I live in the 128 corrider and have already been treated for Lyme disease this year. I had a tick bite w/ a bullseye and went immediately to my doctor.

Two years ago I had classic flu symptoms that got worse, landed me in the ER and finally to my own MD, who diagnosed me with disseminated Lymme disease. It had spread throughout my body and required 21 days of doxycycline.

If you have animals, use Frontline. If you garden use a strong tick repellent and wear long pants with white socks. Tuck your pants into your socks. Wear long sleeves and do a complete tick check when you get inside.

Our yard is large, wooded and full of deer. It's the deer ticks that carry Lymme disease. You may be on a clear plot without that concern.

However, New England in general, and MA in pariciular is full of Lymme disease. It's expected to be as bad here as it is on Nantucket and the Vineyard.

Hi
Thanks for the information. Lyme has gotten so much press in recent years that I"m pretty familiar with its transmission and treatment. One of our GWbers wrote an excellent article about it a few years ago, and it usually pops up here sometime in spring. (Claire?)

I will keep an eye on the bite area and on the lookout for symptoms. As I said, I'm pretty sure it was a dog tick, but I did keep the specimen just in case.
Thanks!
Marie

See the FAQ on the New England Gardening Forum FAQ page entitled How can I protect myself and my family from ticks and Lyme Disease?

Claire

We moved to north central Mass on the NH border a few years ago, and I've been amazed at how many ticks there are every spring. I took five off one dog today; that was just from a few minutes' romp. One dog has Lyme disease and we worry about contracting it ourselves. I wear long pants when I'm gardening and do tick checks of myself and animals regularly. It is worst in the early spring.

idabean, I'm amazed you've never had one on you but I can tell you this: every time I've found one on me, whether it's bitten or is just walking around, I feel like they are all over me for hours and hours afterwards. I really do hate ticks.

Hubby and I had the full series of Lyme vaccine before they pulled it from the market. Our dogs and pony are vaccinated against Lyme disease too.

I hate ticks too. They used to be very rare in northern NE; now they're everywhere. I just pulled one off my dog yesterday. Time to treat with frontline. I have to say though, that I've never had a tick latch onto me. That would be unnerving, but as plentiful as the little parasites are, I suppose that day is coming.

>Our yard is large, wooded and full of deer.

I think this is in the FAQ, but maybe not. It's only deer ticks that carry Lyme, but the primary host of these ticks is not deer, but mice. The nice warm nests that mice build help the deer ticks to winter over, while their unlucky cousins hunkering down in the leaf litter freeze to death most winters. Deer DO play a role, because they provide relatively long-distance transport for ticks; mice don't travel very far.

A product called Damminix may help control ticks. It consists of tubes filled with Permethrin-impregnated cotton balls, which are taken by mice and used to line their nests. The Permethrin kills any ticks that bite the mice.

It's been used successfully on one or more points here, where there is limited access for deer from other areas. I suspect it would not work well in areas where there's a steady stream of deer coming through from all sides, although the website claims 97% reduction in ticks on treated properties. If I saw a single deer tick in my yard I'd get this stuff immediately - I have a close friend who has a really nasty case of Lyme and has been undergoing treatment for years. It's nothing to panic over, but certainly nothing to fool around with either.

Here is a link that might be useful: Damminix

I have gotten about four ticks over the past three years, one pretty firmly implanted, and have never had any sickness from it. Today I found a larger bug, could have been a larger tick or a small spider, up my pant leg after just walking for five minutes outside. Just keep an eye on the area when you get bit and see your doctor for a blood test quickly. It is treatable if you catch it soon. Don't let it keep you in the house.

The bulls eye rash is absent in about 20% of people with Lyme, according to the CDC. I would have a test if I found a deer tick embedded or had the rash (called erythema migrans) OR any of the other symptoms.

Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, objective physical findings (such as erythema migrans, facial palsy, or arthritis), and a history of possible exposure to infected ticks. Validated laboratory tests can be very helpful but are not generally recommended when a patient has erythema migrans.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lyme at CDC

I was in Central Park a few years ago and scratched my head and felt something and scratched it out. It was a tick. I put it in a zip lock and took it to my doctor to send to a lab. No lyme disease. A friend got lyme from a tick on her dog.

that worries me. my little BLACK toy poodle plays in the ivy a lot. Now I live in Morris Cove, New Haven, off the L.I. Sound and have never seen deer in this area so I'm wondering if ticks are something I should be aware of??? I just moved here last August so don't know much about it.

I usually garden wearing a baseball hat, yoga pants tucked into knee high rubber wellies and now that it's warmer out, a tee shirt.

I'll take all the advice I can get starting with: what do I look for on a black dog? Paws? belly? It seems like finding a needle in a haystack. thanks.

little black dog in the garden (that's not poop behind; part of the black ground liner prior owners put down):

Welcome, buddyrose. CUTE dog!

You don't need deer to have deer ticks and Lyme. If your dog doesn't get walked in woodsy or grassy areas outside your yard, and if rodents and bunnies don't come into the yard, you may not have any ticks to worry about (I'm not sure if they travel on birds, might want to check that). We had no ticks in our yard for many years, and may not even now, but since we walk the dog around town we keep him on Frontline for about 9 months a year.

A deer tick can latch onto a dog anywhere. You can usually feel them if you run your fingers through the dog's coat all over, including head, neck, hocks, shins, back, belly and tail; you need to look in their ears as well, since ticks like that sort of protected spot. Check between toe pads, and carefully all around the head.

It's almost impossible to do a check that's thorough enough to find any tick, often enough to interrupt the life cycle and to prevent Lyme. That's why we use Frontline; and we do have misgivings about using it.

I live along the south shore, and have had Lyme disease twice in the last 5 years, once with the bulls eye, once without. As an avid gardener, avoiding ticks is pretty difficult...

I found a dog tick on my dog who has only been in the yard lately, which is very unusual. I don't think she has ever gotten any ticks in the yard before. I frontlined her, which I only do when I start seeing ticks or when she is going somewhere with more ticks (especially to the Cape).

The most common place I see ticks on the dog is on her legs if it's soon after the outing, or on her head if they have had some time to crawl upwards.

thanks. I use Frontline Plus and yesterday did what I thought was a thorough once over. So far so good. I do walk him in the grassy area along the Morris Cove seawall. It's the only place he can run off leash. And I don't mean be off leash cuz he's fenced in the yard. On the grass, he loves to run in circles around me. It's very funny.

My yard is all mature beds, and rocky walking paths. Not a blade of grass to be seen. poor little thing. I'll check for ticks regularly now that I'm spending so much time here.

FYI the UMass Extension will test a tick for Lyme disease--you just send it to them in a ziploc bag with a little damp paper towel. It's $40--not cheap, but our one-year-old had a tick implanted on her last year and it was a big relief to find that the tick was Lyme-free. Saved us some worry and possibly some prophylactic antibiotics.

http://www.umass.edu/agland/diagnostics/tick/

We live on the North Shore and it does seem like the ticks are more present than years past; seems like every time I come in I find a tick on me. I have to admit I used to think my wife was paranoid when she would always be checking for ticks. But last month my mother-in-law was hospitalized feeling very weak; after 6 days of tests she was diagnosed with ehrlichiosis. I had never heard of it but a Web search (including this site) found some references to this disease affecting animals in New England -- sounds like its presence in people in this region is fairly new. Has anyone else in NE had experience with ehrlichiosis in humans?

Saw a program years ago on ticks, their eyes scan for blue and green. If these colors don't register, they have an automatic jump response. Maybe some bug expert reading this could tell us more about it. We're in southeastern Connecticut, a couple of towns away from Lyme -the namesake location of disease. And at edge of land trust land,meaning lots of woods. Good old blue jeans and blue or green socks work for me. Ok,for the reality test, have found two ticks on me over about twenty years, gardening, clearing brush, all those seasons of leaf clean clean up-spring and fall.

