Two more tick-nasties on the rise in NJ!

[Uncle Joe]

We all know about Lyme but what about anaplasmosis and babesiosis? Two more reasons to treat your clothes with permethrin.


http://www.njherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20151227%2FARTICLE%2F312279976

[rocketsocks]

As always, I find the comment section of many of these articles to be most telling and worth the time to read. Thanks for posting.

[Hangfire]

That is some scary stuff! I can tell you I spent much of my thru hike doing everything I could to keep those things off of me. In Virginia I switched to long pants and would spray my boots, sock tops, and pant legs daily with deet. I even using my trekking poles to constantly lead through branches and grass(like a slalom skier) in the hopes they would whiff on their attempts to grab onto the aluminum poles. In my observations the ticks loved to hitch onto socks, on several occasions during lunch and snack breaks everyone in the group had ticks on their socks (all in shorts) except me. Permetherin and deet are your friends out there, just keep it out of your mouth!

[Pedaling Fool]

Another species of bacterium that causes Lyme disease, slightly different, but Lyme nonetheless....Bring back the mountain lions and wolves and the foxes will follow and they will all eat up the exploding populations of animals that are the carriers...:banana:D

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/08/466032063/scientists-discover-a-second-bacterium-that-causes-lyme-disease?sc=tw


Excerpt:


Because the species had not been identified in the thousands of samples that were routinely tested before 2013, Pritt says, it's likely that it either recently emerged as a new organism through mutations of an existing bacterium, or it recently came into contact with people."Maybe it infected woodchucks and no one ever tested them," she says.

"But what we can say is, it's a species that no one has ever described before, and it's clearly infecting patients."

The bacterium was isolated alive from the blood of two patients, and was subsequently found in black-legged ticks in two parts of Wisconsin.

Both species of Lyme-causing bacteria are carried by the tick Ixodes scapularis, also known as the black-legged or deer tick, which has continued to spread its range across the U.S.

"Lots of people are encountering ticks where they didn't encounter them 20 years ago," says Rebecca Eisen (http://cdczilla.com/cdc-employee/contact/rebecca-eisen-970_266_3523), a research biologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who published the latest map (http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/01/15/jme.tjv237.abstract) of tick populations in the U.S.

"It's a living organism, so the range of the tick changes, and so the likelihood of people encountering these ticks changes," says Eisen.

This new bacterium appears to be relatively rare so far. Entomologists found that of 600 ticks collected across Wisconsin, 3 percent tested positive for the new species of bacteria. The older bacterial species is typically found in 30 to 40 percent of black-legged ticks, says Pritt.

[burger]

Another species of bacterium that causes Lyme disease, slightly different, but Lyme nonetheless....Bring back the mountain lions and wolves and the foxes will follow and they will all eat up the exploding populations of animals that are the carriers...:banana:D

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/08/466032063/scientists-discover-a-second-bacterium-that-causes-lyme-disease?sc=tw


Excerpt:

Mice are, by far, the biggest reservoirs of Lyme Disease. Despite calling them "deer ticks," deer are not really important carriers. If you bring back wolves and mountain lions (which I am all for--don't get me wrong), that would actually mean fewer foxes and coyotes, and probably more mice and lyme disease as a result of the trophic cascade.

The more you know...

[Pedaling Fool]

I was referring to a studies that claims that increase coyote populations lead to less foxes, which are the primary predators of mice and such... Coyotes, apparently, are increasing, because other large predators, especially wolves, are not here to keep their numbers in check.

(I agree, mice seem to be a much bigger problem WRT Lyme disease...maybe there's something to tearing down all the shelters:D)

http://www.caryinstitute.org/newsroom/study-questions-link-between-increases-lyme-disease-and-deer

Excerpt:


Why would Lyme disease increase as fox decline and coyotes rise? Here's the theory: As North America's coyotes expanded their range and population during the 1900s in the absence of gray wolves, they killed and displaced red fox, which prey heavily on small rodents.In addition, red fox cache their prey for later consumption, which means they often keep killing when finding abundant prey. The expression "fox in the henhouse" rose from the fox's "mass-murder" behavior. They don't just kill their daily need and eat it. They might wipe out the entire coop.

