How bad are ticks this year and how can you protect yourself? Here’s what a Penn State expert said
Pennsylvania is the epicenter of Lyme disease in the United States.
The Keystone State reported 7,920 cases in 2018, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than the next two states — New Jersey (2,876) and New York (2,446) — combined.
With more people headed back outdoors, Penn State assistant professor of entomology Erika Machtinger told the Centre Daily Times it’s important be careful every time you step outside, taking care to prevent tick bites. Lyme disease is spread through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks, also called deer ticks.
When detected early, Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics. Without treatment, the disease can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system.
Here is Machtinger’s advice on how to prevent and address the inflammatory disease caused by a tick bite.
Centre Daily Times: How prevalent do you expect Lyme disease to be this year?
Erika Machtinger: We’ve seen a general increase in Lyme disease diagnoses over the last several decades; there’s a steady increase. That doesn’t mean that ticks are worse, it just means that we see numbers of Lyme disease go up.
The tick numbers fluctuate based on a lot of different factors. That could be environmental, and weather and location has a huge impact and location on tick numbers.
We can say that we’re seeing an increase in Lyme disease cases and that we’re seeing tick species move around, but we really don’t have a good enough baseline of surveillance in Pennsylvania to say that this year would be worse. We have no reference for that.
We can say that we had a warmer, dryer year last year and we had a lot of snow this year — which can protect ticks from freezing — so we could see more ticks, but I think in general, our rule of thumb is that ticks are bad every year.
CDT: Pennsylvania reported in 2018 the most cases of Lyme disease in the United States. Is there anything about Centre County specifically that sticks out to you?
EM: Yes. One of the proposed reasons behind some of this increase that we’re seeing is habitat fragmentation, where you’re breaking up forests and increasing hosts for ticks — like white-footed mice and white-tailed deer — that like those edge habitats that you’re creating.
Centre County has a lot of that. We’ve got these urban areas with State College and Bellefonte, and then surrounding are a lot of farmlands and then we’ve got game lands surrounding that.
We have all these different breaks in the landscape, which could impact tick numbers. Centre County is a wonderful location for a lot of outdoor activities, but I think because of that and the way it’s set up, we need to be very careful every time we go outside.
CDT: What advice do you have for people to keep their pets safe?
EM: This mostly refers to dogs because cats are usually pretty good at grooming off ticks. You don’t often find ticks on cats and cats do not exhibit a condition that we associate with Lyme disease. They’re not as much at risk as dogs are.
With dogs, a lot of folks hunt and have working dogs. That can put those dogs at risk for tick bites. We always recommend that you have a good relationship with your veterinarian because they’re going to be the ones that know your dog, their history and risk factors.
There are collars available, topical treatments and then grooming your dog or doing a tick check every time they come back inside. But having a good relationship with your veterinarian is critical because they’re going to be aware of the products that work.
CDT: What is the most common mistake people make?
EM: There are two answers to this.
The first mistake that I see people making is how they remove ticks. There’s a lot of myths out there about how you take a tick out, but the simplest approach is the best. Pull the tick out with tweezers.
Folks come out with all sorts of different ways to do that, but we want to make sure we’re doing this in the safest way we can. Just simply use tweezers to pull the tick out.
The rationale for that is so you’re not encouraging that tick to regurgitate pathogens back into your body by basically scaring the tick. If you’re putting ice or heat on that tick, they’re going to try and get out as fast as possible and any pathogens they have may be dumped into your skin faster than if you just pulled them out.
The second one is I see folks that have a real aversion to using Environmental Protection Agency-registered repellents. There are four repellents that are EPA registered.
These have been tested for safety and they’ve had a long history of safety. Folks think that by using a homemade mixture of essential oils or something along those lines that they’re safe because they seem more natural, but those oils have never been tested or gone through the same safety process.
All of the EPA products are standardized and you know what you’re going to get. These homemade products at worst could actually even hurt you with a skin reaction or they may not even work.
I see that happen a lot. I understand wanting natural products, but the EPA has a great repellent search finder tool that you can use based on your own personal preferences.
CDT: When are people most at risk of contracting Lyme disease?
EM: Ticks can be active all year. If it’s above 35 degrees, you could find a tick out there.
However, the life stage of the blacklegged tick that is most important because they are the smallest and most challenging to find is out of June and into July. I like to say May through August is when you need to be on alert.
Adults ticks are active in the early spring and late fall, so if you’re a hunter or if you do outdoor spring activities, you want to be aware that there are adult ticks out at those times.
The nymphs life stage is much, much smaller than the adults. And it looks like a freckle; it’s like the size of a poppy seed. That’s why it’s so challenging for people to find even when they’re doing their tick checks.
Be aware all year, but you want to be extra diligent from the late spring into the summer.