Ticks are spreading, and down in the article, you guessed it, the cause is speculated to be global warming aka climate change.
From CBS in Charlotte, worry over a one year increase. Excerpts:
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — In the trees and grasses of the South, there are a growing number of unwanted visitors that at best are an itchy nuisance and at worst can carry debilitating diseases: Ticks.
Public health officials say that numbers of reported cases of diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are not yet alarming and have not yet shown a definitive trend upward from a national perspective.
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“Ticks are spreading, but usually not like wildfire,” said Joseph Piseman, chief of tickborne disease activity for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The spread is kind of slow but sure.”
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The Lone Star tick carries a flu-like infection, and Apperson said the main reason for its emergence in the region is a larger population of deer for it to feed upon. Scientists aren’t so sure about why other species are invading, however.
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For the most part, scientists are not yet examining why the populations have been spreading, said entomologist Bruce A. Harrison, who studied ticks for the state of North Carolina for nearly 20 years. He hypothesized it may be at least in part caused by climate change. As temperatures change, animals that are food for ticks migrate — often because the plants they eat are now growing elsewhere.
…
While the CDC hasn’t reported a spike in tick-borne diseases, officials in North Carolina have noticed an increase this year compared to a year earlier. Rocky Mountain spotted fever cases are up 50 percent this year, said state public health veterinarian Carl Williams. And while there typically wasn’t a single positive Lyme disease test 10 years ago, now there are a few each year, Mekeel said.
Full story: http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2012/05/28/new-species-of-ticks-spreading-disease-across-southeast/
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Like with tornadoes, we now have doppler radar, and storm chasers and live reporting, now that we have a national database for Lyme disease and constant reminders in the news, is it any wonder there is an increase in cases?
Story submitted by WUWT reader George Ellis
Can it be that it is getting harder than blue-blazes to control deer populations?
In my yout’ there was NO deer hunting season. I probably saw 2-3 deer in my adolesence. With good game management by our State Wildlife Department, they were able to build the herds to where hunting was needed to keep the herds at proper size.
Today, there has been a decrease in hunters and an increase in protected areas, including suburban sprawl. The deer are like vermin munching their way through suburban landscaping. State Wildlife is now issuing 2-3 permits per hunter, if you want them, and the herds are still growing.
I should expect an increase in tick-borne diseases because they are dropping ticks all over the place. No surprises here and I’m sure it’s the same in other states.
(P.S. How bold are urban deer? About 6 weeks ago my 2 dogs were barking at the dozen or so deer which pass through our property a couple of times per day. Those deer know where the invisible fence is for the dogs. I didn’t want the neighbors disturbed so I went walking towards the deer saying “git,” “scram” etc. in a low voice – keeping quiet for the neighbors – and waving my arms. When I got within about 15 feet, dogs still barking, they just sauntered off, not particularly alarmed. If there were no dogs and I was quiet, I coulda’ beaned one with a 9-iron.)
100 years and more of no prairie fires and far fewer forest fires, plus the deer population explosion. When my Dad was a boy, it was rumored that a few deer lived in a State park 25 miles away. Now we have a half dozen on our own land.
When I was a child, I never picked up a tick playing on the farm. Now there are ticks all over the place. Lyme is actually down-played, but I know people who’s lives have been ruined by the arthritis, cardiac and neurological long-time effects.
But the climate change isn’t there, and certainly isn’t the cause of the South American species spreading to Wisconsin. Illegal immigrants are a much likelier
vector.
We know climate changes locally, sometimes quite drastically; we also know populations change under a variety of pressures, many of which have nothing to do with climate or human activity. The changes I have seen during my 30 years on the same spot (late 1960s to late 1990s):
* Moss started growing in the open, even on the meadows, alongside indigenous grass. Earlier, it was only to be found on the rocks and on the bottoms of tree trunks in very dark and humid parts of the old forest.
