Ticks surging this spring
When the snow melts and the warm winds of spring and summer return to the countryside, the black-legged ticks wake up from their winter slumber and infest the landscape.
And this year is supposed be worse than ever.
In Western Pennsylvania, Ixodes scapulars ticks, commonly known as black-legged or deer ticks, have been increasing in numbers, and every year more people contract Lyme disease from a tick bite.
“Lyme disease is a bacterium from a group called a spirochete, which is shaped like a corkscrew,” said Thomas Simmons, a professor of biology at Indiana (Pa.) University. “It can travel through your blood, and, if not treated, it can get into tissue.”
Eventually, if it continues to go unchecked, the bacterium can get into nervous system tissue and do serious damage. It is imperative that this disease be caught and treated quickly. Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics, but results vary widely depending on the patient and how long they've gone without treatment.
There is no cure or vaccine for humans, and Simmons said the best way to fight Lyme disease is to avoid it altogether.
“There are answers, but the answers are to take preventive measures,” he said.
These include using bug spray with DEET, treating clothes with Permethrin and tucking your shirt in your pants and your pants in your socks.
It's not enough to stay vigilant in the woods. Yards and residential areas often contain ticks as well.
“Most cases are from residential properties,” Simmons said. “I have friends who are hunters who take all the precautions in the woods, but they get bit because they don't when they're doing yard work.”
At the end of the day, be sure to check yourself for tick bites or rashes.
If you find a tick, remove it immediately. An infected tick can take over a day and a half to transmit a disease, and removal can prevent that.To remove a tick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends using fine-tip tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible to keep the blood trapped in its body, and smoothly pull it out. Dispose of it without touching it or coming into contact with the blood.If you do develop a rash or symptoms, contact your doctor immediately, since quick treatment of Lyme disease and other tick-born illnesses maximizes the effectiveness of the treatments.Simmons said anyone taking these steps should feel confident in their ability to avoid the disease.“I've collected thousands of ticks with my students, and none of us that we know of has contracted Lyme disease,” he said.Simmons said precautions are becoming increasingly important as more and more ticks swarm through Pennsylvania each year.“Ten years ago, you'd have been hard-pressed to find a black-legged tick,” Simmons said.Now, there are thousands of cases of Lyme disease every year.Simmons said a combination of reforestation and an increasing deer population have contributed the reemergence of ticks and Lyme disease. In counties where no one thought about ticks a decade ago, one must always remain vigilant.According to data from the CDC, Pennsylvania has become the state with the most confirmed cases of Lyme disease per year.In 2015, there were 7,351 cases confirmed. New Jersey came in a distant second with 3,932, followed by New York with 3,252.“The good news is I don't think the population is going to get any higher than it is, because the amount here is the same as in Connecticut and Rhode Island,” Simmons said.Lyme carrying ticks originally came from those states, and Simmons believes the tick populations in them represent a population ceiling.“The bad new is it's really high,” he said. “If you take a two square yards in the forest under a good canopy and you step in it, you will be sharing that space with one adult tick and three nymphs.”And this year is expected be a bountiful year for ticks, with many blaming the mild winter for the surge.“I hear a lot in the news: Mild winters mean more ticks. I don't buy that,” said Simmons. “Ticks are really well adaptive. They don't mind the cold.”Simmons said he's collected ticks in cold years and warm years and has seen no evidence that cold weather reduces tick numbers. “The tick is dormant under the snow, away from the cold air. They're perfectly happy there,” he said.Simmons' theory is that the surge in ticks has more to do with acorns.“Two years ago there were lots of acorns for the mice,” Simmons said.Mice are the primary carrier of ticks, especially the younger nymphs.Ticks have a two-year cycle, and this would line up well with the year of the acorn surplus.“I think the bumper crop of acorns two years ago led to a bumper crop of ticks today,” Simmons said.
