A mild winter and a wet spring mean that the threat of Lyme disease in Maine may be worse than ever this year. And it broke the record last year, striking in all 16 counties.
The bad news is that, if unrecognized and untreated, it may progress to cause arthritis and neurological problems, according to the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough.
The good news is that disease is preventable and, even in advanced stages, usually treatable. So don’t panic. Avoid the disease-carrying deer ticks if you can. Inspect frequently to catch one that bites into you. Watch for an expanding red rash, which can mean that a tick bite escaped detection. A fever and joint or muscle pains can also mean that you have been bitten.
Know your enemy: Deer are most often blamed for the spread of Lyme diseases — because they are often the next-to-last host for the tick that actually can carry the virus to a human. But foxes, coyotes, pet dogs and mice also have roles.
The chain of events starts when a larval tick bites one of the tiny, white-footed deer mice, so named because their coloring looks like Bambi. The mouse may carry the deadly hantavirus but also the Borrelia bacterium, which produces Lyme disease. The tick matures into a nymph, which can infect some other animal each time it feeds on a new blood supply.
While feeding on, say, a deer’s blood, the tick lays eggs, which eventually will become new ticks. The ticks cling to brush or grass, waiting as long as weeks or months for a new blood supply to come along. It may be a person or a dog.
If the person has followed the advice of the Maine Medical Center and has tucked his or her pant legs into the socks and shirt tails into the pants, the clever tick keeps climbing upward until it can find bare skin, preferably a warm, moist place like an armpit or behind an ear or in the hair. Regular inspection is essential.
That’s when the trouble can really get going. The tick doesn’t usually transmit the Lyme bacteria until it has been attached for 24 or even 48 hours. And not all deer ticks carry the virus.
Once you find an attached tick, use fine tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull gently but firmly until the tick lets go. Don’t touch it with bare hands, and certainly don’t squeeze it. Apply antiseptic to the bite and save the tick in a bottle of 70 percent alcohol for checking by a professional. And call the doctor.
The medical center quotes a recent study showing that a single dose of antibiotic within 72 hours of removal of a tick can prevent Lyme disease. If you don’t find a tick but experience symptoms such as a rash or fever, treatment can still help. Don’t risk letting it fester.
Remember: Lyme disease is scary, but it’s avoidable and treatable.
Finally, an article on Lyme disease that pinpoints the actual source, the deer mouse, instead of one of the tick carriers the whitetail deer.
You read my mind, Jeff! I always seem to be correcting people about this.
It should be added that an estimated 20-40% of Lyme cases do NOT present with a rash.
I have heard from a good source that not everyone infected develops the ring. So no ring is not a gaurentte that you are safe. Have to look into this more.
No ring, no rash either. I have read between 10 and 40% present without rash.
Also, rash does not necessarily occur where bitten. You could have had a tick on your ankle and a rash on your back!
I took a class in college called “Mad Dogs, Mad Cows, and More” which was about Zoonotic Diseases, those transmitted from animals to humans. It was quite an interesting course and knowing I won’t be leaving New England anytime soon, I kept my note cards on Lyme!
Hi I just
wanted to let you know that there is finally an at-home tick testing kit that
allows you to test with great accuracy the presence of the Lyme Disease bacteria
in ticks. It is a great early warning tool! Please contact me at 1 855 TICK TEST
or lymeticktest.com for more
information.
Dan
Wolff
MUST- SEE! 2009 documentary called Under Our Skin. If you can’t find it in the video store (if they even still exist), you can find it on Hulu and probably on Netflix. It will open your eyes to a significant part of the untold story of Lyme disease.
Lyme Disease is a serious thing and NOTHING to take lightly. My husbands brother has battled it for years and has suffered greatly with it. He has been to numerous doctors including Boston to get help. He is only in his mid 40’s and therefore should have a lot more life left to live. Heres hoping that help is found medically for him and anyone else who suffers from it.
The wise residents of Monhegan Island ended their Lyme epidemic by eliminating the deer. No deer, no deer ticks, no Lyme disease. This is because the adult egg-laying tick requires a sizeable mammal for a large blood meal before reproduction. It will not feed on a rodent. 90% feed on deer. The ticks from one deer produce at least 450,000 eggs per season. These eggs then develop into the immature ticks which feed on mice. There are still rodents on Monhegan Island but without ticks there is no Lyme disease in people. Eliminating the deer is key to disrupting the tick life cycle.
