RUMFORD, Maine — Conditions are ripe this year in the Northeast for a surge in Lyme disease and the black-legged ticks that carry it.
But disease specialists differ somewhat on the reason.
Maine state epidemiologist Stephen Sears attributed the predicted increase, at least in Maine, to the mild winter, the life cycle of ticks and the deer and white-footed mice that carry the disease.
However, disease ecologist Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., mostly bases the impending surge on fluctuations in acorns and populations of white-footed mice.
Ostfeld said acorn crops vary from year to year, with cycles that influence the winter survival and breeding success of white-footed mice.
White-footed mice transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease which if left untreated can cause arthritis, chronic fatigue and neurological problems.
“We had a boom in acorns, followed by a boom in mice, and now, on the heels of one of the smallest acorn crops we’ve ever seen, the mouse population is crashing,” Ostfeld said.
“This spring, there will be a lot of Borrelia burgdorferi-infected black-legged ticks in our forests looking for a blood meal, and instead of finding a white-footed mouse, they are going to find other mammals — like us,” he said.
Last year, Maine had 998 cases of Lyme disease and cases were found in every county, Sears said. This year, he believes it will go even higher.
“What we know is that Lyme disease is pretty much throughout the state of Maine and we’re seeing really significant amounts every year,” he said.
For more than two decades, Ostfeld and other Cary Institute ecologists and researchers have investigated connections among acorn abundance, white-footed mice, black-legged ticks and Lyme disease.
They conducted studies in central Dutchess County, N.Y., a fairly rural area, Ostfeld said.
He said that in 2010, that county experienced its heaviest record of acorns, and the mouse population followed suit in 2011, peaking in the summer months.
“The scarcity of acorns in the fall of 2011 set up a perfect storm for human Lyme disease risk,” Ostfeld said.
Their predictions, he said, should pertain to anywhere oaks are an important component of the forest and where they produced a heavy acorn crop in 2010.
“We know this acorn boom was quite widespread in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region, but we don’t know about Maine specifically,” he said.
The life cycle of black-legged ticks takes two years to go from larva to adult. Sears said it’s the adult that goes to deer, while the larvae and nymphs go to mice.
“And it’s the nymph that we tend to think carries more of the Lyme organism,” he said. “All of them can, but that’s the one we see more in the summertime.”
Ostfeld agreed.
“While adult ticks can transmit Lyme, they are responsible for a small fraction of tick-borne disease, with spring-summer nymphs posing more of a human health threat,” he said.
Sears said Ostfeld’s mice and acorns theory has merit.
“We’ve got lots of mice, we’ve got lots of deer, we’ve got lots of ticks and all those things come together to give us a pretty significant amount of Lyme disease,” Sears said.
“It’s here and we need to make sure people know as much as they can about it, because they need to be their own best advocates.”
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we should ask fcor mass aerial pesticide applications in high risks areas – better life through chemistry
“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning”
Yeah, like the spray used with the Spruce Budworm infestation back in the late 70’s. They sprayed and killed everything in the woods. There was not a red squirrel to be seen for years! There were no song birds and the insects in the woods disappeared as well. The woods are very healthy now and full of game and life, but it took years for the areas to recover. And….. don’t always believe what the chemical companies say about their products.
it is exaggeration to say there was no red squirrels for years , or no song birds and insects. There very well may have been some impacts , and I know some song birds were shot to sample them but verything didnt dissappear. But as you note everythings good now. so if we wipe out ticks things will end up ok
The tick issue affects human health, and as such people will use and demand use of controls whihc will result in increased pesticides – it is already happening and will grow.
The sky is falling, the ky s falling!!
No exaggeration! Honest!There wasn’t a red squirrel in dole Township for years-I was there.
People’s insistence on pesticides instead of using prevention and natural controls is a result of ignorance of pesticides’ effects on – especially – fetuses in utero.
You need to do even just a little research before you tout pesticides, unless you work for one of the chemical companies as a lobbyist in Augusta, or work for the University of Maine system as one of the pesticide scientists who are totally in bed with (and take money from) chemical companies.
I can’t believe you think that drenching our world with pesticides will help anything; already the far reaches of the earth and all its creatures – including us – are carrying at least 200-300 toxic chemicals in our bodies which are not natural to us.
