June is a month packed with graduations from high school, college, and graduate school. Celebrations of these milestones range from the simple to the elaborate. But, regardless of size, many of these parties occur outdoors, with family and friends, on a great big lawn. And where there are big lawns, there are also blood-sucking, disease-transmitting ticks. Without proper preparation, a once-in-a-lifetime celebration can turn into a super spreader event.
For a tick, lots of bare ankles wandering across the green grass is like a gourmet buffet. Ticks lurk on blades of grass with their front legs outstretched, trying to find a fresh human, cat, or dog leg to grab onto. Once perched on their host, the tick looks for the right place to latch onto and begin their feeding. This behavior is known as “questing.”
Ticks don’t want to be interrupted while they feed. They tend to savor their blood meals and can latch on to their hosts for three or more days. So, to prevent interruption, they often find the most obnoxious and hard-to-see hiding places. It’s important to find them quickly after they start feeding because the longer they are attached to their host, the more likely they are to transmit a disease. And ticks can carry some serious, nasty diseases that can cause long-term negative effects and, in the most severe cases, can even be life-threatening.
Tick Diseases and Their Effects
Lyme Disease: Possibly the best-known tick-transmitted disease, Lyme disease is carried by the Black-Legged Tick, also known as the Deer Tick. These ticks are incredibly common in the Mid-Atlantic. Pennsylvania is the state with the most incidences of Lyme disease every year, and New Jersey is not too far behind. Lyme disease is progressive, with three stages of worsening symptoms, and can become very serious if not treated quickly. Common symptoms include fever, headache, exhaustion, stiff joints, muscle pain, and swollen lymph nodes. Later symptoms can include pain and numbness in the hands or feet, irregular heartbeat, and even vision loss.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: While less common in the Mid-Atlantic than Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever has been found in the region and is to be avoided. It is usually carried in the region by the American Dog Tick. Named for the severe rashes it causes, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever carries many symptoms including fever, headaches, nausea, stomach and muscle pain, and loss of appetite. In some cases, the disease can lead to amputations due to blood vessel damage, hearing loss, and even mental disability.
Alpha-Gal Syndrome: One of the more recently discovered and stranger tick-borne ailments, Alpha-Gal Syndrome isn’t a progressive disease but an allergy to red meat and other mammalian food products. Alpha-Gal Syndrome is caused by the Lone Star tick. Like other severe allergies, Alpha-Gal can be life-threatening. There is no known cure at the moment, and the condition seems to last a lifetime, though symptoms can improve over time.
Babesiosis: Though not common in the region, Babesiosis has been found in Delaware and Maryland. Carried by Black-Legged ticks, Babesiosis causes damage to red blood cells and can lead to head and body aches, fever, chills, nausea, appetite loss and fatigue. If untreated it can lead to life-threatening organ failure.
Tick Prevention Techniques
The best way to deal with tick-transmitted diseases is to prevent them completely, and the best way to prevent those diseases is to prevent tick bites to begin with.
Some of the best methods of tick control for yards include:
Keeping Out Unwanted Wildlife – Ticks are often brought to your yard by hitching a ride on animals that don’t belong in your yard. Proper fencing is one way to keep them out. It’s also important to get rid of your food waste in sealed garbage bins to prevent attracting unwanted visitors that could be carrying ticks.
Lawn Trimming – As mentioned earlier, ticks like to look for their lunches by climbing to the top of long grasses. If your grass is trimmed, it makes this activity far more difficult.
Eliminating Leaf Litter – Ticks are minuscule, generally the size of a sesame seed or smaller. That makes it easy for them to hide in piles of leaf litter. You should get rid of leaf piles before they pile up so ticks have nowhere to hide.
Last Bite Treatments—Viking Pest Control offers Last Bite, a tick and mosquito service that creates a protective barrier around your yard to help keep ticks and their diseases at bay.
We all want to celebrate graduations, the summer, and life in general. It’s much easier to do that when you are properly prepared with a tick prevention strategy. Call Viking Pest Control to schedule a Last Bite treatment today!
