The last thing you expect when working or relaxing outside is to catch a deadly disease. Yet, many people around the world have to confront this insidious part of our outside worlds when the weather warms up and the ticks come out. Ticks are well known for the infamous Lyme disease, but there are worse to fear from them. There are two that have come to the forefront of our minds recently because they are worse than Lyme disease and have no known cure.

A classmate of mine at Purdue had suffered from Lyme disease. She said for years she had constant, throbbing pain, sometimes acute. There were constant headaches, exhaustion, and the inability to focus for more than a few moments at a time. When we met, she had been suffering with these symptoms for 7 years. I couldn’t imagine anything worse. The Powassan virus is worse.

The Powassan virus which is similar to Lyme disease, but it’s symptoms come on suddenly and severely. In a CBS News interview, Dr. Daniel Cameron explains, “You can get seizures, high fevers, stiff neck. It comes on so suddenly that it’s the kind of thing people go to the emergency room for. The doctor just has to support you during the acute illness and hope that you survive.”

That, unfortunately, is not the only new disease that ticks are spreading. According to Bloomberg Business, a Kansas man was working outside when he contracted an unknown disease that they picturesquely named “Bourbon” after the county he contracted it in. After getting bitten by a tick, then falling ill, “Bourbon” is strongly linked with ticks. While it’s name is somewhat cute, what it does is not. Within 11 days the Kansas man suffered organ failure and died in the hospital.

 Thankfully, cases are rare.

Ashton Lowe’s academic presentation on SlidePlayer. Click through the image for the full presentation.

According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), there have been only 50 cases of the Powassan virus reported in the United States in the last 10 years, and if we are to believe Bloomberg, this was the first (and hopefully only) case of “Bourbon”. I could not find any more information about these two diseases in any other country around the world, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own set of tick-borne illnesses to worry about. We can help ensure that tick-related illnesses remain low to non-existent, with some relatively simple solutions that don’t revolve around fearing the outdoors.

 Know your vectors.

Ticks can be found all over the world.

Ticks are most active in warmer weather. In the Northern Hemisphere that would be April through September, in the Southern, you’re looking at November through April. Give or take for your regional climate.

According to Ashton Lowe’s research presented in a class lecture, there are species of ticks all over the world, with most of them being distributed from the tropical and subtropical regions. Ticks have a general life cycle that starts in spring at the egg stage and continues on throughout the year from nymph to adult which lay eggs again in the spring. It is when the nymphs are feeding and into adulthood that ticks are the most aggressively feeding.

Image from the CDC

They find you by detecting your breath, body odours, moisture, heat, and vibrations. They lie in wait on leaves what they identify as well used paths with their back legs holding onto the tips of vegetation and their front legs outstretched. When you, your pet, or other host meanders by, they latch on and climb up onto your clothing or exposed skin .

OK, so don’t go near well travelled paths, right?

Avoiding ticks isn’t always the most practical thing, is it? And it’s not like they wear an orange hunting vest to alert us to their presences so we can politely decline giving them a tablespoon of our blood.

Instead, there are some more practical solutions to keeping yourself, your pets, and your yard tick-free.

For yourself, the CDC recommends using a repellent that contains 20 – 30% DEET or 0.5% permethrin, applied to your clothing any any exposed skin before you head out. When you are ready to return, give yourself (and others) a thorough once over to remove the ticks before they have a chance to settle in for their meal .

Fancy some more choices? Here is a website the EPA put together for other repellents. You’ll note that of the “natural” active ingredients, the EPA sanctions catmint oil, oil of lemon eucalyptus, and others that are naturally derived, but may not come directly from plants .

You can’t just spray your pets with a repellent — they would lick it off. And, there are no vaccines for tick-borne diseases for our beloved beasts. The best thing we can do is use a special collar for the four-legged friends that are infused with repellent, give them occasional baths, and spend some quality time in the evenings with them giving them a rub down and looking for ticks. I can’t imagine a happier animal that would get that sort of dedicated treatment daily.

There is one other way you can reduce the chances of coming into the arachnid of death, and that’s to dedicate some time to keeping your yard a safe zone. It’s definitely not as hard as you’d think, since it’s pretty much the stuff you’d do anyway. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station took the time to develop a rather comprehensive manual on tick management. Here’s a general summary of the last two chapters that can give you a quick start to managing the tick population in your area:

Here’s to lowering the number of tick-borne illnesses this year and for many to follow!

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