Women of child-bearing age, even those who try to avoid pesticides and toxic chemicals, are also carrying heavy burdens of poisons from manmade poisons, which then get ingested by their fetuses so that we are seeing more children with autism, asthma, diabetes (and type 2 diabetes in adults), thyroid disorders, and many types of cancers which used to be rare.
You’re advocating more poisonous chemicals in our air, drinking water, lakes, streams, coastal waters? Please do some research, especially look up “hormone-disrupting chemicals,” for one answer as to why we have so many gender-confused children now, and why male sperm count among humans and other creatures is dropping every year world-wide.
Hope you had the sarcasm button on when you wrote this………..mass aerial pesticide spraying would hurt us and other creatures more than it would even hit ticks, which are hidden in bushes.
We need to back off pesticide use, not increase it—good grief!
All these kids with autism, people’s immune systems getting harmed by chemicals so that we see a pandemic of thyroid disorders, diabetes (pesticides hit the thyroid and pancreas glands first), cancers, neurological diseases, and more.
Please, People, do not spray your lawns with pesticides or herbicides or chemical fertilizers. None of them are “safe,” not even when used “as directed,” and it’s against the law for anyone to claim they are ever “safe.”
Your children, pets, any animals or birds who walk on the lawn till get exposed to poisons, and the poisons will get tracked right into your house.
Let whatever grows and just mow high so your lawn stays healthy. Dandelions are a food plant – put in salads with vinegar and oil, really good!
We need to get serious about working with nature instead of poisoning the earth.
Sorry for intense rant, but much research has come out lately about how pesticides are responsible for many of our illnesses – and wildlife’s and fisheries illsnesses – as well as the death of honeybees, which are needed for pollination of many food plants.
Yes but i see tv commercials and stories about companies that come and safely and leaglly spray your lawn and property . In fact a BDN story said it was a growing business – are these businesses doing harm or acting illegally?If you let your lawn go high then you will increase the chance for ticksto linger and expose the kids pets and people to lyme disease, then you have to be injected to stop the ill effects of viruses. it is all confusing
It is illegal to state that any pesticide is ever “Safe.” It’s against federal law, but some “lawn care” companies tell clients that, anyway, so they can keep their business.
Yes, it’s legal to spray pesticides on people’s lawns and many other places, but they are supposed to put up warning signs afterward. Too bad small children, pets, birds, and other wildlife can’t read.
Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, all have appointed chemical company employees to the Environmental Protection Agency, especially from Monsanto, makers of Roundup, Agent Orange (from which our Vietnam veterans still suffer), genetically-engineered corn and soy, et al……….and they manufacture pharmaceuticals to “cure” you once they’ve sickened you with their toxic products. Great business plan!
So they make EPA policy, then they go right back to the corporation after a time, knowing everything that EPA has on them, and how to get around poisoning us and our drinking water laws. Big money = corruption.
If you let your lawn grow to about 6 inches before mowing it, then only mow it down to 3 inches, it will be healthier than the usual practice of shaving off the plants’ food- making apparatus – the green grass.
Prevention and vigilance will help keep ticks from you and your children. Ticks usually hang onto bushes and wait for a mammal to pass by. This means when you or children are walking/running in an unmown field or in the woods in warm weather, wear high-top shoes with pants tucked in, pants should be light-colored so you can see any critters that might cling to them (pants should be smooth material, too, so they can’t cling easily), do a tick check before going into the house, and then, after a few hours, check the back of your neck hairline, since that’s a favorite place they use to suck your blood.
Check your pets, too. Feel the entire coat for lumps that weren’t there before. If you find one, remove it with tweezers and try to ensure you get the head, too. They are small, but larger when engorged with blood.
If you think you or your children have been infected (fevers, etc.), of course you should go see your doctor for a test. It’s curable with antibiotics when caught early.
Ticks are very hard to kill with pesticides – read the labels on the common pesticides and on the pesticides people put on their cats and dogs – the tick killers are much stronger and more harmful to your pets and children who play with the pets. Those pesticides are harmful to virtually many living creatures, and the herbicides to virtually all plants.
There are clean methods for almost all unwanted plants and animals. When I stop posting on this comment, I’m going to look up one I can’t think of this second, and I’ll post it to you.
It is NEVER legal to say any pesticide is safe – they are not. It’s against federal law to claim safety for any pesticide, and that includes herbicides. They’re all poisons, as they must be to kill living things.
For a healthier lawn, let it grow to 6 inches, mow only down to 3 inches, then it will be healthy without any chemicals, especially if you let the clovers grow since they create nitrogen (grass food) in the soil.
