It’s unfortunate, but ticks don’t just carry one disease. Though Lyme is the most heard tick-borne disease, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Other diseases included but not limited to;
- Anaplasmosis
- Erhlichioisis
- Rocky Spotted Mountain Fever
- And so much more.
To make things even worse ticks are posing a greater threat around the country than ever before. In a recent article, Richard Ostfeld, of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, noted that heavy acorn production one year leads to high numbers of white-footed mice the following year.
Why do we care? White footed mice are the original host of the Borrelia burgdorferi (the bacteria that causes Lyme disease), and with a higher population of mice the more likely for a tick to jump on it. The reason why is when a tick is in a nymph stage it needs a small host and with a lot of white-footed mice around they are the prefect prey. At that point B. burgdorferi will transfer from the mouse to the tick, and when that tick needs a new host it could pass the bacteria on.
We saw high numbers of acorns in 2015, an increase in mice in 2016, so we are expecting large numbers of ticks in 2017. Which means not only is there a greater chance of Lyme but the more ticks there are the higher the chance of you or your pet getting a tick-borne disease.
