Whether you’re exploring local green spaces, walking your dog, gardening or catching up on yardwork, spring is sure to get you outside. But all that outdoor activity opens you — and your home — to notorious pests that can carry diseases with them: ticks.
Pennsylvania reports the highest cases of Lyme disease in the nation, says Nicole Chinnici, director of the PA Tick Research Lab, a project of East Stroudsburg University’s Dr. Jane Huffman Wildlife Genetics Institute.
Chinnici says that the tick lab gets its most submissions from the Pittsburgh area, but infection rates aren’t significantly higher here compared to elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
“We see them in every county, we see them in every region of the state,” she says.
While ticks are often associated with spring and summer, they’re prevalent all year long; most people think of them as warm-weather creatures because the increased outdoor time leaves them more exposed to bites. Deer ticks can go dormant during days colder than 35 degrees, but can reemerge as soon as the weather warms up, even if only for a single day. Ticks are killed only when exposed to bitterly cold temperates (10 degrees or colder) for several days in a row.
This spring is expected to be an especially bad tick season, according to recent reporting by Time magazine.
Most Pennsylvanians are probably familiar with the symptoms of Lyme disease, which include the bullseye-esque rash, fever and fatigue in the short term, with the onset of more severe symptoms if left untreated. The commonwealth’s ticks can also carry other equally dangerous diseases: anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan virus and ehrlichiosis are the four most common in Pennsylvania next to Lyme disease.
“There are many tick-borne illnesses out there, and the black-legged tick, which is our most common tick — it’s about 78% of the tick exposure in our state — that’s the tick that carries Lyme disease, babesiosis [and] Powassan virus, and it can have a co-infection rate between 5% and 10%, so they can carry more than one tick-borne illness at a time,” Chinnici says.
Babesiosis causes bone marrow to replace red blood cells — hemolytic anemia — which leads to flu-like symptoms and jaundice. Powassan virus causes fever, headache and vomiting, with severe cases potentially leading to long-term neurological issues.
There’s no single method that’s totally effective against ticks, Chinnici says, “but there are several things that you can do and, in combination, it’s going to really help reduce your risk of exposure.”
Insect sprays and creams that include DEET (diethyltoluamide) or permethrin — OFF! Insect Repellent, for example — repel ticks alongside other critters, and can be used on clothing and boots.
Chinnici says that tucking pants into your socks is also a highly effective prevention method.
“You have a better chance of seeing them crawling on your clothes if they’re crawling above your socks,” she says.
Even if these prevention tactics are perfectly implemented while outdoors, it’s critical to perform tick checks before returning inside so stray ticks aren’t carried in.
To remove a tick, use fine-tipped tweezers to grab it as close to the skin as possible. Then, steadily pull it off without twisting or jerking to keep its mouthparts from breaking off in the skin.
The most sanitary way to kill a live tick is by placing it into a container of rubbing alcohol or sealing it in a plastic bag.
Aside from checking yourself and loved ones, Chinnici recommends checking pets — especially in winter months when ticks are searching for warmth.
Pets, she adds, are one of the biggest sources of ticks getting inside a house.
“Our animals can get these infections too. Dogs can get Lyme disease; dogs can get anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis.”
If you are outdoors often with pets, there is a vaccine for Lyme disease available for dogs, as well as topical or prescription chewable tick prevention measures recommended by veterinarians.
While the Tick Research Lab works on a number of research projects pertaining to tick-borne illnesses throughout the state, its primary charge is “passive surveillance.”
The lab is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide free tick testing to Pennsylvania residents.
“If you’re exposed to a tick and you’ve removed it with tweezers, you can put it in a Ziploc bag and visit ticklab.org to put in your information,” Chinnici says. “That will give you a laboratory identification number. You’ll mail your tick in the Ziploc bag with that voucher form to our lab and then we’ll conduct a free test once that sample comes in.”
The lab tests for the five most common tick-borne illnesses in Pennsylvania and returns the results to you. A positive test result doesn’t necessarily mean you have or will contract one of the diseases, but that knowledge is an important step in mitigating health risks.
“Submit that as soon as possible so that you better understand what you’ve been exposed to,” Chinnici says. “That’s really important for you with getting diagnosed and treated by your physician. Always keep an eye on symptoms and make sure you’re practicing prevention.”