* Mosquitoes used to be a slight problem for a short period of time in late May or early June, and they were more or less confined to the same dark and humid spaces. By mid-1980s, they became a constant nuisance for the better part of the year, and even the first frost on the ground in autumn did not kill them.
* Rooks quit migrating in the late 1970s. Before then, they had been an icon of seasonal bird migration.
* The river stopped freezing mid-stream. When I was a kid, I would go and collect the ice cores left by fishermen, as a source of water for my fish tank. It was not unusual to see cores longer that three feet.
* Because there is open water year-round, there are now resident ducks in winter. Before 1990, I don’t think I had even seen a duck.
* The forest-prairie line moved several miles south.
* Juniper disappeared without trace. Some specimens I knew when I was young were more than a couple centuries old and the young ones (10 years or younger) were seen all over the place.
* Ticks were rare and were mostly found on dogs. I was first bitten by a tick when I was 25, even though I literally lived in the forest. I moved away from that place when I was 35, but now I hear from relatives who stayed behind that ticks have become a nuisance. My sister is sick with lime disease that has been traced to ticks near her summer home.
In other words, I don’t believe in easy explanations. With so many strong factors, of which so few are even known, looking for correlations is simply disingenuous.
Tick diseases are not new. The 5000 year old Ice Man in the Alps had lyme disease. “Perhaps most surprising, researchers found the genetic footprint of bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi in his DNA—making the Iceman the earliest known human infected by the bug that causes Lyme disease.” http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/iceman-autopsy/hall-text . Must have been a period of global warming. Perhaps all of those buffalo farting and belching on the Amerian Plains.
In my opinion (take that for what its worth), the problem is two pronged this year:
1. The deer are overpopulated.
2. Last winter was above average on the east coast of the US, preventing the annual kill-off of insects, thus making this years crop overabundant.
Between those two points this will be a miserable year for ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, and other six-legged pests.
Steve! Buddy! You better watch yourself there. Pointing out that government-issued burn restrictions and lax border enforcement are more likely the cause is dangerous business. You could get audited.
That life-cycle image is a hoot. Apparently they start as eggs, grow up, and lay more eggs. Who’da thunk it?
I grew up in Chapel Hill, NC. In addition to what more knowledgeable posters might have said about hunting, I know that there used to be packs of wild dogs which some people think kept the deer population in check.
Funny thing … I spent my entire youth running through the woods (real woods, out in the country), and while I know that I got a “tick check” every time I came home, I don’t remember ever getting bitten by one. Got chiggers all the time.
Blaming anything and everything on “climate change” really… ticks me off.
H.R. says:
May 29, 2012 at 9:04 am
“(P.S. How bold are urban deer?”
When the topic of deer hunting comes up at family gatherings a story that always seems to come up is a hunting trip my stepson and a group of his friends took to the North Woods of MN, because they felt the local deer population here in the southeast of the state wouldn’t provide sufficient opportunities to score a trophy buck. When he called to check in with his mother and generally whine about their nearly total lack of success, I was standing at the window watching a 12 point buck, 2 eight pointers and about a dozen assorted does and yearlings milling about in the back yard. I got pictures. He will never live that one down.
Espen says:
May 29, 2012 at 8:28 am
As someone who had the Lyme disease, I blame too large deer populations (I was infected on a small island with a lot of deer) – we’ve killed the predators and hunting is too limited.
_______________________________
My husband almost died from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in 2003 when there was a major tick infestation in North Carolina. Medical centers were warned to keep an eye out for symptoms of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme disease
There are a number of things that influence the tick population.
1. Increase in vegetation. They really like trees, bushy woodlands and long grass. We have more trees and bush now than we did seventy years ago. Fire is no longer used as frequently for clearing since it is regulated.
2. Increase in wildlife. The deer population especially has boomed.
3. Decrease in chickens around homes due to zoning laws and coyotes. Chickens and especially Guinea Hens will clean up ticks and chiggers. I use them but the grey fox and coyotes make it hard to keep a flock now. (Grey fox can climb trees BTW)
In Texas we have a solution to ticks. It was an invasion of FIRE ANTS – find fire ants and you will not find ticks or fleas.
