OSWEGO COUNTY – As the summer days quickly approach, people will soon be spending more time outdoors. However, camping, having cookouts, hiking and other activities, face a threat that has been growing since the warm weather started – ticks.
Although ticks do not typically come out while it is raining and windy, ticks thrive in humidity, much like the weather following a day of rain.
This year in Fulton (as of June 13), total precipitation for the year is 24.19 inches, about eight inches more than it was this time last year. For the month, total rainfall is 3.04 inches.
Puddles created by the increased amount of rain can drown ticks. But the humidity following the rain is optimal for them.
According to Bryon Backenson, an expert in ticks at the New York Health Department, out of the 30 different species of ticks in New York, the most common in Upstate and CNY’s the black-legged tick, more commonly known as the deer tick.
“Depending on its life stage, the ones that come out now, they’re out now and they’ll be out through mid to late-July, those are about the size of a poppy seed,” Backenson said. “They’re not very large at all, and that’s one of the reasons people can get diseases from them… People don’t see them and they don’t pull them off in time.”
When he first began his career, he said there were not as many ticks in the CNY area than in the capital region. He said over the years more and more have been making their way north-west.
Backenson said ticks can mostly be found on the edges of wooded areas under vegetation, where they can find mice or other mammals to feed on.
These areas include “where a field meets a woods, where a woods meets a lawn, where a field meets a lawn, along the edge of a log, along a rock wall, along the edges of a trail,” according to Backenson.
He said when hiking in the woods, it is safest to stay in the middle of the trail.
“There’s no one silver bullet to try and protect yourself against ticks. All these things, they all kind of chip away at your likelihood of being bitten by a tick,” Backenson said.
He also gave some tips to avoid ticks:
- wear light colored clothes to easily spot ticks
- tuck pants into socks because they crawl over shoes in search of exposed skin
- avoid brushing up against vegetation
- use repellents
He recommended using a repellent with 25% DEET, which will be effective for four to six hours. He said it is not necessary to use one with 100% DEET because the only thing it changes is the length of time it is effective.
Backenson said one can also use repellents with the ingredients picaridin, IR3535 or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
Backenson said ticks typically feed three times throughout their lives. They start out as an egg, they feed as a larva, then a nymph, then finally as an adult before the female ticks lay eggs to start the process over again.
“They typically want to stay on whatever they have bitten for a week or 10 days,” Backenson said. “They fill themselves up, and in some cases, they get five to 10 times as big as they were. Then they’ll fall off and use that particular blood meal to turn into the next life stage.”
At this point in the season, ticks are on their nymph stage. Right now, ticks typically have a 20% to 35% chance of having an infectious disease it can spread to humans. Once they enter the adult stage toward the fall season, they will have a higher chance to become infectious because they have fed on more mammals that may carry the disease.
“They don’t come infected out of the egg, and so really their second and third feedings when they’re a nymph and an adult are the times when they can potentially give whatever it is that they may be carrying to whatever it is that they feed on,” Backenson said.
Backenson said the season where ticks spread the most disease starts the second half of May and lasts through to the end of July. He is now collecting ticks for research but said it is too early to know if there is an increased number of infected ticks this year.
After they have fed on mice or other animals a few times and become adults, they are more likely to become infected with diseases like Lyme disease that can then be passed on to people.
The total number of tickborne diseases has more than doubled since 2004, reaching a record of 59,349 reported cases in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lyme disease makes up a majority of the number of tickborne diseases and it is transmitted by infected deer ticks.
“Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system,” according to the CDC.
Backenson said if someone knows they have been bitten by a tick, they should keep an eye out for those symptoms and consult a medical professional as soon as they can. He said the longer the tick bites someone, the more likely it is they will contract a disease from it.
Oswego County Health Department provides a list of laboratories that can test ticks for the public.
A misconception Backenson has noticed is that people often think they will find a tick on broad skin like their forearm, but he said since ticks prefer humidity, they will crawl onto areas of the body that produces heat and sweat, like armpits and hairlines.
When coming back from a wooded area, Backenson said it is best to check yourself for ticks and throw the clothes you wore in the dryer. Ticks will dry out and die from the heat of the dryer.
He said the best way to remove a tick is to use fine point tweezers. Any other method may do more harm than good. Backenson provided a video on proper tick removal.
Oswego County Health recommends ways to keep ticks out of your lawn, such as keeping it mowed, keep firepiles away from the home, try to keep deer out by using different types of fencing, and put children’s swing sets and play areas on wood chips or mulch away from wooded areas.
Another member of the family that is affected by ticks are outside pets. It can be difficult to spot ticks on dogs or cats with dark coats, so Backenson recommends treating them with the proper vaccines and using a tick collar or drops.
“Dogs can get Lyme disease,” Backenson said. “Now is the time of year they’re out and if I think about trying to find a poppy seed-sized tick my pale white skin, I can only imagine trying to find it on my black and white dog.”
missing or outdated ad config
Just stay indoors. Don’t go outside. Weather sucks anyway.