Like us, ticks are out and about in the spring. They’re looking for mammal blood to feed on, while we’re working and recreating.
Deer ticks, also known as black-legged ticks, and the infections they can transmit are increasingly of concern to people who spend a lot of time outdoors, such as utility and farm crews, said Miles Williams, who manages occupational health and safety for Smith’s Farm.
“They’re so tiny, but they can be very dangerous,” Williams said at a conference held by the Aroostook County Safety Directors Association.
Because of their link with Lyme disease, ticks are a worry across the Northeast U.S. and increasingly in Maine. Feeding on deer, mice, fox and other mammals in their two-to-three year lives, deer ticks can spread the bacteria borrelia burgdorferi, which is thought to cause Lyme disease, the condition encompassing short- or long-term symptoms of fatigue, joint and muscle pain, headaches, fever and rashes.
Ticks are arachnids, a relative of scorpions, spiders and mites, but have become a pest of warm weather in much of New England — less noticeable and annoying than mosquitoes but also potentially harmful.
Williams said one of his friends was bitten by a deer tick while hunting and ended up having to deal with what was likely a bout of Lyme disease, after developing a red circular rash around the tick bite and flu symptoms. The rash, known as erythema migrans, occurs in about 70 percent to 80 percent of people with confirmed B. burgdorferi infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rash, which usually appears within a month of the bite, can be followed by headaches and neck stiffness, joint pain and swelling, facial palsy and other symptoms attributed to the spiral-shaped bacteria.
The condition is diagnosed by testing for antibodies released in response to the bacteria, and short-term antibiotics taken in the early stages of the infection are usually successful as a treatment, according to the CDC.
“It can be quite debilitating,” Williams said. “Your bones just hurt. Some days you can’t even get out of bed,” he recalls his friend saying. “You go through cycles. You may feel good for two or three months, then it hits you and you’re feeling down.”
In 2014, there were more than 25,000 confirmed cases of Lyme disease, according to the CDC.
Lyme is the most commonly reported tick-borne disease in the U.S. although it’s one of at least six other tick-borne diseases in Maine, including anaplasmosis, babesiosis and powassan encephalitis, according to the Maine CDC.
Deer ticks begin their lives in the spring as eggs that turn into larvae in the summer, when they seek their first meal from a mouse, bird, deer or other host (potential sources of B. burgdorferi that can later be spread). The young ticks will drop off their first host and molt into eight-legged nymphs — about the size of a poppy seed — which will seek another meal throughout the next spring and summer. By the end of fall, they become adults, seek a third meal and then lay the eggs of a new generation.
Deer ticks are so problematic for humans because they can find their way to us after feeding on wild animals that may carry bacteria like B. burgdorferi. The winter ticks plaguing Maine’s moose population are one-host ticks, spending their whole life on the same animal, and although hunters and hikers may find them in the fall as they’re hatching, they likely don’t transmit any diseases.
The prospect of a warming climate in northern Maine, or even just more mild winters, bodes well for ticks, which are thought to be expanding northward in the U.S. and Canada.
Williams, who spearheaded a large solar power installation for Smith’s vegetable packing and cooling facility in Westfield, said the possibility of warmer winters may be worrisome because of ticks and other pests, not to mention the inconsistency of snow for recreationists.
“We need the cold up here in the wintertime to freeze out. It freezes the ground, which does freeze out some of the tick eggs.” Good long freezes are also something farmers benefit from, he said, to help disrupt soil-borne pest and disease cycles in potatoes, broccoli and other crops.
Ticks haven’t been a big problem in farm fields, Williams said. They’re more commonly found amongst the habitats of mice, deer and other hosts, in the edge and brush of woods and also in residential grass habitats.
The worst of ticks can be avoided by people, and kept in check ecologically in a few ways. Opossums, a southern marsupial adapted to cold winters, can attract and consume thousands of ticks in a season. Chickens, ducks and fowl will also eat ticks, mosquitos and other pests.
For personal protection, Maine health officials recommend protective clothing such as long pants and socks, repellants like permethrin and DEET, and keeping a watchful eye for the ticks throughout the warm months.