Dave Wendt says (May 29, 2012 at 8:45 am): “Its known as Lyme disease because it was first noted in Lyme CONNECTICUT! Climate change is casing ticks to spread South? How exactly does that work?”
Given the already vast habitat of ticks, I can only conclude the reporter fears the ticks are spreading to the South Pole–you know, where the last breeding pairs of humans will end up because of CAGW. 🙂
Unless we do something NOW!!!! the spread will be irreversible; we may have already passed the ticking point! The very thought just ticks me off. 🙂
So with global cooling we are all safe then? Well some good will come from the real climate change we are facing.
Ah yes lets all go and roll around the Plum Island Playground. You know the place where they had to destroy a tick colony because they lost containment? Yea that one. But don’t worry it’s on an island and the ticks couldn’t get off. Unless animals and birds are allowed to swim out and back to the mainland. Oh yea those security cuts and excessive spending on keeping it isolated aren’t needed. I mean so what if it is ground zero for Lyme disease? Just a coincidence I’m sure.
What everybody seems to forget is that there is NO* global warming and there hasn’t been any since 1998 *significant.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_April_2012.png
Looks like May will come in at abut 0.15C or so, so still no warming again….
Tamias sibiricus and Tamias striatus were introduced in Europe during the 60’s, for the children’s fun. I don’t know if the same happened in the USA, but here the Asian ticks they wore spread as people freed those little quasi-squirrels in the woods when their children were fed up with them. Since then, Lyme disease has arisen here also. And this is something totally new, unknow in occidental Europe before that.
I live on the western slope of the Rockies, and have a few acres on a wooded creek where I have resided for 20 years. Usually, I remove 3-4 ticks per week from my clothing, from March into June when things dry out. I have seen zero, nada, not one single tick since 2009. I thought this was odd, because I’ve always seen ticks in the 40 years I’ve been in Colorado. My guess is that it is probably early spring moisture levels, in conjunction with appropriate warmth that allows for a tick season at all. Too dry, and/or too cool(before it dries out)=no ticks.
In my teens, the mid-seventies, virtually all of my friends hunted deer.
Being North Alabama Southerner kids, this meant we kept a loaded shotgun in our cars at all times – including while in school – and most particularly during the fall hunting season. The minute school was out we were ‘on the hunt’. Around 6:00 pm, so many shots could be heard on the outskirts of town that it sounded like the outbreak of a small war.
Today far fewer kids hunt and none keeps loaded weapon on the campus parking lot. Shots heard in the fall are far reduced.
So it’s not surprising the deer population has risen. Other considerations include a displacement of the local pine forest by hardwood leading to increased deer populations and forging range; and fewer sever winters (leading to fewer tick/deer deaths). I often wonder if people have forgotten just how unusually cold the winters were in the 1970’s?
In any event, I have also observed a substantial increase in deer population since the ’70s. I have also observed and increase in the squirrel, owl, coyote, bear, eagle, falcon, heroin, bass (all species), bait fish, and alligator gar populations. Oddly the rabbit populations appear to have decreased… increased natural predation?
In short, it looks like we now have much healthier forest.
All that said, I can’t say I’m encountering that many more ticks. The pattern appears to be the same. Mild winters produce the same amount of ticks (many). Cold winters produced fewer ticks; but, again about the same number as before.
What I am seeing is an increase in the number of people going into forests, pastures, and grass lands in the spring in summer. Mainly boaters, kayakers, canoeist, backpackers, cross country bicyclist, and the occasional hang glider (have to land somewhere).
Kforestcat
Rocky Mountain spotted fever cases are up 50 percent this year, said state public health veterinarian Carl Williams. And while there typically wasn’t a single positive Lyme disease test 10 years ago, now there are a few each year, Mekeel said.
