As gardeners and naturalists, we tend to spend a lot of time outdoors either working in our gardens and yards or wandering in the wilderness hoping to find a picture-perfect setting in nature. We all take some precautions in these activities even if we simply make sure we don’t step on a rattlesnake! But we should also take some precautions for the smaller critters.

A quick history of Lyme Disease:

• Around the turn of the 20^th century in Europe, groups of individuals were found with a certain type of rash subsequently called erythema chronicum migrans.  The association with ticks was finally recognized in the mid-1930’s.
• In the mid-1970s, a geographic clustering of an unusual rheumatoid arthritis-like condition was reported in Lyme County, Connecticut. This syndrome proved to be a newly recognized disorder that took the name, Lyme disease.
• In the early-1980s, a novel spirochete, called Borrelia burgdorferi, was isolated and cultured from the mid-gut of Ixodes ticks, and subsequently from patients with Lyme disease.
• Lyme Disease is the fastest growing infectious illness in this country after AIDS.

Ticks are notorious for carrying diseases and we must be careful whenever we venture outside. Here in Texas, the predominate tick is Amblyomma americanu, order of Ixodes, better know as the “Lone Star Tick.” This tick is not a very friendly sort of critter as it has been associated with diseases such as Ehrlichiosis, Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness (STARI). According to the Texas Lyme Disease Association, “This is an aggressive species that will feed on a variety of hosts including humans. In a Texas Department of Health study conducted in 1990 and 1991, A. americanum ticks were gathered from nine Texas areas. Of the over 28,000 ticks collected, 26,901 or 95% were A. americanum. Visitors to any area with high vegetation are at considerable risk of being bitten by lone star ticks and are at risk of acquiring Lyme disease.”

Even though Lone Star Ticks prefer to live in wooded areas with underbrush, along creeks and rivers near animal resting places, they can and do travel. They can be vectored by animals such as deer, mice, pets, and just about all mammals. Fortunately, working in our lawns is not a high risk because the habitat is too dry and hot for the ticks. But if your lawn and garden are close to high grasses, wooded areas, bayous, creeks, or such, the ticks may travel during the evenings. Just a word of caution for you; even working at the Extension Gardens, you should use prevention measures and always check yourself after being outdoors.

Because diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease is still evolving, prevention is critical. Wear light-colored clothing so that crawling ticks can easily be seen. Tuck pant legs into boots or socks so that ticks do not have access to skin. Use insect repellents with DEET or Permethrin in high-risk areas. Use tick and flea preventatives on your pets. Inspect yourself, your children, and your pets frequently for ticks, and remove any attached ticks promptly using proper removal procedures.

Don’t be overly concerned and decide to never, ever work in the gardens again or take a walk through the woods or take a camping trip. Just remember that, just like checking for rattlesnakes before you step, make sure you take some tick precautions.

Note: May is the designated Lyme Disease Awareness Month.

Bibliography

J. Craig Venter Institute for Genomic Research, website: http://www.tigr.org/tdb/CMR/gbb/htmls/Background.html

John Meyerfoff, MD, Johns Hopkins Unversity, eMedicine, website: http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1346.htm

Stand Up for Lyme - Promoting Lyme Literacy in Texas - http://www.standupforlyme.org/

Texas A&M University, http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg370.html

Texas Lyme Disease Association, http://www.txlda.org/