Ticks (more than you want to know)

This is by far the very worst tick season we've ever had. April 25th, Tom found the first tick on himself, and I found one a couple days later. From then on I have tried to avoid being outdoors in the grass. It wasn't hard to do because April and May were chilly and rainy for the most part. However, Tom takes Lucy up the hill twice a day (Labradors need a lot of exercise!). He rides the four-wheeler so you'd think he would be protected but he still finds them on himself. Lucy runs through the tall grasses and woods and comes home with ticks. We find a lot of them still crawling over her body. Luckily she is light colored so we can see them, but try as we may we still miss some and have pulled off a few big ones. And the other delightful thing is that they get caught in clothes, and I've found live ones crawling up the cloth laundry holder, and even inside the washing machine. I've found them crawling on the floor and crawling on the walls. Not many, but still.... Tom pulls them off Lucy with his bare hands and squishes them. I take them off with a kleenex and burn it in the woodstove. And though we check ourselves every day, we are still apt to wake up in the morning with a tick crawling around or semi-attached. Yuck, yuck, and yuck. They were never here in my childhood or my children's childhoods. They seemed to show up in the early 2000s. I did a search to see if this was recognized as the worst year by anyone else, and got this result. In a way, it is heartening to know there is an answer. Matt thought it might be the warm winter, and I thought it might be the wet spring, but it looks like we can blame acorns! Who knew? What I do know is they should be mostly gone by July, and I can lose my vigilante persona. If you can't get enough of this subject, I've mentioned ticks in my letters - here and here.


Acorns, Not Weather, To Blame for More Ticks
National Pest Management Association explains why 2010's crop puts people at risk for tick-borne disease

The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) is forecasting a heavier tick season than in previous years, but it's not due to the unseasonably mild winter as one might expect. Rather, acorns can be blamed for the predicted surge in tick populations this year, particularly in the Northeastern U.S.

Oak trees produced an extremely large acorn crop in 2010, which led to a boom in the white-footed mouse population last year. As a result, the blacklegged (deer) tick population also increased because the ticks had an abundance of mice to feed on when they hatched. However, this spring those same ticks will be looking for their second meal as nymphs, but a decline in the mice population may force them to find new warm-blooded host - humans.

Experts are concerned about an increase in human cases of tick-borne disease. "Many of these nymphal ticks may have contracted Lyme disease from feeding on infected mice as larvae," said Jim Fredericks, technical services director for NPMA. "These hungry ticks will soon be looking for another blood meal, which puts people at risk as they head outside to enjoy the weather."

NPMA offers the following tick tips:

• Use tick repellent when outdoors and wear long sleeved shirts and pants, preferably light in color, so ticks are easier to detect.

• Use preventative medicine on pets, as prescribed by your veterinarian.

• Once indoors, inspect clothing and your entire body. Check family members and pets that have been outdoors.

• Keep grass cut low, including around fences, sheds, trees, shrubs and swing sets. Remove weeds, woodpiles and other debris from the yard.

• If you find a tick on your body, remove it with a slow, steady pull so as not to break off the mouthparts and leave them in the skin. Then, wash hands and bite site thoroughly with soap and water.  Ticks should be flushed down a toilet or wrapped in tissue before disposing in a closed receptacle.

• If you suspect a tick bite, seek medical attention.

For more information on ticks, please visit www.pestworld.org.