And eat the dandelions; they’re excellent salad greens, including the flowers.
Of course it’s a growing business – people get panicked by TV ads from chemical companies about Eeeeeeek! a Dandelion! It’s all so foolish.
PREVENTION is most of the answer to ticks, as well as other dangers. Wear light colored, smooth pants tucked into high-top shoes, long-sleeved shirts (or tightly-woven bug netting) when roaming around fields and in the woods in warm weather, do tick check outside house when get home, check your body that night to make sure none escaped your tick check, and routinely feel around the back of your neck at the hairline because that’s a favorite spot for ticks to suck your blood – rather like Black Flies, but there are lots more Black Flies than ticks around here.
For Black Flies (I’m an organic gardener) I dress as above, and put vaseline on my face, around ears and neck and wear a wide-brimmed hat. Mostly works.
Interesting that there should be in increase in autism,and the rest of your disease list, since pesticides have been outlawed or used at a minimum.
Where the hell have pesticides been outlawed. As far as I know I can still buy Raid, Roundup, and even Malathion.
DDT in Maine was outlawed a long time ago.
Certain pesticides have been outlawed in Europe because they care about their children and bees and other living creatures. Clearly in USA the priority is money for corporations, so we get poisoned but they get the profits.
Doesn’t sound quite fair to me. what do you think?
AND YOUR CURE FOR LYME DISEASE IS WHAT?
I heard this about mosquitoes at a time when towns regularly fogged neighborhoods and kids played in the fog. Scientists decided ‘you’ were wrong since the dangers of mosquito borne diseases outweighed those from the pesticides.
Autism? others? …..check under the sink and in the bathroom for all those spray cleaners, disinfectants, and various chemicals in shampoos….you might find the answer there.
Dear self-proclaimed “organicgardener.” If you’re supporting the use of pesticides, then do you still claim to be an “organic gardener?”
None of those chemicals you mention in this house – I use Dr. Bronner’s organic soaps for all washing – clothes, dishes, self, hair, and any clean-up jobs from pets. Works just fine with no harm I can detect.
Ask people in cities that have been sprayed for years for mosquitoes whether they think the pesticides, or the chance they might get the common-cold-like “West Nile Virus,” is worse.
Clearly you’ve never been oversprayed with today’s organophosphate pesticides, like azinphosmethyl. You’d know it, all right, and curse the blueberry or potato grower that did it to you. There can be, and often are, permanent ill effects, as it stated right on the pesticide label.
That particular pesticide is made by Bayer, a German company, that also makes aspirin that almost everyone has in their house. Also makes pharmaceuticals to make you better, once they sicken you.
Bayer is still aligned with I.G. Farben, the German chemical company that made the Mustard Gas in WWI and the nerve gas used against certain peoples in WWII.
Hmmm, from my observations tick infested animals are the least healthy animals, so if there is a low food supply, then this year, not two years ago would be the time that starts the largest boom in tick population, based on the acorn theory.
It’s because the boom in a predator population always lags the boom in the food source because it takes time for predator life cycles to complete. So Fall of 2010 saw lots of acorns. This started an increase in mice numbers, which peaked in 2011. The large numbers of mice in 2011 caused the numbers of ticks to swell. The mice (and acorns) may be mostly gone now, but the bumper crop of ticks that fed on them in 2011 will mature this year (2012).
I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
The ticks, they’re everywhere! They’re coming out of the woods, they’re coming out of the GD woods!!!
Get a cat or two for home security.
I got bitten in my backyard last year. I guess I will have to go out covered from head to toe this year.
It’s no joke. I lost a three year old Golden to Lyme. I didn’t even know she had it untilit was too late. Lyme disease sucks and folks need to be careful.
I hope they are led by a Buddist like TICH NA HAN.
Somehow I find this one of the worse ‘scare’ stories the BDN has printed….no mouse host, so the hungry ticks march off to the nearest mammal to eat? What keeps ’em going? MRE? Crows?
Were this true, squirrels would invade homes in search of food to make up the lack of acorns…excuse me, there’s a small group at the back door now.
But, you just can’t assume that all blacklegged ticks carry lyme disease as the article suggests. According to my allergist MD in Virginia only a small fraction of the ticks carry the disease. I’ve been bitten by these ticks at least a couple of times and I never got the disease…even took a blood test that came out negative. The blacklegged tick population in the middle atlantic area is overwhelming. By the way blacklegged tick is also known as the deer tick.
