Tick Season Is Here!

Jeff Green | May 29, 2024

And it has been for quite a while. Ticks were first spotted in late March this year, and the season has been rolling along ever since. While it is impossible to eliminate the risk of exposure to ticks, there are ways to mitigate the risk, and measures to be taken if a tick attaches itself.

Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health have posted a primer on tick-borne diseases on their website that goes through the steps of preventing tick exposure, how to remove ticks, and what to do once exposure is confirmed.

The first step is to know when there is a risk of exposure. The tick season is long in Eastern Ontario, and getting longer. Any time when the temperature is above the freezing point, ticks can be active. They are most common in wooded or grassy areas, so one means of protection is to maintain a tick-free zone around the home by keeping grass cut short, and making sure pathways are wide.

Recommended measures, according to KFLAPH, include: applying a DEET or Icaridin based insect repellent to exposed skin and clothing; wearing clothing that has been treated with permethrin; wearing light coloured clothing to spot ticks more easily; wearing long-sleeved shirts, pants, socks and closed footwear, and always tucking pants into socks.

But even taking these measures does not ensure prevention.

After being outside, or being exposed to a pet dog or cat that has been outside, it is important to monitor as well.

A visual check of adults, children, pets and clothing to see if any ticks are visible and removing and destroying any that are, is a first step. Remember that ticks come in various sizes during their life cycle.  And one of the most difficult stages to detect is the nematode stage, when ticks can be as small as a poppy seed, with a body that is not even visible.

Another measure is to place clothes that were outdoors in a dryer at high heat for at least 10 minutes. And shower or bathing to wash away ticks can also be effective.

Performing a daily check, paying attention to parts of the body where ticks like to attach themselves, including:  scalp, ankles, armpits, groin, navel, and behind ears and knees. 

Methods of removal include a fine set of tweezers or a specialised tool called a tick key.  If using tweezers, it is important to get right to the skin level and pull the tick out with a firm, steady pull. KFPLAH recommends checking the site to see if any of the “mouth parts” remain in the skin and removing them with the tweezers. If they cannot be removed, “leave them alone and let the skin heal, and clean the entire area with soap and water or hand sanitiser.”

If using a tick key, slide the key between the tick and the skin so that the tick's body is visible in the narrow groove in the middle of the key, and then twist the key several times, keeping the tick stuck in that groove, until the tick is completely removed from the skin.

If you suspect that a tick has been on your body for more than 24 hours before it was located and removed, it has the potential to transmit Lyme disease and it takes even longer for the risk to be more pronounced. The same is true for anaplasmosis, another tick-borne disease that has been identified in black legged ticks in our region. Ticks get engorged with a blood sack, so it is clear they have been there for a while.

At that point, after removing the tick, it is a good idea to contact your doctor, to seek a prescription for a single dose of antibiotics to prevent Lyme from taking hold. 

With the changes that have expanded the healthcare role of pharmacists in Ontario, tick bites are one of the conditions that can be addressed by pharmacists.

Unfortunately, nematode ticks, those poppy sized dots, which are much harder to detect and can leave on their own, also cause tick-borne diseases.

That is why monitoring for symptoms and seeking medical treatment, which consists of  a longer course of antibiotics, is important.

Unfortunately, Lyme, and anaplasmosis, present a varied set of symptoms that are shared by other conditions, so diagnosis is difficult without a Lyme test. Often, physicians will treat for Lyme before the test results come back, because time is of the essence, as untreated Lyme can take a deeper hold, the longer it remains untreated.

Lyme symptoms can include: fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, spasms, numbness, tingling, facial paralysis, fatigue, swollen glands, and a spreading skin rash. 

Anaplasmosis symptoms can include: fever, chills, severe headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite.

Anaplasmosis typically results in mild symptoms that resolve among healthy adults, but can have more serious implications for a more at-risk population.

Lyme, however, can develop into a chronic condition among much of the population.

Even after treatment, patients report persistent symptoms, which has been dubbed by researchers as PTLDS (Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome).

Research studies have shown mixed results from extended antibiotic treatments for PTLDS, and other treatment protocols have been employed for this population in the alternative medicine community.

Over the past ten years, tick-borne diseases have become a recognised public health issue throughout Southern and Eastern Ontario. Humans are not the target species for black legged ticks, which prefer deer, but they are willing to make an exception.

A public research website, etick.ca, has been working to advance research into the spread of the black-legged, and other tick species. It is available to the public to determine what species of tick people have been exposed to by inviting the public to submit photos for identification. The site also includes a map that chronicles the spread of tick species across Canada.

For further information about tick-borne diseases, go to  https://www.kflaph.ca/en/health-topics/lyme-and-tickborne-diseases.aspx