I grew up with Rosy Mound in my back yard. I loved the woods and the dunes and walked through those woods to the beach almost every day. In all my growing up years, I remember coming home with one tick—one as in singular. This little flat round disk of a bug which I dispatched without incident.

I became more familiar with ticks living in Minnesota. Minnesota has amazing parks, and the state is working to preserve original prairie land and also reclaim some that has been lost—think Walnut Grove where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and wrote her stories of Little House on the Prairie. As I hiked these large tracts of land with the tall grasses, I imagined what it was like for the pioneers and the wagon trains going west. Those were some hardy people.  

I don’t know how it was for the pioneers, but my dog and I would come home covered with ticks. They were easily removed and there was no worry of Lyme disease then.

After 30 years on a city block, we are back in Grand Haven Township. I truly love being surrounded by woods again with undomesticated deer, chipmunks, squirrels, and I recently came face to face with an adorable little weasel in my woodpile. I see the circle of life as hawks snatch an occasional bird, and that weasel might be the reason the chipmunk population is down this year.

The first couple of years we would bring the occasional tick home but nothing like the onslaught of ticks this spring.

I had my Golden Retriever Maggie on a flea and tick medication last year, but the last dose made her lethargic so this year I tried herbal spray. Even with the spray it was evident it wasn’t working as every trip outside brought in a new batch of creepy crawlies. We were outnumbered and needed another solution. I did find a different medication that showed no ill effects for Maggie and that made life easier.

I’ve listened to the explanations of why there are so many this year. The predominant one seems to be that catch all “climate change.” They say that mild winters and moist warm air this spring have caused the increase in tick numbers. Except in Michigan, last winter was one of the coldest and longest in memory, and the spring has been chilly. And I remember Minnesota winters with highs of 20 below zero. It’s the only place I’ve lived where it snows from a clear sky just by moisture in the air freezing and falling to the ground. I don’t think anything has changed there. 

So, what’s the real reason?

I think there are a variety of things to look at. One thing is the increase in the deer population due to a decrease in hunting, plus they thrive in suburban living. As a society, we are much more tolerant of having wildlife around our houses. Our parents really depended on the garden for food and didn’t see chipmunks, rabbits, and ground hogs as cute but competition and dispatched them without a thought. I was fascinated with an owl when we first moved to our house, as I was with the weasel in the woodpile. To my neighbor who keeps chickens, the owls and the weasels kill his chickens, and he doesn’t share my appreciation for them. I really didn’t think when these visitors come to my yard they bring friends. 

The natural process makes sense, but the sudden and widespread increase in numbers of ticks has led to a series of theories to the why. 
 
The first one I’ve heard about is the Plum Island Bioweapon Incident. The lab does research on animal diseases, and they develop vaccines for illnesses that could adversely affect American livestock. The US House voted to order the Department of Defense to investigate whether the Pentagon experimented with using ticks as bioweapons. The theory is that Lyme-infected ticks escaped from the Plum Island lab off the coast of Long Island and traveled the seven miles to Lyme, Connecticut, causing the Lyme disease epidemic. In truth, due to the isolation of the Island, and the elimination of any wildlife that would swim back and forth from the island, it’s unlikely that there was a lab leak. In fact, Lyme disease is not a new disease; it has been around much longer than any experiments conducted at Plum Island. Using ticks as a bioweapon seems unlikely, considering they do not seem like a good vehicle for transmission. While on the other hand, Lyme disease has spread far and wide.   

Then there’s the Tick Boxes theory. There are social media sources claiming that pharmaceutical companies released boxes of ticks into farmers’ fields and let them spread to create a crisis—and to help sell the Lyme disease vaccine that is supposed to be released soon.

Experts say there could be some things people have seen that could have led them to believe in the Tick Boxes theory. There are tick bait boxes that have been used by CDC (Centers for Disease Control). The cardboard boxes or cardboard tubes are filled with nesting material that would be of interest to mice and other small rodents. The material, like cotton balls or batting, is treated with permethrin. The mice are host to the nymph stage of life of the tick. The permethrin-treated nesting material kills the tick but doesn’t harm the mouse. Studies show various degrees of success. You can find “do it yourself” instructions for your own property using toilet paper or paper towel rolls stuffed with cotton balls, or if you thought there was no possible use for dryer lint, think again. Treat it with permethrin and place the rolls around your yard for your local mice.

A third theory points at Bill Gates and his plan for growing meat in a lab. He is blamed for developing ticks that cause alpha-gal syndrome which causes a person to be allergic to red meat.

Considering the above theories, scientists say ticks would not be a good vehicle for the planned spread of disease because they move slowly, don’t fly, and rely on animals to take them from one place to another. They are not independent agents.

The life cycle of ticks does give some insights. They have three years to reach maturity. Each year they only need one blood meal to survive. This tells me that one bad weather year doesn’t affect the ticks maturing to the following stage of life. They survive in leaf litter or in the ground, and with their slow metabolism can live for a long time without finding a host from which to get a blood meal.

They begin as an egg. Upon hatching, the ticks feed on small animals like mice and birds, then move to larva stage with six legs. Upon molting, the ticks move to the adult stage with eight legs which makes them related to spiders. The female dies after egg laying and the male dies after mating. Most of the tick's life is spent waiting on a blade of grass or in leaves for a host to pass by and then attaching to and feeding from the host before dropping off.

Oftentimes deer are accused of being the problem with ticks, but the white footed mouse is more of a culprit. The larva stage of the tick is more likely to get its first meal from a mouse where it can pick up the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi. These ticks then molt to nymph stage and can spread disease. The adult ticks prefer deer for a meal and reproduction. Though the deer do not host the Lyme bacteria, they do aid the tick life cycle.

MSU is researching to better understand Lyme disease and determine a way to stop the spread, which increasingly includes suburban landscapes where deer are finding a home while fewer deer hunters cull the herd.  

Ticks can carry a variety of diseases and some carry none. It’s some comfort to know that for an infected tick to transmit a disease, in most cases they need to be attached to a host—for 24 to 48 hours. So even if bitten, frequent tick checks and quick and easy removal can keep a person safe from most infections. It is suggested that if you are bitten and can, save the tick. Some wrap them in tape. If symptoms appear, the tick is available to check to see if it was carrying a disease.  You can do more to protect yourself: wear light colored clothing, tuck pants into boots or tape legs and sleeves, and always check yourself and your pets. 

There are a variety of tools available for tick removal including tweezers and a clever little device called a tick twister. The twisters come in a variety of sizes so you can match to the tick you are dealing with. You slide the tick twister along the tick and then twist. The motion dislodges the tick from its host.

Two other mentions of things I have read. First, if you don’t get all the tick’s head when you remove it, your body will treat it like a splinter and push it out. Second, covering them with Vaseline is not a solution because it leaves the tick in place giving it time to possibly spread disease. So, it’s best to remove the tick asap if you see one.  

It does seem like a lessening of tick encounters in my neighborhood, but caution and frequent body checks are always a good idea.