I wonder what the actual numbers are? When the base is very low, saying cases are up 50 percent isn’t very helpful.
3 this year and 2 last year is a 50% increase.
While it is indeed true that a few birds specialize in eating some ticks, far more ticks dine on birds. Many nests and chicks are abandoned because of infestations. They particularly favor the eye area:
http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/TickBlueJay01.jpg
It reminds me of “climate”, in-so-much as: Sometimes we eat the “climate” and sometimes the “climate” eats us. GK
“Rocky Mountain spotted fever cases are up 50 percent this year, said state public health veterinarian Carl Williams. And while there typically wasn’t a single positive Lyme disease test 10 years ago, now there are a few each year, Mekeel said.”
Are we to surmise that Rocky Mt. spotted fever has gone from an average of 2 cases to a current-year 3 cases (50 percent). Or that the 10-year pattern of Lyme disease in NC has gone something like this: 0 2 0 3 2 3 0 2 1 3 3 (“now a few each year”). And of course that the ticks carrying Lyme (Connecticut) disease are moving southward into NC due to its cooler (!?!?) or warmer (??) climate?
Goes to show that if you start with the idea that “global warming is causing something/anything bad” then you can stitch together any plausible fantasy.
*ahem* This one is “in my wheelhouse” as some famous politician might say. The deer tick has a complex life cycle, and hosts (animals that are bitten by deer ticks) include many mice and birds as well as deer, dogs and humans. Please see http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/dtopics/tickborne/images/twoyrcycle3.jpg
There are many possible explanations for why there is an “uptick” in tick sightings, and most obvious are:
a) public education: we now know what a nasty disease Lyme’s is, so we do a better job of checking ourselves & children when out in the woods.
b) greater usage of wilderness: as several have suggested, the more time we penetrate the forests and fields, the more exposure we will have.
c) increased host populations: deer mice are known to go through boom & bust growth cycles (the predator/prey cycle), so with land development, modern agricultural practices, elimination of predators such as coyotes and hawks, the mice populations are probably doing pretty well about now. Good for the ticks. Similarly, white tailed deer are so plentiful, you can damn near walk across their backs to cross the street in some of our Chicago suburbs!
Climate? Bah. As the desperate true-believers flail about to pin something, ANYTHING, negative on rising temperatures, you’ll hear more of this. I’m hearing all sorts of nonsense about Chagas (“break bone disease,” a nasty one) moving into the southern US due to climate change.
Life forms and pathogens adapt and move, it’s been going on for millions of years. When someone shows me definitive evidence of warming, I’ll listen to their arguments.
Signed, Grumpy Old Public Health Expert
Oh it is interesting that this year the temperatures are really really mild in central North Carolina -one day of 91F vs 17 days with 2 at 98F in may of 2004. So they can not blame it on temperature.
However I have been removing ticks from me, the ponies, the goat and my husband with annoying frequency
Temperatures in North Carolina:
Coastal starting in the North
Norfolk City
North – Elisabeth City
South – Wilmington NC
North to south thru the middle of the state
North – Raleigh NC (Airport)
nearby Chapel Hill
Large city in the middle of NC – Fayetteville NC
South Florence
Rural
Albemarle
Kingstree
Edenton
Wilson
Morehead City
Here is the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation 1859 to 2006
You are going to have a tough time selling an increase in temperatures in North Carolina especially since I have routinely caught them adding 2F to our max daily temperature in the last couple of years. No doubt it is a UHI adjustment since we are rural. /sarc
In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
Mark Twain
errata, I meant “dengue fever” in previous post regarding Break Bone Disease, and migration is into UK. Dengue is already rampant in many parts of Latin American and the Caribbean. I’m told it is one you really don’t want to catch.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2134583/Huge-Asian-tiger-mosquitoes-poised-invade-UK–bring-deadly-diseases-dengue-fever-them.html
We had a warm winter in the Northeast, so more ticks. Also, many deer. If winter’s continue to stay warm, it’s climate. If not, it’s weather.