Wet weather brings uptick in ticks

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e wet weather this season means nature lovers should be on the lookout for ticks as they enjoy Colorado’s mountains, woods, parks and trails. “ ere does seem to be a lot more ticks this year,” said Chris Roundy, a medical entomologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “ ey do like wet weather, so our wet spring has certainly created ideal environments for them.”

Types of ticks and diseases e two most common ticks in Colorado are the Rocky Mountain wood tick and the American dog tick, which can both carry diseases, Roundy said. e likeliness of getting a disease from a tick bite in Colorado, however, is relatively low.

“ ough we are seeing an increase in ticks, that doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in tick-borne diseases,” Roundy said. “If you are bitten by a tick, there’s still a very slim chance that they will transmit anything.” ey can instead carry Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever or tularemia, depending on the type of tick. e seriousness of these diseases can range from having u-like symptoms to life-threatening conditions, Roundy said, but the latter is very rare.

Luckily, ticks in Colorado do not carry Lyme disease, a sometimes serious and long-lasting disease carried by ticks in other parts of the country, according to the Colorado State University Extension o ce.

If a person is bitten by a tick in Colorado, Roundy said they should watch for a headache, fever or rash and seek medical attention if they develop any of these symptoms.

Several of the diseases can be treated with antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prevention and tick collection

To prevent ticks, Roundy said people should wear long pants tucked into socks, use insect repellent with DEET and consider treating their clothes with an insecticide called Permethrin if they will be outside for days at a time.

“If you’ve been spending signi cant time outside — always a good idea to check for ticks,” he added. “ ey like to hang out in areas where they’ve got something helping them hold on. is might be in our armpits, waistband, back of the knee, in your hair.”

If someone nds a tick on themselves, a pet or outside, they can double-bag it and send it to the state health department to contribute to the Colorado Citizen Science Tick Surveillance Program.

In this program, Roundy determines the species of all submitted ticks and uses the data to better understand what types of ticks are found in Colorado and where they live.

“I have received upwards of 250 ticks so far this season in our surveillance program, which is great,” he said. “ e more submissions we get, the better understanding we have of the ticks in Colorado.”

Tick submissions have roughly mulitiplied by ve since last year, but Roundy said it’s di cult to accurately compare these numbers of because of the state health department’s increased messaging about the program this year. Roundy contributes the in- crease in tick submissions to both the expanded awareness of the program and the wet weather. e Centers for Disease Control also warns people not to squeeze or remove a tick with their ngers. Instead, the CDC o ers the following tips: direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep trying.” If you are in sales, Tom’s book “How to Master the Art of Selling” is a mustread.

If a person nds a tick outside, Roundy said he does not recommend trying to capture it if it will put the person at risk of being bitten.

1. Use clean, ne-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.

2. Pull upward with steady, even pressure. ...

3. After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.

4. Never crush a tick with your ngers.

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