip-flopped between goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs since the Penguins acquired Skinner in a trade with Edmonton in December.
Whether that will continue in the postseason is anybody’s guess. Skinner has a decided advantage over Silovs in playoff experience, having backstopped Edmonton to consecutive Cup appearances in 2024 and 2025.
Yet Muse has kept his thoughts close to the vest, and statistically speaking, Silovs and Skinner posted nearly identical numbers, none of them particularly great. Silovs finished the year with a .887 save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average while Skinner had a slightly worse save percentage (.885) and a slightly better goals against (2.99).
“We’re looking at all factors,” Muse said. “As I’ve said multiple times, I think both guys have been great for us. Both guys are a big part of why we’re here today preparing for Game 1.”
What’s old is new again
Philadelphia forward Sean Couturier has played for the Flyers for so long that he was actually teammates with his boss, general manager Danny Briere.
Couturier was once a key cog during a previous rebuilding phase in Philadelphia, back when he was the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Couturier made his debut that season and has largely remained a steady presence in the lineup – save for back injuries that cost him the 2022-2023 season – and is the only Flyer still around from the franchise’s last home playoff series victory against, yes, the Penguins in 2012.
Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny are the only three Flyers on the roster to have played in a home playoff game, back in 2018.
“We were for a lot of years kind of in the middle, competing hard,” said Courtier, who had 12 goals and 24 assists this season. “We had some good teams. Just always missing a little something to get to the next step. I think it was maybe time to take a step back and rebuild. I’m just glad with how everything’s gone, honestly.”
___
AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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