How To Reduce Your Chances Of Getting Lyme Disease

More people contract Lyme disease this time of year than at any other. That is because this is the most active feeding time for the deer tick, whose bite transmits the disease to humans.

“During the decade that we have been tracking deer ticks, the general trend is for their number to increase and their geographic range to grow,” says Kirby C. Stafford, III, PhD, a medical-veterinary entomologist specializing in tick-borne disease at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. “While  only 10 to 20 percent of deer ticks carry Lyme disease, the number of cases is directly related to the size of the overall deer tick population. So with the tick population increasing we could see record numbers of Lyme disease cases in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York this year.”

There are two other diseases, babesiosis and ehrlichiosis, spread by the bite of the deer tick that are not as common and not usually as serious as Lyme disease; but they can be quite unpleasant.

Dr Stafford and others knowledgeable about Lyme disease say that the great majority of tick bites, perhaps as high as 90 percent, occur in a one’s own yard. “That’s where people spend most of their outdoor time, not in the woods,” says Dr Stafford.

“Reducing the deer tick population on the property surrounding your home is your best defense against tick-borne diseases,” advises Ken Clear. He is a certified and licensed arborist with Alpine the Care of Trees, which among its services provides tick-reduction programs in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.

Ticks don’t fly, jump, or drop from above. They prefer damp areas and lurk in tall grass, leaf piles, brush, wooded areas, and stone walls. Mr Clear recommends the following to make your property inhospitable to ticks:

Remove leaf litter and piles of brush, especially around stone walls, where ticks lie in wait.

Cut grass and weeds as low as possible and keep them cut to dry them out.

Thin branches to let in light and improve air circulation, thereby reducing dampness.

Create a barrier between the woods and the high-use parts of your yard. A three-foot-wide layer of wood chips or gravel will do the trick. Ticks don’t like to cross a dry, open area.

Ticks feed on blood from deer and mice. By reducing the number of these animals on your property, you cut down the number of ticks, said Mr Clear. If practical, minimize or eliminate the vegetation deer prefer to feed on. An arborist can advise you on the plants deer do and don’t like to eat. Consider treating plants with sprays deer don’t like the taste of and/or installing tall fencing to keep them out.

Don’t put bird feeders in high-traffic areas of your property. Spilled seed can draw mice.

Move wood piles, a favorite nesting place for mice and hiding place for ticks, away from your house.

If your tick-reduction job is extensive or if your property is densely populated with ticks, consider calling a professional arborist for an evaluation and recommendations.

Tick-borne diseases are certainly unpleasant and Lyme disease can be serious. The tick population this year is expected to be high. But by taking preventive measures on your property, you can greatly reduce the likelihood of tick bite and its possible consequences.