Lyme Disease is so prevalent I’m sure just about everyone knows of someone who has been diagnosed with the virus. It is more and more common in our area and now there are reports of other tick borne diseases to be concerned about. Borrelia miyamotoi is a cousin to Lyme Disease and has similar symptoms but doesn’t have the tell-tale rash of Lyme Disease. This pathogen is treated similarly to Lyme, but unfortunately the diagnosis is tough to get. Doctors suspect Lyme but the test results come back negative. Scratching their heads, patients go without the proper treatment.
Fortunately you can protect yourself and your family from ticks, by having your yard treated. Grasshopper Gardens provides a spray and granular treatment to protect your house and yard.
Some Uncommon Facts About Ticks
Ticks can be active even in the winter
That’s right! Adult stage deer ticks become active every year after the first frost. They’re not killed by freezing temperatures, and while other ticks stop eating as day-lengths get shorter, deer ticks will be active any winter day that the ground is not snow-covered or frozen. This surprises people, especially during a January thaw or early spring day. Remember this fact and hopefully you’ll never be caught off-guard.
All ticks (including deer ticks) come in small, medium and large sizes
Ticks hatch from eggs and develop through three active stages: larvae (the size of sand grains); nymph (the size of poppy seeds); adults (the size of apple seeds). If you see them bigger, they’re probably engorged.
Ticks crawl up
Ticks don’t jump, fly, or drop from trees onto your head and back. If you find one attached there, it most likely latched onto your foot or leg and crawled up over your entire body. Ticks are “programmed” to try and attach around your head or ears. On their normal hosts, ticks also usually crawl up; they want to blood feed around the head, neck, and ears of their host, where the skin is thinner and hosts have more trouble grooming.