Ticks are popping like hot corn in a skillet. With the warmer weather and recent rains, the ticks are hungry and looking for a warm-blooded host. Arm yourself with knowledge and know thy enemy, especially if you have children, pets or host visitors who travel with pets.
Ticks can live an entire life cycle indoors, so remember, even if those who don't venture near woods or fields, should regularly do tick checks on children and pets. (Good health depends on it.)
There are a host of diseases that ticks can transmit and many ticks carry more than one variety. The litany includes babesiosis, bartonella, ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Rocky mountian spotted fever, tick paralysis, and tick relapsing fever - and more. Each has different symptoms and some overlap.
The ehrlichia bacteria can cause human granulocytic ehrlichiosis and human monocytic ehrlichiosis. The first occurs when the bacteria starts to infect granulocytes, which are cells involved in immune responses and allergies. Symptoms appear a day to 30 days after the tick has bitten, and can include fever, headache, aches and pains (sometimes a rash).
Those who travel anywhere near an ocean on the east coast should be especially vigilant - tick disease is especially prevalant on Cape Cod, Nantucket, Long Island, Rhode Island, coastal Connecticut and Massachusetts.Pets can unknowingly transport ticks inside, and anyone who hosts visitors who travel with pets from all over the country should be aware that ticks can drop off at any time. Even areas which do not normally report tick-borne diseases can feature "hot spots" where travelers have been and ticks (with somewhat exotic diseases to the local area) have been left behind.
For CDC guidelines about tick-borne diseases across the USA, see this link.
For a detailed site about the danger for pets (and how to treat even when everyone says there are no tick diseases where you live) see Tick Disease in Dogs by Gil Ash's informative pages at http://blackgsd.googlepages.com/home.
Top photo by Chris Brunson, studying ticks at Middletown's BioBlitz. Center image courtesy of CDC.
