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Troublesome Ticks: Take Steps Now to Tame Them

April 29, 2009 - NORTH BERWICK — Bob Maurais commended Thomas Cashell on thinning out the trees on his property, a suggestion that came as a surprise to the York County resident.

Cashell, who hired Maurais to help him assess the tick habitat around his home, didn't even know the evergreen trees he cut down last year were courting ticks.

"With a deciduous canopy and no sunlight, that's where you'll find ticks," explained Maurais, owner of Mainely Ticks.

The advice was part of the landscaping recommendations that Maurais, a former schoolteacher, makes each spring in deer tick country.

Nowadays in Maine, that region extends all the way up to Aroostook County.

"We are seeing (ticks) coming in regularly from as far up as Penobscot County, and even a small focus around Houlton is showing up," said biologist Charles Lubelczyk, who studies tick-borne diseases for Maine Medical Center. "We weren't seeing that five years ago. They definitely are spreading."

Much is made about the increasing cases of Lyme disease in Maine – with a jump in reported cases from 513 in 2007 to 800 in 2008.

Awareness and education is often said to be responsible for the jump in reported cases. As more people are better able to identify ticks and doctors are better able to diagnose Lyme disease, the numbers increase.

However, there are also more deer ticks in Maine than there were a decade ago, Lubelczyk said. The studies he does around the state checking for the insects prove it.

"You look back 10 years ago when we were doing studies around Rockland. We found very few ticks," Lubelczyk said. "In 2007, we went back to some of the same sites, doing the same surveys. We found a much higher number of ticks, and there was a greater infection rate in them."

Lubelczyk also said that his laboratory's canine study has found a higher incidence of Lyme disease in dogs than it did five years ago.

Today, dogs are testing positive for Lyme disease in upper Kennebec, Oxford, Franklin and Somerset counties as well as Down East.

What does that mean for York and Cumberland counties?

"Traditionally, those counties report the highest cases of Lyme disease. That still is the case. The number of cases in those counties is going up every year," Lubelczyk said.

Each spring, Maurais helps show landowners ways to minimize the amount of deer ticks on their property. His service offers a "low-toxic" pesticide, but he also makes recommendations for cutting back tick habitat.

Deer ticks require damp, humid places to survive, Maurais explained.

They're most often found in wooded areas and at the edges of forests. And, obviously, they exist where deer travel, which in southern Maine is everywhere.

However, even in the southern corner of the state where Cashell lives, there are many simple steps that can be taken to decrease the likelihood of picking up a tick on your property, Maurais points out.

Some of those steps include:

• Letting sunlight onto a lawn to minimize and kill deer ticks around a home.

• Making your yard uninviting to deer, rodents and birds, which carry ticks, by moving bird feeders and wood piles away from your home.

• Keeping your pets out of the woods, where ticks are more common.

Even with these steps, a person can still contract Lyme disease, especially in Cumberland and York counties, where the incidence of the Lyme disease bacteria found in ticks has increased to as much as 70 percent.

Maurais also encourages traveling safely outside by checking yourself, your pets and your children for ticks.

"Checking yourself and your children daily is the most important thing you can do," Maurais said. "Especially your children, because they won't check themselves."

By DEIRDRE FLEMING Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald April 22, 2009


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Regions: Sebago, Sanford, Mid Coast


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