I'm from Nebraska, where the tick are very large to begin with. (About the size of a pencil eraser.) So I am scared about how to find one! I cut my boy's hair really short, but can anyone steer me as to where to look for the right dimensions?

Mariposa -- the main difference between deer ticks and dog ticks (in addition to the size -- dog ticks are larger) is the reddish "two-tone" body (at least in my experience, they have almost always had the red/black combo, so I guess they have mostly been females...)

The link below is to the American Lyme Disease Foundation -- has some photos. The other link is to a page with some good photos.

http://www.aldf.com/deerTickEcology.shtml

For what it's worth, we use Tick Ranger to treat our yard (we live on the edge of both a meadow and a woodland). We started using them (an "organic" chrysanthemum-based treatment) three years ago and my cat, who loves to just SIT in the woods or at the edge of the meadow and who was bringing us 6-8 ticks a DAY, hasn't had more than 1-2 a season since we began. Have found none (0) on my golden retriever. They are part (or associated with?) NaturalLawn. No idea if they are in your area, but I can't say enough about the effectiveness of their program for us. Might be worth a try if you are seeing ticks.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to identify deer ticks

Ticks are BAD this year -- like I've never seen before! On average, I'm pulling 2 - 3 ticks off of my dog each day and that's with her monthly Frontline treatments. And she only has access to grassy lawn areas. So glad we had her vaccinated for Lyme, too. I pulled one off of my 6 yr. old son's back the other day. I think we need to start spraying the yard this year because this is ridiculous! We live in Fairfield, CT.

I'm living in southeastern NH and the ticks are horrible. I've picked literally hundreds off of the dog since the weather started getting nice. Hundreds. Granted, he's a rather fluffy collie, so there's a lot of hair to hang onto (and to hide under). He also sleeps at the bottom of my bed, so I'm rather paranoid about them crawling up onto me... I found one on my quilt a week or two ago...
He gets frontlined, but it's not 100% effective.
grr ticks. one of the insects that I see no use for (along with earwigs.)

a friend sent me these articles on the diff. pesticides for pets (cats and dogs) and how some of them were dangerous and animals were dying. It's something to be aware of, not panicked over -- my first response! -- so I'm posting the link to the humane society. It seems that a lot of these pesticides that go bet. animal shoulder blades have not been tested and have very high levels of pesticides.

Here is a link that might be useful: humane society

Hi new here, been on the Garden forums a couple of months and only just found you.
just moved to East Lyme (possabily not the most intellegent thing to do, move to a town with a illness named after it!)
in the last 3 weeks I have removed ticks from my neighbour, myself, 2 off one 4 yr old and 1 yesterday from the other 4 year old, all after we had been next door, yesterday was amazing we walked the drive and at the end tick!!, the first one I quietly panicked!!, obtaining advice from anyone and everyone, in the end, after conflicting advice, I got hubby to take my son and tick in jar to the doctor, he said it was way to big for a deer tick, but couldn't rule it out, and it takes between 36-48 hours of attachment for lymes to be transmitted, and here they treat symptoms not the fact you have been bitten, as most people are unaware of a bite, I relaxed alot after getting the facts.
My method of removal is petrolium jelly for about 5 minutes all round the tick, this suffocates it I believe? anyway whether it does or doesn't! the tick has no grip after this time and I can remove it with tweezers, without a struggling and screaming child! or leaving the pincer thing in.
By the way I am not blaming the neighbour, my garden and lawn where landscaped into a inch of its life, by the previous owners (very sterile)clearing an acre of land on the edge of 200 acres of woodland, she has a yard/garden much more in keeping with the natural landscape here.

I never expected that deer ticks would make it up here, but for the last 3 years I've been bitten. Luckily, they were all pulled out before the tick had dug in deep. I wish they could be eradicated. How come these ticks were not around 15 or 20 years ago?

---How come these ticks were not around 15 or 20 years ago?--

In two words: global warming.

Another reason (also probably related to global warming): invasion by Japanese barberry! A good reason to rip out this invasive. A recent study by researchers at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station found that the number of ticks present in woodlands infested by Japanese barberry was hugely greater than the number in woodlands where barberry is not present.

