Tick Talk 04-03-09

04-03-09 Tick Talk


While the exotic looking Huntsman spider on bananas may get all the recent media attention, those incidents are few and far between for New England. In the meantime, we live with insects in our own yards and homes all the time. While, technically speaking, spiders and ticks and mites are of the class “Arachnida”, they are still included by many entomologists as an arthropod. They must know that most of us lump them all together as bugs. Arthropods are the animals with exoskeletons, like those lobsters we love to eat, and they make up more than 90% of the animal kingdom. That’s a lot of animals to ignore or pay attention to. I’m hoping you’ll pay attention to at least some of them.
As a three-time victim of Lyme disease (two from New England, one from California), I know that it can be a serious disease and how important it is that you try to prevent it. This is not an easy task because we have to work harder and in a very conscious manner to pay attention to things that surround us all the time and to things that get lots of attention. Sounds contrary, doesn’t it? Research backs this up, though. We tend to take for granted that which we see all the time and/or think we know all about because there is so much coverage of the topic. Lyme disease is on this list of topics most of us love to ignore. Let’s make paying attention to diseases spread by ticks a manageable topic. If we can have a lot of control over it, we won’t be so inclined to put off taking action.
Spring is a good time to pay attention to ticks for two reasons. Sing this to the tune of The Season of the Witch: It’s The Season of The Nymph! By springtime, the practically microscopic larval ticks, which have been living happily on mice, have reached the nymph stage. They are only the size of a poppy seed, and are prevalent in the spring and early summer and every female tick is looking for that blood meal to feed her future babies! Springtime is also when we head outdoors for raking, planting, walking and picnics. See how nicely the two variables interact? They are out there waiting and hungry and we walk right out and offer them a meal!
You probably won’t even notice when a tick bites you, as opposed to a spider mandible chomping down on you and making you jump with the sting. Ticks, according to the URI professor, Thomas Mather, secrete novel painkillers called kininases in their saliva, which help the bites go unnoticed.
I had the privilege of hearing Professor Mather speak a few years ago on ticks and Lyme disease. He is entertaining, informative and is constantly involved in research on tick behavior and human behaviors that can help avoid contact with the bloodsucking disease carrying arachnids. He has the best ever website on ticks. It is called Tick Encounter. If you must choose one source for learning how to prevent disease caused by ticks, choose this one. When I first visited it a few years ago, it was fun and interactive. Now, there are short films, a long list of FAQ-s , instructions on how to remove a tick and ongoing research. The site is so noteworthy that Mathers and URI recently received a $100,000 donation to continue their work. Go Mathers! Go Entomologists!
When I heard Mathers speak, the talk was titled something like “Protect Yourself and Your Landscape”. There were lots of landscaping and pesticide people there, for two ways to prevent diseases spread by ticks is to keep ticks out of your yard by obstructing them or by killing them with pesticides. Obstructing them is achieved by constructing a perimeter of sand or stones, where ticks will not like the dry environment compared to the lovely moisture provided by leaf litter. Killing them with pesticides, well, you can figure out what that means but the Tick Encounter website shows you how to spray the yard effectively, if that is how you want to approach the problem.
A more judicious use of pesticides is to soak clothing and sneakers in permethrin, which binds with the fibers and, once dry, does not enter the skin but is still deadly to the tick. Applying this method to large white tube socks is a great way to prevent the ticks from attaching below the knee. With the toe seam cut off, you can slide them right over your shoes. The permethrin lasts for several cold water washes. You can also buy kits online for treating clothing from Sawyer.
Remember, it’s the female deer tick that needs the blood meal and half of them carry Lyme disease. That’s not all they carry but that’s for another time. For now, just Google Tick Encounter and have fun learning.


Cathleen Drinan is the health agent for the Town of Halifax, MA. Do you want to share any tick stories, pictures or strategies? She can be reached at 781 293 6768 or cdrinan@town.Halifax.ma.us