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Ticks Among Us

The steady stream of news reports concerning an increase of ticks and tick-transmitted diseases, particularly along the shoreline, has left many people’s skin crawling. With people still anxious to get outside in the summer months, a large group of residents stopped by the Guilford Free Library on June 21 for the presentation “Ticked Off: The Lowdown on Ticks.”

Co-sponsored by the Guilford Conservation Commission, the Guilford Land Trust, and the Guilford Free Library, the presentation was the third in the Guilford Conservation Commission’s Living with Wildlife speaker series. The event featured Scott Williams, Ph.D., a research scientist from the Department of Forestry and Horticulture at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Williams, a Guilford resident who has dedicated years to this subject, covered some common misconceptions about ticks, the tick lifecycle, disease transfer, and management strategies in his presentation.

Williams started off with some basic information about ticks. Ticks are not insects as many suspect, but arachnids, meaning they have eight legs. Across the globe, there are about 900 species of what are known as hard ticks and about 200 species of what are known as soft ticks. To understand what kind of ticks you encounter in your day-to-day life, Williams said one of the first things people need to understand about ticks is their lifecycle.

Ticks have a two-year lifecycle. Eggs are laid in the spring and hatch in late summer when the weather is hot and humid. When ticks are born, they are not yet infected with the pathogens that cause many diseases—the infection can occur after the tick has its first blood meal, feasting on small rodents. After that first blood meal, the ticks then move into the next stage of their life, as nymphs, which reemerge after the winter and begin to try and feed on larger prey such as humans, dogs, and deer. After that second blood meal, ticks then move into their final, adult stage of life.

“Probably you have encountered ticks throughout the summer and fall and thought they would have been different ticks when in fact they are the same tick, just different life stages of that same tick,” said Williams.

According to Williams, humans are most likely to come into contact with ticks when they are nymphs as nymphs are most active May through September. Nymphs are smaller than adult ticks and have a lower risk of being infected, because they have only had one blood meal, but Williams said these ticks cause the most trouble, because they “coincide with our gardening and hiking and our outdoors summers that are most responsible for disease transfer,” he said.

Different Types of Ticks

Along the shoreline, Williams said people should be aware that there are also different types of ticks that vary in appearance, prominence, and the types of disease pathogens they can carry. One is the American Dog Tick which will tend to be large in size and can carry a pathogen that causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a disease that may sound alarming because it is less common but Williams said is not of great cause for concern.

“These [ticks] are the big ones you feel crawling on you when you are sitting watching TV at home,” he said. “You know they are on you and you grab them and throw them in the toilet. These guys have been around for a long time and are kind of a nuisance, but because they are so big you generally pick them up and figure it out quickly.”

A newer type of tick appearing along the shoreline is known as the Lone Star Tick, which is normally found in southern climates but has moved up the coast due to warming temperatures. This tick carries a pathogen that causes numerous diseases, including, possibly, Lyme disease. However, when it comes to Lyme disease the tick to worry about is the Blacklegged Tick, or commonly referred to as the Deer Tick. This tick carries the pathogen that causes Lyme disease. In 2015, 390,000 cases of Lyme were reported in the U.S., but Williams said the disease is horribly under reported as only 10 percent of cases are reported.

“It is not necessarily fatal,” he said of the disease. “Gone undiagnosed it is terrible – it can damage your joints, your cognitive function, and it is difficult to get rid of if it goes undiagnosed for several years, so this is the big one of concern. Lyme disease is a chronic problem we are dealing with and kind of chugging along trying to figure out different ways to combat it.”

Disease Transfer

Williams said ticks themselves do not carry diseases; they carry the pathogens that cause diseases when transferred to humans. Most of the pathogens are found in the gut of the tick, meaning that the tick has to feed on a host for several hours usually before successfully transferring the pathogen.

“The tick attaches to you, it has to cement its mouth parts to you, suck in some of your blood, it feeds a little bit, and then ultimately after 36 hours of feeding it kind of barfs its gut contents into you,” said Williams. “It is a whole procedure for you to get these pathogens. So if you have a tick crawling on you, you are not going to get a disease. If you have a tick feeding on you that you got in a garden an hour ago, you are probably not going to get these diseases. It needs to ingest some of your blood for this process to occur.”

However, the tick-based disease known as the Powassan Virus, which made local and national news back in October 2016 when Connecticut had its first confirmed case, is transferred in a different manner. Williams said the virus is found in the mouth part of the tick, so it is possible the pathogen can be transferred in as little as 15 minutes. While the transfer may happen at a faster rate, Williams said the pathogen is still very rare. In the past decade there have only been 75 confirmed cases of the disease across the whole country.

Why So Many Ticks?

The boom in the tick population naturally leads to the question of why. Williams said the answer is multi-faceted. Cold winters usually keep ticks at bay, but with unseasonably warm temperature the past two years, fewer ticks have been killed off.

In addition, over the past few years there has been an abundance of acorns. The more acorns there are to eat, the stronger and healthier the mouse, squirrel, and other rodent population will be. The more small animals there are, the higher the chance of a young tick successfully obtaining a blood meal, thereby supporting the tick population.

So What Can I Do?

While there are a lot of things to be aware of when it comes to ticks, Williams said the goal is to educate the public, not try and keep people inside.

“We are trying not to scare people out of the woods and onto their iPads,” he said. “We are trying to encourage people to get out there and enjoy the woods and enjoy what Guilford has to offer but be educated and aware.”

The simplest solution is to always do a tick check after going outdoors. If you find a tick attached to you, Williams said to use a pair of dull tweezers to pull the tick out, making sure to get the whole body and head.

“It is folks like you who are probably active in your lawn, mowing and raking and going to get your mail or something and you wouldn’t think that you would come across a tick in your daily routine,” he said. “Ultimately it is about tick checks—you live in Connecticut so you should be aware of this and your physician should be aware of this. If you have any ailment that doesn’t make sense you should look to that tick.”

Williams said there are also sprays people can buy for their clothes, people should treat their pets, and there are also chemical treatment traps available for people to put in their yards. For more information on ticks, diseases, and prevention options, visit the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website at www.ct.gov/caes/site/default.asp.