“This is because the adult egg-laying tick requires a sizeable mammal for
a large blood meal before reproduction.It will not feed on a rodent. 90% feed on deer. The ticks from one deer produce at least 450,000 eggs
per season.”
http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html
Adult ticks do not ALWAYS feed on deer. Ticks can feed on many animals including reptiles and amphibians. If deer are not available, a tick would feed on whatever it had to in order to survive.
“These eggs then develop into the immature ticks which feed
on mice.” True, now this is where ticks acquire Lyme Disease! From this article, which I have doubts that you actually read through, “The chain of events starts when a larval tick bites one of the tiny,
white-footed deer mice. The mouse may carry…the Borrelia
bacterium, which produces Lyme disease. The tick matures into a nymph,
which can infect some other animal each time it feeds on a new blood
supply.”
” There are still rodents on Monhegan Island but without ticks
there is no Lyme disease in people. Eliminating the deer is key to
disrupting the tick life cycle. “
http://www.monheganwelcome.com/plan.html says “Ticks have been found carrying Lyme disease and an occasional hiker has been infected.”
There ARE still Lyme-infected ticks on Monhegan Island.
Preventing Nymph Stage ticks from feeding on, and therefore becoming infected by, mice is key to disrupting the Lyme Disease cycle!
As reported in J. Vector Ecol June 2011,( Elias, Rand, etc) removing the deer from Monhegan meant that no eggs developed into the immature ticks (without which there is no Lyme disease in people). Migrating birds do occasionally drop off infected immature ticks which can occasionally infect a person. However, the epidemic was stopped due to eliminating the deer.
Yes, the epidemic of Lyme Disease on Monhegan Island is cleared. That does not mean there are no ticks or that ticks cannot be infected on the island. If they introduce Tick Tubes for their mice population, I’d agree that Lyme could be completely eradicated there.
I understand your confusion about adult female ticks. Their *preferred* host is deer, however survival instinct will force them to find another source such as sheep, cattle, or horses. Not to mention humans and dogs.
Adult deer ticks can feed on other large mammals (not mice) but those you mention are not flooding our neighborhoods as are the deer. Dr. Kirby Stafford of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station has stated that deer are the key to reproductive success of the deer tick. Other host mammals such as raccoons are very adept at grooming themselves and eating the ticks.
I would prefer to eliminate the mouse, thereby interrupting the life cycle at that link.
Bangor Daily got it right. Too many news articles point to deer as the
sole (or main) culprit. As much as you want to get rid of all the mice, you might as well form your mouse militia! Put your mice to work
with Tick Tubes so when ticks try to attach to the mice, they’ll die on contact. Same premise as treating your dog or cat with a monthly spot treatment.
No one argues the fact that when a tick bites a Lyme-infected mouse and then bites a person, the disease is transmitted: the mice are a reservoir for the Lyme bacteria and the deer are not. However, the reason that high deer populations produce a high incidence of Lyme disease is that 90% of the tick eggs come from ticks on the deer. Neighborhoods overrun by deer have been devastated by Lyme disease.
It is fact that when large populations of deer are present, more cases of lyme disease are detected in humans. More deer=more deer ticks. It is about time seeing someone understand that! Too many people pinpoint the mouse, but with less deer there would be less lyme disease.
The powerful pro-deer lobby has a PR machine which spreads propaganda to hide the deer’s role in this disease. These people are fanatics. When it was necessary to thin the deer herd to prevent soil erosion and degradation of Boston area drinking supply at Quabbin reservoir, deer-huggers chained themselves to government office radiators in protest. (Boston Globe 7/7/12) They do not care about our health and safety.
Cornell wildlife expert Paul Curtis has said that to reduce tick levels to a reasonable level you need deer densities of 6-8 per square mile. (NY Times 5/30/12) Maine is a good example of this. When one looks at the incidence of Lyme disease in Maine, it is lowest in the north where deer densities are 2-5 per square mile. It is highest where deer densities are now up to 100 per square mile.
Considering how important the tourism industry is to Maine, one would expect Maine to be the leader in eradicating Lyme disease. Who wants to vacation where one stays indoors for fear of contracting a disease with horrific potential complications? Many sensibly also fear the potential long-term effects of perpetual pesticides, especially on children. Pity those living in deer-infested areas. They are buying expensive high fences and privately hiring bow hunters. Just as one would not allow a plague-spreading person in one’s yard, disease-spreading deer should also not be allowed.