Tick season is back, and so is another year of mostly preventable cases of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
While blacklegged ticks – also called deer ticks – will be active until the fall, from now until July is when the nymphs, or young ones, are most active. Nymphs are tiny and hard to find, which makes the risk to contract Lyme, babesiosis and anaplasmosis highest starting right now.
But more dangerous than the diseases themselves, says Alan Eaton, an entomologist with UNH, is the lack of public awareness about these illnesses.
"Not enough of you are listening!" says Eaton. "There’s too many people that don’t think about this, don’t check for ticks during this period of time. We are in the state that has the second highest incidence of Lyme disease in the entire country."
Vermont is number one, and Maine is number three – probably, Eaton says, because the public in those states is mostly unaware of simple precautions like daily ticks checks and tucking your pants into your socks.
