A GOP lawmaker thinks rise in Lyme disease is due to a secret tick experiment. A scientist squashes that idea.

Ticks are swarming, carrying myriad diseases such as Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and making people ill. And, as one congressman believes, these ticks came from secret Pentagon experiments to turn ticks into biological weapons.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) is so concerned about an alleged tick-bioweapon project that he led an effort to pass an amendment ordering the Defense Department to investigate it. Specifically, the amendment orders the department’s inspector general to determine whether government scientists experimented with bioweapons — specifically in ticks — and if those arachnids ended up making their way out of the labs and into the public between the 1950s and the 1970s.