Last week Massachusetts entomologist and respected tick guru David Simser, PhD, came to visit. He was on a mission: To collect deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) in predetermined New Hampshire locations and count his catches. Two of these collections/counts were taken right here in Nottingham, NH.
To collect ticks Dr. Simser used a sweep pole on which was attached a white flannel fabric approximately 1.5 by 3 feet. He walked along paths in the woods sweeping the vegetation along either side of the path (see photo, inset). No bait, no lure, no tricks, the ticks attached themselves to the fabric quite readily as it passed over them. This is, after all, precisely how they latch onto mobile hosts naturally.
One particular plot swept yielded two nymphs (immature ticks). This was a low number, Dr. Simser noted, but he claimed that within a year or two the count in this location would explode. He’s seen it numerous times in the past so this was something more than a simple hypothesis on his part. It’s scary. We have no fear of the ticks themselves, but being that they are infamous for spreading Lyme disease (borreliosis), the thought of a local population explosion has us worried. In the specific area swept, there will be hundreds of kids there next spring for a fishing derby.
That said, if people are cognizant of the issue, it may not be a huge problem. First of all, in the spring during the fishing derby, only adult deer ticks will be present. The adults, we learned from Dr. Simser, are less of a threat. Apparently the adult ticks, while still capable of biting and passing along the disease, deliver a more painful bite. Because of this most people will feel the bite and remove the tick before the disease can be passed along. The nymphs, however, are rarely felt or noticed so the possibility that the nymph (see photo, inset) will bite and deliver its pathogenic payload is far greater.
So what can we do? How do we avoid contracting Lyme disease from disease carrying deer tick nymphs? Well, stopping short of never leaving your home for a walk in the woods, there’s not much you can do. These practices will help you stay safer, though.
- Keep moving. Deer ticks do more than lie in wait. They will hunt, tracking your carbon dioxide (CO2) trail. If you’re hunting, fishing, or remaining fairly stationary in the woods you will allow ticks to find you more readily.
- Avoid ticky areas. Staying on trails and avoiding brushy, grassy areas (even those along trails where the sweep took place), will not guarantee your safety, but it won’t hurt either. Reducing exposure can be very helpful.
- Cover up. Tucking your pants into your socks, while terribly dorky looking, will help keep ticks off your skin. If you want to be cool while you’re doing this, wear tall boots and tuck your pants into those. Likewise, any cover — a long-sleeved shirt, for example — will help.
- Check yourself. The most important practice is to check yourself as soon as possible after venturing into ticky areas. A quick bite doesn’t deliver Lyme disease just like that. A fluids exchange must be made so you do have a bit of a grace period. React quickly, clean the bite area, and watch it very carefully.
- React quickly. If you are bitten by a deer tick, or at least suspect you have been because of the onset of symptoms — like the red-and-white bullseye-type redness around the bite site — seek treatment immediately.
- Trap them. You can reduce the number of ticks (all species) in your area by constructing a tick trap. Since the process is rather involved, the how-to will be covered at another time (see note below).
To learn more about this subject, please check out this prior article titled “Some Tick Tech” written by Dr. Simser for this site. Note: An article describing how to make a tick trap will be covered in the near future so stay tuned.
Picture This - Beast-Blog.com responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 12:41 am →
[…] I have had two photography clients. One was an entomologist for the State of Massachusetts, I took photos of him and the deer ticks he was hunting. The other was a couple for a child portrait series taken in a playground. That was a lot of fun. The child, almost two, was extremely cute. I haven’t advertised yet — this is a first. I plan to use MikeCherim.com for photo-related stuff now. That used to be my playground, but I have moved my experiments to this domain (no links were harmed during this process except… Feed Terminated, Seriously, Hundreds Wept). […]
Covering Some Entomology Basics - GreenMethods.com responds:
Posted: July 31st, 2008 at 9:46 am →
[…] If you recall, I took photos of Dave Simser during his Grant Tick Hunt here in Nottingham NH. I decided to queue up a couple of these for my iStock portfolio. No problem… that is until I disambiguated the keywords I was adding. One of the photos was of a macro shot of a deer tick nymph, so naturally the keyword “nymph” was applied. That’s when things went bad. The word nymph was mapped to three choices: “Nymph (Classical Mythology Character),” “Elf (Speculative Being),” and “Larva (Animal Stage).” Well, that is all fine and good, Larva (Animal Stage), is the best match, but a nymph is not really a larva. I am being pedantic; to some a bug is a bug, but not everyone sees it this way. To some the distinction is important, and a “bug” is not always a bug. […]
How to Make a Tick Trap - GreenMethods.com responds:
Posted: August 15th, 2008 at 12:04 am →
[…] In the article The Grand Tick Hunt we told you we’d cover the how-to of making an effective tick trap. Fulfilling that promise we offer this article. This is not the most practical trap, nor is it small, easy, disposable, or any of those other things that seem to strike a chord with the American consumer, but it is effective. […]