Warming climate breeds ticks, disease, and caution
Photo: Bruce Hood, a science teacher at The Leelanau School, discovered this tick in December—outside the typical season. But our winters are warming.
From staff reports
Tick bites and cases of tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme Disease and Anaplasmosis are increasing in northern Michigan, according to statistics from the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department and confirmed by local doctors and staff within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Leelanau County registered 14 cases of tick-born illness last year, more than doubling the previous year’s tally; Benzie counted 17 cases in 2022, up from 10 the previous year. Last year’s reported statewide count was 574 confirmed and probable cases of Lyme disease. Reported cases of Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichiosis in Michigan increased 50% between 2021-2022 with 97 cases statewide. According to Health Department medical director Joshua Meyerson, “most exposures occurred in the western Upper Peninsula and along the Lake Michigan coastline.”
Beyond statistics, the upward trend has proven tragic for this community. Glen Arbor lost popular realtor and ski coach John Peppler to a tick-born disease last August. National Lakeshore superintendent Scott Tucker said that one Park employee nearly died last year of Anaplasmosis caused by a tick bite that happened at a Sleeping Bear campground.
“Staff in the field removed hundreds of ticks throughout the season (in 2022) and had a record 22 tick embedments,” said Tucker. “Those 22 embedments, led to a couple cases of Lyme disease and one case Anaplasmosis which nearly took the life of a Park employee. As our season starts in 2023, we have already had three embedments reported and are again talking ticks with staff, volunteers and the public on a daily basis.”
Doctor Cyrus Ghaemi, a Leelanau resident who works in Traverse City, expects the situation to worsen.
“I’m expecting that there will be more this year, too,” said Ghaemi. “Milder winters with less tick die off and more opportunities for their hosts (mice and rodents) to reproduce means more ticks and disease.”
Black-legged ticks are most active in Michigan in the spring and fall, and bites and reported cases of tick-borne illnesses increase in May and spike in June and July. Signs and symptoms of tick-borne disease typically begin one to two weeks after a tick bite or being in wooded or brushy areas where ticks commonly live. Early symptoms can include fever or chills, rash, headache, fatigue, and muscle aches.
During peak season, citizens are encouraged to avoid tick-infested areas such as grassy, brushy and wooded areas, walk in the center of trails to avoid contact with overgrown grass, apply repellent containing DEET or Picaridin on exposed skin, treat clothes with permethrin, which kills ticks on contact, perform daily tick checks and people and animals who have been outdoors, and bathe or shower as soon as possible after coming indoors to wash off and more easily find ticks that are crawling on you.
