“…The establishment of ALT in the northeastern United States—a region already burdened with high numbers of tick‐borne disease cases in humans (Rosenberg et al., 2018; Schwartz, Hinckley, Mead, Hook, & Kugeler, 2017) and companion animals (Berrada & Telford, 2009)—causes further apprehension. In East Asia, ALT is considered a primary vector of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), a human haemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates (Li et al., 2016; Liu, He, Huang, Wei, & Zhu, 2014; Zhuang et al., 2018). ALT also transmits Rickettsia japonica , the cause of Japanese spotted fever, a zoonotic disease that can be fatal (Mahara, 1997; Noguchi, Oshita, Yamazoe, Miyazaki, & Takemura, 2018; Tab ara et al., 2011).…”