Tick alert from a reader
by trailhead
Ticks are not uncommon. I haven’t gotten any on myself, but plenty of my fellow hikers have. Some are diligent about extracting them properly with tweezers or other devices and then saving the little bugs to have them tested. Generally, dogs get stuck with them far worse than us two-legged creatures. Anyway, here’s a note from a reader on that subject….(The photo is of her dog…)
Yesterday (Sunday 2-7) I took my dog for a hike in Hood Mountain Regional Park. We hiked for about 4 miles staying on the trails. When we had finished our hike, I did the usual tick check. I was SHOCKED to find an abundance of ticks. I pulled 27 off of him before rushing to a pet care store looking to purchase products to help kill the bugs. I have never seen ticks in such abundance.
I thought it would be worth sharing the alert.
Karyn Henson Bertacco
I’m a relative newcomer both to Northern CA and to the world of hiking. I’m not a hard-core hiker, and this is not a definitive guide to all things outdoors-y. I’ll post recaps of some of the places I’ve explored and how the hikes went. For some of the hikes, I’ve attached some pictures taken by me or some of my fellow hikers. I’m not a photography buff so the images probably don’t do justice to some of the sights. Feel free to suggest places I should hike, or share tales of where you’ve explored. I’ll also occasionally post general news items about hiking, since my day job is journalism. I’m the Interactive Editor here at The Press Democrat.
There are recent scientific studies showing that climate change is affecting tick ecology, resulting in a wider tick habitat and denser tick populations. Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases are also increasing more rapidly than most people realize (it’s in all 50 states). You can visit the California Lyme Disease Assocation for information: http://www.lymedisease.org/ or the California Dept of Public Health website: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HEALTHINFO/DISCOND/Pages/LymeDisease.aspx
by Lyme MD
Yes, It’s tick season already! Thanks for the warning, Karyn. I use Frontline Plus on my dog and it works great!
by Donna LaGraffe