"In 2008, a sampling of areas with more barberry showed an average of 496 ticks infected with the bacterium that causes Lyme Disease, whereas areas without barberry showed an average of 89 ticks."

This refers to results reported in a paper that will be published in an upcoming issue of Environmental Entomology. The theory is that the areas where barberry patches exist have higher humidity level than areas where they don't (no idea why that is but it's apparently a scientific fact). Higher humidity apparently improves tick survival rates.

Here's the reference:

Williams, S. C., J. S. Ward, T. E. Worthley, and K. C. Stafford, III. 2009. Managing Japanese Barberry (Ranunculales: Berberidaceae) Infestations Reduces Blacklegged Tick (Acari: Ixodidae) Abundance and Infection Prevalence with Borrelia burgdorferi (Spirochaetales: Spirochaetaceae). Environmental Entomology (In Press).

Another study by Yale researchers determined that climate impacts the prevalence of Lyme Disease. Deer ticks live for two years and obtain one blood meal during each of their three stages of life. In the moderate climate of the northeastern United States, larval deer ticks feed in the late summer, long after the spring feeding of infected nymphs. This long gap between feeding times correlates to more cases of Lyme Disease reported in the Northeast. The Yale paper appears in the April issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Interesting stuff. A good argument (as if bigger, more potent poison ivy wasn't enough of one!) for doing something about global warming ASAP.

Here is a link that might be useful: CT Ag Station Tick Testing Results for 2008

I'm not sure global warming has anything to do with it. I live in northern CT and we've always had ticks.

I don't think that this is an appropriate forum for discussing global warming. There's far too much controversy about it to take up space here. Is there a separate forum to discuss this topic? If so let's use that forum.

originalvermonter -- I agree that this is not the place to debate theories about global warming and climate change, but I guess I didn't see my post about the CT Ag Station study that way: I thought it was relevant to (a) invasive, nonnative plant explosion in our woodlands (and sometimes gardens, in the case of barberry) and (b) increases in tick populations (aren't you the one who said you didn't expect "deer ticks would make it up here"?) The question of WHY the barberry is taking over and WHY the ticks are increasing is up for discussion, but I thought the information that a study had showed a correlation between the two was valid for a garden forum.

Just my two cents.

-----I'm not sure global warming has anything to do with it. I live in northern CT and we've always had ticks.---

Well I live in Vermont and I can assure you we have not always had deer ticks here, or Lyme disease for that matter. The *only* times we ever found ticks on our dogs back in the 1970s was after returning from trips to Old Lyme CT to visit my relatives. And our dogs from that era *always* brought home a tick or two from trips to southern New England.

Now we no longer have to leave home to get infected or infested.

I can't think of many issues that impact gardening more than climate change, so it seems a very appropriate topic to mention, and mention it was all I did, in response to your query as to why ticks have become so much more prevalent in recent years.

Sorry chardie, I should have said I replied to *a* query. You weren't the one who asked the question.

Climate is as appropriate as a discussion of ticks is on a garden forum, IMHO.

In legitimate scientific circles, there's no more controversy about climate change than there is about whether or not smoking is bad for your health. (Maybe that topic would be verboten on the Virginia forum.)

And, there is evidence that Lyme disease is worsening (not JUST spreading) because of increased temperatures and longer frost-free time spans; please see the link to a study on the topic.

On the bright side, we're now zone 7 instead of 6. I guess that's the silver lining, if there is one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Climate Change and Lyme Disease

Well, the world is always going through cycles. Take a look at all the rocks in Vermont pastures that were deposited by glaciers in the distant past and recently the fossil remains of a lemur have been unearthed in Germany. There are countless examples of how our earth is always in flux. Different diseases have swept through our forests killing different tree varieties. A state Forester once told me that when certain trees get overpopulated diseases will spread and cut back their numbers. I'm sure that the same cycle exists for bugs that rely on Japanese Barberry, a nonnative invasive plant that has enabled deer ticks to spread as it spreads. A little warming would of been nice in Vermont last winter and this spring.