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TickEncounter Prevention Partner Newsletter
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Believe it or not, Spring is here!
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We hope our early spring newsletter finds you cozied up inside with a hot cup of something tasty. With nearly the entire Northeast buried beneath the snow of winter storm Stella, it’s hard to believe that we've officially reached the first day of Spring. More broadly, we’re seeing wildly different weather occurring across the country lately, including tornados, rain, and snow – all in one month! Find out what this means for tick activity and how you can take the steps necessary to be prepared.
In this issue:
- Tick Forecast
- Top 5 Ways to Prepare for Spring Ticks
- TEPP Feature – Bob Maurais of Mainely Ticks
- Research Review - Is there a difference between Southern and Northern ticks?
- TEPP Tools for Spring
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Current
Following massive Winter Storm Helena earlier this season, Florida was the only state in the country without at least some snow or ice on the ground. We bet you weren’t thinking much about ticks if you were one of the millions of people shoveling or scraping. However, it’s important to keep in mind that blacklegged ticks ARE active in the winter, but only when the temperatures are above freezing and there isn’t a layer of snow on the ground, covering them. But don’t forget – they’re simply incapacitated, NOT dead. Check out our Polar Vorticks experiment to see what we mean! The key to reactivating these ticks is several consecutive days of non-freezing temperatures and a lack of snow cover, which is what we saw for several weeks in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England states. Unseasonably warm temperatures in the winter create the perfect recipe for tick encounters – active ticks and people getting outdoors to beat cabin fever.
Blacklegged ticks aren’t the only ones to watch out for, either.
Brown dog ticks
are active all year (typically in warmer climates) and can pose a major problem. In addition to quickly infesting homes, they are carriers of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and are capable of infecting dogs and (more rarely) humans.
Eradicating brown dog ticks
is difficult and costly, and is worth taking the extra time to check your dog after it has been at a shelter or any facility where dogs are kept in close quarters.
The point is you should remain vigilant for ticks despite the cold weather. We’ve been receiving many
TickSpotters
reports of several day-fed blacklegged ticks found on people and pets from both east and west coasts – an indication that ticks are still active and prevention measures are not being taken. By the way, on the west coast, you’re seeing BOTH nymphs and adult
western blacklegged ticks
right now (Jan-Apr.), while elsewhere in the country there are only adult deer ticks. Continue performing tick checks on people and pets after time outdoors, and definitely continue treating your pet with
tick preventative
each month! Check out our
TickNote
for more information.
Looking Ahead
While warmer days seem far off, they will arrive before you know it. Now is the time to begin preparing for how you will protect your family and yourself against ticks as they begin to emerge when temperatures rise. Adult Lone Star ticks and adult and nymphal American dog ticks become active in April, and adult blacklegged ticks remain on the scene until May. Could you tell each of these species of tick apart? What about an adult from a nymph or larvae? Identification is important because each type carries its own risk of disease. Take the time now to make sure you
know your ticks
and
know when they’re active
.
In addition to daily tick checks, consider stepping up your TickSmart™ actions by looking into treating outdoor clothing and shoes with
permethrin
. This is an effective way to ward off ticks and the diseases they’re carrying by simply getting dressed. Learn more
here
. You can also prevent tick encounters at home by making a plan for a
TickSafe yard
. Consider tactics like perimeter spray treatments, placing mouse-targeted devices, or simply keeping shrubs and grasses trimmed, deer fences in place, and wood piles cleared to make your yard unattractive to ticks and the wildlife that carry them. Check out our diagram of a
TickSmart™ backyard
.
Click
here
for more TickSmart™ ideas to stay tick safe. If you do have a tick encounter, make sure to save the tick, snap a picture, and send it to our
TickSpotters surveillance program
for identification and risk assessment.
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Common early spring tick species.
Photo credit: Brian Mullen, TickEncounter Resource Center
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Are you prepared for Spring ticks?
Here are 5 things to do to get ready:
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Bonus Spring
TickSmart tip
:
After spring yard clean-up or other time spent in tick habitat, run clothes through a
hot dryer for 10 minutes
to kill any loose and wandering ticks that may have hitched a ride inside. Do this before washing to ensure ticks are dead. (They don't drown in the washer!)
If you do encounter a tick, make sure you know the proper way to
remove it
with a pair of pointy tweezers. And once it’s removed,
don’t throw it away
! Save that tick, snap a picture, and submit it to
TickSpotters
.
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TEPP Feature --
Bob Maurais of Mainely Ticks
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Bob Maurais, co-owner of a Maine-based tick and mosquito management and education company called Mainely Ticks, has been a TickEncounter Prevention Partner since 2014. He has been in the tick business for 13 years, and his company focuses on preventative measure to protect your family (including the furry members!) from vector-borne diseases. In addition to lawn treatments and landscape modification consulting, Mainely Ticks has been working with the local community by offering public education seminars and events on a variety of tick ecology topics.