The article doesn’t suggest that. It just means that more nymph ticks means more exposure to ticks by humans, which means more Lyme exposure.
Anyway, for various reasons (the type of primary hosts up here; the 2-yr tick life cycle instead of 1-yr in southern areas) the percentage of nymph deer ticks that carry the Lyme bacteria is abnormally high in New England. It’s always above 25% and often much higher depending on region.
Well, hopefully they have not reached Northern Maine yet where we have a summer/fall camp. I’ve never seen ticks on my dog or on me while up there, but with the warmer winters of late I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing them that far north. In Virginia we also have wood ticks that are apparently capable of carrying Rocky Mountain Spotted fever…but I don’t see as many of these ticks as I see deer ticks. In the 70’s and 80’s I did not see a single deer tick, but a lot of wood ticks. There must be insects or birds out there that have reduced the wood tick population. It is my understanding that wild turkey and pheasant are big tick eaters. I also understand that ticks stay away from cedar, and there is plenty of that wood in Northern Maine.
I havent seen a tick at my place in Washington County, I find it amazing Maine thinks they have a big tick epidemic..
Two years ago I removed ticks on close to a daily basis
But, where do you live?
Waldo County. Lyme disease is more common in southern Maine, but as the article said, has been reported in every county.
Just because Stevey-Deeeee (how many “e”s are there?) hasn’t seen a tick in his corner of the state doesn’t mean there is no tick problem.
Want to see ticks? try Cape Cod….they leap on you from bushes by the dozens.
Make sure you stay inside and hide from the big bad tick…
You are full of pooooo pooooooo…..
The vets in northern maine are pushing tick killing medicine for all pets. When I see a tick in northern maine I’ll eat my hat and cake. Nevertheless, we still put tick, flea, and mosquito prevention medicine on our dog’s neck once a month just as a precaution….more to protect the dog from mosquitos than anything else.
getready to eat becuase they are thioer – just in low numbers which will be increasing. 20 years ago it was rare to see them north of portland, today they are common to Bangor
the power and gas lines open up avenues for turkeys and other wildlife which are dispersing ticks into washington county and northern maine at a faster rate
Turkeys eat ticks. So do many birds, which pesticides kill.
Get some chickens which will eat many bugs, including ticks. Then you eat the chickens, thereby eating the ticks.
Does that scare you, too?
I agree, I’m down here in MD, pulled plenty of ticks off me, MD has way more ticks than Me.. I can go running throught the woods in Me and never have seen a tick yet….
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You would rather have mice infesting the Pine Tree State instead of cats killing off the mice. Every day should be Caturday and every friend of felines knows it.
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cats kill birds, I would support a bill to allow killing by gun or poison of all loose cats
In the middle ages, the ignorant peasants killed off all the cats because they believed them to be vassals for witches, The result was a boom in the rat population and then the resulting black plague which killed off 25% of the human population of Europe.
Good luck with that Fred…. Really.
Everyone stay inside, the ticks are coming….
These things ‘tick’ me off.
We live in Central Maine (Albion) and pick ticks off us all the time; same when we lived in Pittston, just outside Augusta. Both homes in very wooded areas, but still…they are definitely present in Maine, obviously it just depends on your locale.
Thank you for sharing great post
My three year old son was diagnosed with Lyme. We live in Hancock county. It may not seem like a big problem if you haven’t seen a tick or if you have been bitten and not gotten lyme, but it is a big problem for us. We check our kids daily. I don’t think BDN is trying to scare anyone with this article. I think they are trying to inform people of a real problem. Know they symptoms. We never saw the tick or the bulls eye rash. Often times the ticks that carry the disease are very tiny.
The folks who are snarky and dismissive around the question of Lyme are being foolish. It’s a dangerous disease and it will cripple or kill you if left untreated. My dog is tested annually for Lyme and was positive before she was a year old. She never goes anywhere that I don’t go. As for the tests available to people, they’re pretty weak, testing only for a small sample of the multitude of strains of the disease. Some day, when all the politics and medical nonsense have passed and there’s good info out there, we’ll have a good answer for Lyme. Till then, we’ll continue to fatten the pockets of the drug industry and have these lingering unexplained illnesses that destroy people’s lives.
Yes the right wingah, soaking us…….
Cats or lack of them is the problem !!
Blame that on the Chinese take out…
I worry more about chiggers…….Ticks are no problem…