Deer ticks and Lyme

lone-star-tick1Deer ticks and Lyme

On Jan. 21, 2012 the Star Tribune published an article entitled, “Warm Winters Bring Invested Springs – Pesky Ticks Like Warm Winters Too.” A key fact we learned from last year include a quote from David Neitzel, epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, saying: ”If enough ticks are able to find suitable conditions, they will survive from year to year, and their populations expand.” Mr. Neitzel added, “Just as warm weather can keep ticks alive, heavy snow falls can protect them from harshly cold temperatures.” This is the contradiction. Unusually warm weather such as we experienced last winter, and so far this winter, will mean that even moderate to heavy amounts of snowfall will melt quickly. Melting snow works to the benefit of tick proliferation, due to the fact that ticks require wet conditions to survive. Read more.

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