What You Can Do Know About Ticks
By Jim Doyle, Hartney Greymont, a Davey company
Ticks and tick-borne diseases are continually rising in the United States. In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just found that tick-borne diseases have more than doubled in the last 13 years.
Unfortunately for us in Massachusetts, those numbers hold true. The number of confirmed Lyme disease cases rose 65 percent from 2005 to 2009, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Each year, there are there are more Lyme cases than the year before! This untreatable disease accounts for 82 percent of all tick-borne diseases, according to the CDC.
As someone who works outside (and loves to be outdoors even when I’m not at
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At this stage in their life, they’re only the size of a poppy seed, which makes them easy to miss. Plus, the CDC says most humans are infected through the bites of these immature ticks. Right now, they inhabit our lawns and gardens–and love hiding along the edges of stone walls or in shady, moist spots on the ground.
But there are simple solutions to minimize the tick population surrounding your home.
Solutions and Treatment
Hartney Greymont arborists like me recommend the following steps to help reduce your tick population. Remember: no natural, vegetated area can be considered free of ticks. Instead, the goal is to give ticks fewer places to hide.
Here are a few ways to do that!
1. Take away the places ticks love. Ticks prefer damp, humid locations and are extremely susceptible to dehydration. When done correctly, this reduces your property's humidity by improving light and air circulation.
2. Clean it up! Get rid of brush piles or areas with lots of green debris. If you see any other overgrown areas of your garden, cut those back.
3. Deter deer. Add a physical barrier, like a fence, to keep deer and other tick-carrying animals out of your yard. Deer repellant spray may also be ap¬plied onto the plantings around your home to keep deer
Prevention of Lyme disease lies in avoiding contact with ticks and removing ticks that attach to the skin. Avoiding grassy and woody areas is one way. Dressing defensively to cover up the skin available for the tick to attach is another way prevents the disease. Using repellants on exposed skin or checking for ticks regularly are other methods.
Lyme disease has emerged as the most common vector borne infectious disease in the United States and has presented a growing challenge to public health officials over the past three decades. The infection represents a significant disease burden to the population of the United States with nearly 30,000 new cases diagnosed per year and an estimated additional 270,000 annual incident cases that go unreported. The disease results from a bacterial infection with the spirochete bacteria B. burgdorferi. This bacterial agent is transmitted to humans from the bite of a tick and is most commonly associated Ixodes species blacklegged ticks. These ticks represent the largest genus of the family Ixodidae and mainly inhabit temperate forest or grassland
Eliminate possible food supply: Not only are pests trying to avoid the cold, but they are also looking for a winter food supply. If they find their way in your home, whatever food you have will be their target. It important that you eliminate their possible food supply by keeping your food sealed and out of reach. If there is no food for them to eat, then there is no point in them staying.
A big, beautiful tree can really make a yard look great, but it can also be the one thing that is standing in your way of having the yard you want. Perhaps you want a more open space or don't want anything obstructing the view of your home, but regardless of your reason, cutting down the tree will be the best option. Although the tree has been cut down, you'll still have a decision to make, as there will be a stump that is left behind that you may want to get removed.
The bite of an infected tick is the primary mode of transmission to humans, or other vertebrate hosts, though it is also possible, but extremely rare for infection to result from exposure to crushed tick tissues, fluids, or feces. (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/Natural_Hx.htm)
“Lyme disease got its name from where it was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975” (healthychildren.org). “Since then there has been thousands of cases reported of the disease. The ticks live in low and high seasonal temperatures and high humidity” (healthychildren.org). Lyme Disease most common to occur in the Northeast, North-central states, or West Coast. On behalf of the Northeast, I can tell you that ticks are everywhere in this region. They like to live in tall grasses and woody areas. “The small insects more than often latch onto the foot or lower leg and crawl up the body, and travel up the body with a destination of the head. On their normal hosts, ticks also usually crawl up; they want to blood feed around the
According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt (a world renowned Lyme expert), Lyme disease is considered the plague of the century due to the large number of people with chronic Lyme disease and the associated co-infections. The number one symptom of Lyme is chronic fatigue. People can have Lyme for a very long time and not be properly diagnosed because current laboratory testing comes up short with being able to detect it. One of the main reasons for this is because chronic Lyme does not live in the blood but rather in the tissues. It is an intracellular organism meaning it lives inside the cell. Lyme has different shapes: spirochete (like a spring), cyst with a hard shell, and acellular (without an outer cell membrane). Lyme likes to set up a sanctuary in the body such as in the brain, teeth (such as under a root canal or in a cavitation), vertebrae, breast tissue, and lymph nodes. It looks for a place where it can be protected and the body is vulnerable preferably in fatty tissue or under a biofilm. While traditionally Lyme disease is considered a tick-borne disease, recent findings have discovered that it is an insect-borne disease that can get transferred
In 2010 there were 2 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in Alabama, which continued to rise until 2014 with the last reported number of 64 confirmed cases for that year alone. In September 2015 the Centers for Disease Control revised their estimates indicating that it is believed that there were more than 10 times more cases in the United States than the 30,000 reported. Lyme disease is the fastest growing transmittable disease in the United States. It is hard to believe a disease this infectious was only discovered four decades ago.
Indiana is considered to be a moderate risk state. Some of the states with a higher risk factor are along the upper east coast, Midwest, and western states. These areas seem to have a larger section of woods where the ticks like to hang out. Children seem to develop the disease more than adults. This is probably from being outside and playing
Thesis Statement: “According to the Center of Disease Control, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector borne illness in the United States”(Lyme Disease: Data and statistics, 2016).
A survey was composed to try to understand whether living around wooded areas could increase susceptibility towards getting Lyme Disease, whether owning outdoor pets was a risk towards getting Lyme Disease, and finally, what type of deer tick preventative measures work best amongst animals. Surveys were collected in two ways: online surveys and telephone surveys. In the end, the results were checked through statistical analysis and proven significant. All the results were posted on the Facebook page.
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. The disease was first discovered in 1975 after a group of children were suffering from rheumatoid arthritis like disease. One similarity the children had was playing in wooded areas during the summer in the area of Lyme, Connecticut. However, the bacteria was not isolated until late 1981 by Dr. Willy Burgdorfer. Lyme disease has become an important public health problem in the Midwest and Eastern United States with incidence rates steadily increasing.
Although most people don’t realize it, one of the world’s most debilitating diseases can often be found in their very own backyard. Lurking in the tall grass or dangling from the end of a branch, just waiting for you to walk by. Barley bigger than a poppy seed, they’re almost impossible to notice. But these tiny black-legged ticks are no joke and if you’ve been bitten, you’re at risk. These nasty little ticks pack a big punch, carrying a very serious life altering disease. This disease, which can change a life forever is known as Lyme disease.
One of the more common pests located in the Northeastern United States is the Black Legged Tick (Ixodes scapularis). More commonly known as the “Deer Tick” this animal primarily inhabits wooded areas populated by warm-blooded wildlife. Specifically the temperate Pine Barrens in Southern New Jersey, which hosts the 2nd largest tick population in the country (CDC, 2010), the black legged tick is a common pest that spreads lyme disease. This disease is a bacterial infection caused by the tick latching onto a host and feeding for an extended period of time. These ticks attach to most warm blooded woodland creatures and any human beings unfortunate enough to get close enough.
They suggest using the following tips to eliminate the presence of ticks from your property during the summer months: