By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
With fall settling in on Central New York, this is a time of year when encountering both ticks and deer is increasingly common.
Saturday morning, the village hall in Fayetteville hosted a presentation, sharing information on how to avoid tick bites and guard against potential vehicular collisions with deer.
The morning event started with a slideshow on ticks presented by Kristina Ferrare, a forestry program specialist for the research center Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County.
“Because [ticks] are a significant vector for disease, we want to encourage people to be aware of ways to protect themselves,” Ferrare said.
Ferrare described ticks as “blood-feeding” ectoparasites belonging to the arachnid family which attach to skin while questing, their act of holding out their front legs and latching onto a passing host.
She said over 1,000 tick species exist worldwide, about 100 exist in the United States and around 20 exist currently in New York.
According to Ferrare, the three types of ticks that pose the most noteworthy human and veterinary concerns for those in Central New York are the American dog tick, the lone star tick and the black-legged tick.
She said American dog ticks have been linked to diseases like Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Tularemia, while black-legged ticks—also known as deer ticks—carry Lyme disease and the Powassan virus that can be transmitted within 15 minutes of attachment.
Ferrare said black-legged ticks are commonly found on white-tailed deer and white-footed mice.
She also said lone star ticks have been thought to be responsible for creating the chemical change that induces the alpha-gal allergy, an allergy to the sugars found in red meat.
Because of unreliable tests, Ferrare said cases of Lyme disease often go unreported.
She also said ticks can transmit multiple diseases with one bite, called a co-infection.
The presentation on ticks also addressed the life cycle from egg to larva to nymph to adult.
Ferrare said 25% of nymphs carry Lyme disease.
She said that while 47% to 50% of adult ticks carry Lyme disease, they are easier to find and intercept than nymphs because the adults are larger, comparable to a sesame seed as opposed to the poppy seed-sized nymphs.
According to Ferrare, the adult ticks will embed themselves on a body for seven days to get their desired blood meals, a longer feeding time than the earlier stages.
“A seven-day period is really your window for success,” she said. “You have that length of time to find it and remove it. You want to find it, of course, as early as possible prior to 36 hours, which is transition time for Lyme disease if you’re unfortunate enough to have a tick bite at all.”
Ferrare said ticks secrete a cementing chemical that helps hold them to skin and then release an anesthetic, so the host would not feel the bite.
She said ticks can be found at any point during the year but mostly at temperatures 40 degrees and above. They do not jump, fly or fall from trees.
Ferrare said that people should be watchful while working, recreating or mowing the lawn, especially in or near wooded areas and edge habitats.
She recommended dressing in light-colored clothing to see ticks that latch onto pant legs or other covered parts of the body, adding that spraying clothes and shoes with permethrin acts as a winning repellent, though it is toxic to cats while wet and drying.
She said that people should not be afraid to venture outdoors, but she suggested that they should conduct thorough, full-body tick checks every single day.
“It should be just like brushing, flossing, and washing your face before you go to bed,” Ferrare said.
Ferrare also provided kits to attendees, complete with micro precision tweezers for grabbing the tick close to the skin and pulling straight up with “gentle, consistent pressure,” to remove them.
She said people should save the removed tick in a plastic bag or container labeled with the date of discovery to use as a reference point with a physician.
After Ferrare’s slideshow, officers Justin Lefebvre and Daniel Carr from the Town of Manlius Police Department discussed car accidents involving deer.
According to the officers’ presentation drivers should be cautious at all times, especially in deer crossing areas, and use high beams on unlit roads while being courteous to other motorists.
When coming across a deer, drivers should try not to swerve, Lefebvre said.
He said that people should pull over, put their hazard lights on and call the police in the event of a collision with a deer.
Lefebvre said not to approach the struck deer at any point.
“I have had some people cuddling deer,” he said. “People put blankets on deer because they’re just trying to be nice.”
Visit tickencounter.org and dontgettickedny.org for more information on ticks and bite prevention.
Kristina Ferrare can be contacted at [email protected] or 315-424-9485, extension 231.
