This is the time of year when ticks are active, and the Berrien County Health Department is keeping a close eye on them.
Berrien County Health Officer Guy Miller tells us the department conducts surveying of ticks each year thanks to a grant from the state.
“We do something called a tick drag, when we drag cloth for about a thousand feet and as we’re dragging that, we’re picking that cloth up and we’re looking for ticks,” Miller said. “We’re looking for a particular species of ticks. We’re not testing them for any infectious diseases or anything, but we’d like to know where, what types of ticks are.”
Miller says they’ve found all kinds of ticks, including the lone star tick, which has been known to transmit an illness that causes an allergy to red meat, although that’s pretty rare. The main concern is Lyme disease, and Miller says that’s why those spending time outdoors should take steps to avoid contact with ticks altogether.
Check yourself when you get home.
“The best way to make sure that a tick isn’t attached is to take a shower. That will flush the tick off of you if it has not attached yet. It usually takes them a little bit of time to attach. Once they’re attached, if they’ve been attached for longer than 36 hours, they could transmit an infectious disease.”
Miller says you’re most likely to encounter ticks off-trail as the bugs tend to hang off vegetation, waiting for something to brush by them.
If a tick attaches to you and gives you an illness, it can be a couple of weeks before symptoms appear. Miller says the first symptom of Lyme disease is a ring-like rash on the site of the bite.
Miller recommends wearing long pants and sleeves, as well as bug spray, when outdoors.
If you find a tick on yourself, you can have it identified by the state. The website to do so is right here.