Further, as fox decrease and rodents increase, coyotes occupying former fox country don't control small rodents. Not only are coyote populations typically smaller than the fox population they killed or evicted, coyotes prefer rabbits, hares, pets, fawns and even adult deer over pint-size prey.

As a result, a growing army of rodents is carrying the larvae and infected nymphs of deer ticks. The red fox's preying and caching habits, together with its ability to live and thrive among humans, suggests it could play a vital role in reducing Lyme disease hosts where humans live, work and recreate. Thus, unless red fox rebound or nature finds other ways to curb rodent populations, Lyme disease will likely keep plaguing hunters, campers, anglers, hikers and other outdoor recreationists.

So, where do we go from here? Levi suggests further study to see if manipulation of predator populations — presumably through hunting and trapping — could control Lyme disease. This might be done by reducing coyotes and increasing fox while reducing deer. Why deer? Because even though deer seldom directly transmit Lyme disease by ticks they carry, they boost tick populations and their range by being the preferred host of adult, breeding-stage ticks.

If nothing else, it's tough to argue with Levi's observation that changes in predator populations the past 100 years might have had unintended consequences for human disease.


other links... http://sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/foxes-lyme-disease/

http://conservationmagazine.org/2014/06/reintroducing-wolves-is-only-effective-at-large-scales/

[Traillium]

From my standpoint here on the northward expanding frontier of Lyme disease in Ontario, I'm with both Peddling Fool and Burger in wishing for a return to a more biodiverse ecosystem that includes as many predators as possible.
Here in Southern Ontario, we have another complication in that our 'coyotes' are actually developing hybrids of our Algonquin Wolves and coyotes that are expanding northwards and eastwards. Our 'coyotes' are evolving — very rapidly over the last several decades! — into larger and more wolflike predators. They are becoming noticeably more pack-hunters, coordinating predation more in the manner of a wolf. In addition, they are becoming increasingly inured to human presence and as a result are following deer and other prey into urban areas (as they have been doing in your northeast for a while).
In my medium-sized town, coyotes are still only around the fringes and beyond, but not into the town. The only place I can find fox tracks is inside our town. Outside, only coyotes.


Bruce Traillium

[Traillium]

BTW, I'm not in the least concerned about personal safety around either coyotes or wolves.
I am also keenly aware that our local coyote hunters actually lead to increases in coyote reproduction and a decrease in coyote age, and so far as has been determined, an increase in juvenile coyote brashness and lack of 'wisdom' and hence an increased population of troublesome coyotes. Seems that leaving them alone leads to smaller more stable populations that cause fewer problems.
I gather that's been the finding with most of the larger predators around the world.


Bruce Traillium

[burger]

I was referring to a studies that claims that increase coyote populations lead to less foxes, which are the primary predators of mice and such... Coyotes, apparently, are increasing, because other large predators, especially wolves, are not here to keep their numbers in check.

(I agree, mice seem to be a much bigger problem WRT Lyme disease...maybe there's something to tearing down all the shelters:D)



Ooops my bad. You're right on foxes.

There's your solution to AT overcrowding: tear down the shelters (eliminating people who don't like real camping) and then introduce wolves and mountain lions, who would hopefully pick off a good number of stray hikers each year. ;)

[nsherry61]

. . . There's your solution to AT overcrowding: tear down the shelters (eliminating people who don't like real camping) and then introduce wolves and mountain lions . . .
I rather like this idea.

[Adriana]

We all know about Lyme but what about anaplasmosis and babesiosis? Two more reasons to treat your clothes
Also important if you hike with dogs. I live about 15 miles south of Amicalola. One of our neighbor's dogs came down with anaplasmosis, so it definitely is in North Georgia.

[Traveler]

Mice are, by far, the biggest reservoirs of Lyme Disease. Despite calling them "deer ticks," deer are not really important carriers. If you bring back wolves and mountain lions (which I am all for--don't get me wrong), that would actually mean fewer foxes and coyotes, and probably more mice and lyme disease as a result of the trophic cascade.

The more you know...

There is a connection between the decimation of the Passenger Pigeon population (now extinct) from human sport hunting and the emergence of Lyme disease that impacts the human population. Another example of the connectedness of the environment many people still discount today.