Bob recently published an article on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Pest Control Technology containing a ton of excellent TickSmart knowledge and tips. You can check out his article the full article
here
.
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Research Review -- None like it Hot
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Blacklegged (deer) tick larvae.
Photo credit: Brian Mullen, TERC
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The geographic range of the blacklegged (deer) tick (Ixodes scapularis) spans from the Northeast to the Southeast, and west from Texas to the upper Midwest. While this tick is considered widespread across these parts of the country, there are vastly more people who encounter and are bitten by blacklegged ticks in the North versus those in the South. There certainly are many cases of Lyme disease transmitted by blacklegged ticks in the Southern regions of the U.S., but the number pales in comparison to those infected in the Northeast and upper Midwest. In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that almost all (95%) of confirmed Lyme cases were from only 14 states – and none of those 14 were in the South.
The question is: why is this the case? There has been speculation that this observation is because blacklegged ticks feed on other animals in addition to white-footed mice in the southern states (like lizards, for example), and these other animals are poor reservoirs for Lyme. This means that these hosts do not become infected or carry the disease, and therefore don’t pass it along to uninfected ticks. However, there has been investigation into whether the differences between Lyme rates in the North and South have more to do with tick behavior than anything else.
A recent study conducted by the University of Rhode and Michigan State University examined this phenomenon in a lab setting. It’s well known that blacklegged nymphs tend to hang out below the leaf litter in the South, while those in the North demonstrate questing (climbing) behaviors. The reason for this was thought to be that the nymphs dry out too quickly in the hot Southern temperatures unless they remain tucked safely beneath the cool, protective layer of leaves. In the North, however, the lower-on-average temperatures allow for the ticks to fare better at finding a host by climbing onto stems and branches. The researchers wondered – is this difference in behavior an evolutionary adaptation to climate? In other words, are there differences in how the same species of tick behaves depending on whether it’s from the North or the South?
Researchers bred North/South regional “hybrid” blacklegged (deer) ticks by mating Wisconsin males and female ticks from South Carolina. At four months old, their resulting larval offspring were exposed to lab conditions that simulated a “Northern climate” and a “Southern climate,” with two different humidity levels (moderate and high). The Northern climate had a lower temperature (73F) and lower humidity in both the moderate and high humidity chambers (75-93%), while the Southern climate had a higher temperature (91F) and higher humidity (84-95%). Overall, the hybrid larvae died faster when exposed to the Southern treatment than in the Northern treatment. When newly-hatched larvae from Rhode Island were exposed to the same conditions, they died faster under the lower humidity conditions, but died just as fast under the Northern treatment as the Southern treatment. The researchers also measured the size of the ticks, and found that larger ones survived longer than smaller ones, because larger ticks are better protected from drying out.
The researchers concluded that this investigation did not necessarily show strong differences between Northern and Southern tick variants, likely because newly emerged larvae were very susceptible to any extreme temperature or environment. This result still demonstrates that ticks in Southern states exposed to higher temperatures, (even with higher humidity levels), are more at risk for dying from dessication (drying out). They believe this environmental condition was a selecting force that led to the evolution of Southern immature (larval and nymph) blacklegged (deer) ticks remaining below the leaf litter, instead of climbing on twigs and grasses to gain access to hosts. This is certainly good news for people living in the South right now, but the researchers question how climate change will affect these behaviors going forward. If both temperatures and humidity levels rise, its uncertain whether we will see Northern blacklegged ticks adopting the same tactic of laying low to the ground in their immature stages, or if they will adapt to the changing environment. We will all have to remain vigilant to find out.
Reference:
Ginsburg HS, Albert M, Acevedo, L, Dyer MC, Arsnoe IM, Tsao JI, Mather TN, LeBrun RA. 2017. Environmental Factors Affecting Survival of Immature
Ixodes scapularis and Implications for Geographical Distribution of Lyme Disease: The Climate/Behavior Hypothesis. PLOS One.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168723
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Be sure to stock up on materials and tools to help support your TickSmart™ effort! We have informative and eye-catching “I Just Found a Tick” handouts that include how to report a tick encounter to our TickSpotters program for a quick risk assessment report in (usually in 24-36hrs.). If that tick IS risky, instructions are given on how to submit it for disease testing at UMass' Laboratory of Medical Zoology. We also have magnets, shower cards, educational kits, and other products available for purchase. Protect yourself and your family during spring tick emergence!
In what ways are you using these products to educate and empower your community to be tick safe? Let us know! Post to our Facebook or tweet at us with a picture and post with the hashtag #weareticksmart. Let’s get a trend going – online and in real life!
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