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Black Legged Wood Tick

"DON’T GET SICK FROM THE BLACK-LEGGED TICK"

North Oaks Natural Resource Commission

North Oaks has always been a great place to live for those who love the great outdoors and are okay with learning how to live in a natural environment.  In our younger years we learn not to play with bear cubs, get too close to a rutting Bull Moose or go white water canoeing in a snowstorm.  Today those of us that prefer to live in a forested environment must add another page to our lesson book.  This one is about the Black-Legged Tick (Ixodes Scapularis), a member of the spider family that carries a spirochette borrelia burgdorferi.

This spirochete is a corkscrew shaped bacterium that causes Lyme disease.  It is clever and can change its outer layer or shape to avoid detection.  It can also hide in folds of tissue or in the fluids in our joints or nervous system where our defensive system and antibiotics are less effective.  It does not infect the Black-Legged Tick, its primary host the White-Footed Mouse, or its final stage host the White tailed Deer.  The deer carry the mature egg laden female ticks to their new home.  They prefer an environment that includes the shade of tall grass or small bushes and each tick will lay over 1800 eggs.

The nymph is less than 2mm and difficult to see.  They feed during the spring and summer months.   Adult ticks are active during the cooler months climbing to reach out with their two front legs to catch a passer-by, human or animal, for one of their three meals during their life cycle.  Adult ticks are much larger, which makes them easier to detect and remove.   Ticks can attach to any part of the body but are often found in hard to see areas such as the groin, armpits and scalp.  They must attach 36 to 48 hours before bacterial transmission.

Most Lyme disease is contracted in one’s home environment.  Lyme disease affects all age groups but focuses on children under fourteen and adults over forty.  Twenty per cent of Lyme disease patients have evidence of either Babesiosis or Anaplasmosis, which are other tick borne diseases.  Minnesota tick borne infections are in an upward spiral.  There were 1,293 reported and confirmed cases of Lyme disease in 2010.  Symptoms of Lyme disease are a red rash, which may appear 3 to 30 days after the tick bite at the site of the bite or other parts of the body.  The usual rash is approximately 6 inches in diameter.  However, it may not occur at all. Headache, fatigue and joint pain are the most common early symptoms in children.  Without adequate treatment, a year or more later after the bite arthritic, cardiac or nervous system problems may develop.  Thirty per cent of adult Bells Palsey cases originate from Lyme disease in Black-Legged Tick areas.

PERSONAL PROTECTION

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recommends:    

  • When in deer tick habitat, walk in the center of the trail to avoid picking up ticks from grass and brush.         
  • Wear light colored clothing so ticks will be more visible.
  • Create a tick barrier by tucking pants into socks or boots and tuck long sleeved shirts into pants.
  • Use a repellant containing DEET or permethrin and carefully follow the directions on the container.
  • After being outdoors in tick habitat, get out of your clothes immediately, do a complete body check, shower and vigorously towel dry.  Wash your clothes immediately as to not spread any ticks around your living area.
  • Pets should be checked for ticks.

LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT

The Center for Disease Control & Prevention refers to The Connecticut Tick Management Handbook:

  • Keep grass mowed to a height no greater than three inches.
  • Remove leaf liter, brush and weeds at the edge of your lawn.
  • Restrict the use of ground cover such as pachysandra in areas frequented by family and roaming pets.
  • Remove brush and leaves around stonewalls and wood piles.
  • Discourage rodent activity.  Cleanup and seal stonewalls and small openings around your home.
  • Move firewood piles and bird feeders away from your house.
  • Manage pet activity.  Keep dogs and cats out of the woods to reduce ticks brought back into your home.
  • Use plantings that do not attract deer or exclude them through various types of barriers.
  • Move children’s swing sets and sand boxes away from the woodland edge and place them on a wood chip or mulch type foundation.
  • Trim tree branches and shrubs around the lawn edge to let in more sunlight.
  • Adopt hardscape and xeriscape (dryer or less water demanding) landscaping techniques with gravel pathways and mulches.  Create 3 foot or wider wood chip and mulch or gravel borders between lawn and woods or stonewalls.
  • Consider using  decking, tile, gravel or container plantings in areas near your home.
  • Widen woodland trails.
  • Consider host products to kill ticks on deer or rodents.
  • Consider a pesticide application as a targeted barrier treatment.
  • Recommended deer density is eight deer or less per square forested mile for a healthy forest and family.
  • In the city of North Oaks please obey the ordinance that prohibits deer feeding.  If you violate the ordinance, you will only get more deer, ticks and subsequent tick borne diseases.
  • Remove Buckthorn and let the sun shine on the forest floor.

IF YOU ARE BITTEN BY A TICK

  • Using a tweezers, grasp the tick by the head very close to the skin and gently pull away.  Do not squeeze the tick too hard.  Place the tick in a jar and bring the tick to your physician for tick identification and your exam.
  • Additional information on Lyme Disease is available from Harrison’s “Principles of Internal Medicine”, and “Lessons in Lyme”, a 3 DVD series by Dr. Elizabeth Maloney.
  • See also the article "Those with experience issue a warning: Be Lyme aware" from the White Bear Press.