Achi news desk-
The mostly warm winter and thin snow may have helped one of Alberta’s least lovable creatures: ticks.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see it’s a bad year for the moose tick,” said Janet Sperling, entomologist and president of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation.
She says past research has shown a boost in tick numbers following strong El Niño years.
Karen Marsh and Carl Johns discovered a gruesome patch on their driveway in Bragg Creek last week after returning from holiday.
It looks like a deer or elk bed, but it’s speckled with blood spots. Closer inspection showed that it was also full of ticks.
“About the size of a coffee bean and there are 20 or 30 of these but there was blood all over,” said Johns.
In extreme cases, infected deer and elk can die after picking up too many ticks.
“These strings of hundreds and even thousands of ticks come up, walk up to the elk’s back and then settle in for the winter,” Sperling said.
“Sometimes they draw out so much blood that the elk can’t handle it.”
Alberta is home to several types of ticks, and while moose ticks are less likely to attach themselves to people, the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick can carry serious infections, including tick paralysis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
The tick responsible for Lyme disease has also been found in Alberta and is generally believed to be expanding its range.
“So now when I’m going to walk in the mountains, I’m going to say that I’m going to be very careful to wear clothes that basically cover my skin. And if it’ n light color, it’s even better,” says Sperling.
Mosquito repellents are also effective. But no matter what precautions people take in nature, there is no substitute for a thorough personal inspection in the shower at home.
Alberta Environment and Parks issued its annual warning heading into last weekend, reminding people that ticks are active once the snow disappears and temperatures rise above 4 C. They are active until late fall. .
If you are bitten by a tick, make sure to remove it as close to the skin as possible. Take a picture or save the tick to test.
You can also report and identify ticks through the eTick website.
