Prime conditions for an uptick in the area tick population have local health departments launching a springtime assault on the tiny and treacherous threat. Maryland’s Department of Health is urging residents to “Get Ticked Off” as part of a summer-long public health campaign. In Fairfax County, a small army of anti-tick crusaders is showing up at local festivals to share the county’s tick alert information.
“We know ticks are out there, and they’re abundant,” said Katherine Feldman, public health veterinarian for the state of Maryland.
The abundance started with a bumper crop of acorns in the D.C. region in the fall of 2009 — known as a “mast year” for oak trees. Those acorns helped hungry deer flourish, making them attractive to bloodthirsty mama ticks eager to lay eggs.
The acorns also were stored by appreciative woodland rodents, providing for a healthy hibernation and a multiplicity of baby rodents — and tick food — the following spring.
In the spring of 2010, the abundance of newly hatched ticks, officially in their larval stage, fed on the abundance of rodents. This year, those ticks are in their nymph stage. For deer ticks, potential carriers of Lyme disease, the nymph stage is when they are most likely to bite humans.
The region’s other two common ticks — the lone star tick and the dog tick — are less picky, and will feed on humans whether a larva, nymph or adult. The lone star can transmit ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis. The dog tick can transmit the rare but deadly Rocky Mountain fever.
A moist spring has led to plentiful green habitats along area trails, making a happy home for all three varieties. But the hot summer of 2010 likely killed off some of the offenders, mitigating their proliferation, said David Gaines, Virginia’s public health entomologist.
Gaines and Feldman urge the tick-wary to wear long pants and long sleeves on hikes, and to tuck pants into socks, and shirts into pants. Insect repellent with permethrin is the best for preventing ticks from biting. And anyone who has walked or played where ticks may roam should undergo a thorough check upon returning home.
“The ticks that transmit Lyme disease likely are very small right now,” Feldman said.
