Ticks And Checks

By Charles Crookenden

Contrary to what most people in the North-East might think, it is officially Spring. While the snow is still on the ground, this means that the deer ticks will shortly be emerging for their annual blood feed. During its three year life span, a deer tick takes just one blood meal each year so it is understandable, perhaps that they like to take their time - or at least, the females do. Unlike the males who feed for shorter periods, the female will feed for 36-48 hours. During this feeding time, she can engorge herself up to 100 times her starting size as a result of which the bacterium borellia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme Disease, has plenty of time to intermingle into your blood stream. This is why it is almost always the female ticks that spread Lyme disease.

Most people do not differentiate between male and female deer ticks, but if you or your child has one embedded in your skin, it is important to know the differences. There are three primary things to look for. First, the male is smaller than the female. However, since you are unlikely to have a male and female at hand at the same time, this is hard to judge.

More useful is the fact that females have colorful red or orange backs. Males are plain brown. If you see a tick with red or orange, the chances are it is a female and you should quickly dispose of it in alcohol. There is no harm in handling it en route to the drinks cabinet as they take their time to settle in to your skin. The third way to tell is if you find an engorged tick. This is a good indicator that it is a female, but it also indicates that the tick has been well-embedded in you for a prolonged time so check in with your doctor for testing as soon as possible.

But it is not the adult tIcks that are the primary problem. Adult ticks are large enough to be seen relatively easily. As a result, most people notice them before much time has elapsed and even if embedded, they rarely have had sufficient time for the bacterium to transfer into your bloodstream. Most research indicates that you are safe up to about 24 hours from the time the tick embeds itself although judging the timing is hard since most people never feel the tick embed itself. The crafty tick injects a type of anesthetic prior to enjoying its meal. My rule of thumb is that if the tick is not engorged and can be pried out easily with tweezers, then it is OK, but I always keep a wary eye out for the telltale, bull's eye rash that can develop.

It is the nymph ticks that are tricky. About the size of a poppy seed or a small freckle, they are well camouflaged and meld into your skin where they feed, happily undetected. Detection is not made any easier by their preference for warm, moist areas such as your armpit, groin or scalp. A standard stereo microscope is a useful tool to examine or identify a nymph while a magnifying glass is useful for searching for nymph ticks and certainly, for helping to remove them.

Many people incur a bout of temporary delusional parasitosis just thinking about ticks. They imagine ticks where there are none. They request frequent inspections. They shower more often. But an estimated 4.3 million people actually suffered Lyme Disease in 2011 and the numbers are increasing.

It is a serious problem not least because Lyme Disease is, at best, temporarily debilitating and at worst, ruinous to your health. My wife has contracted it twice, happily with short term symptoms, but many horror stories abound. Katy Reid, who testified at a Connecticut Senate panel on Lyme Disease suffered for eleven years with Lyme disease. Symptoms are manifold and occupy two pages on the Lyme Disease Association's website.

The North-East is prime Lyme country as the reported cases indicate in the table below:

2011 US Reported Cases of Lyme Disease

Pennsylvania - 16%

New York - 14%

New Jersey - 13%

Wisconsin - 11%

Connecticut - 9%

Massachusetts - 8%

Minnesota - 6%

Maryland - 4%

New Hampshire - 4%

Virginia - 3%

Remaining 40 - 12%

These are the 'woodland states' with dense populations of white-footed mice and deer, where the black-legged ticks make it their home for two to three years. Ticks especially like brushy areas where leaf litter and tall grasses abound.

After a short woodland walk in upstate New York, I once picked 58 ticks off a Wheaton before I stopped counting and the poor dog still contracted Lyme. My wife regularly picks ticks off myself and our children so during the Springtime, we conduct nightly bedtime checks on the children. Just writing about them is making my head itch, my own form of delusional parasitosis, but don't delude yourself. Start checking for ticks, now.