Tips to Avoid Lyme Disease

By Leonard Douglen, Executive Director New Jersey Pest Management Association

Livingston, NJ – Reported Lyme disease cases exceeded 3,000 in 2005. The New Jersey Pest Management Association is offering tips on how anyone living anywhere in the State can avoid becoming a victim of the tick species known to transmit it.

“The most common mistake is to assume that city dwellers are less likely to be bitten,” said Leonard Douglen, Executive Director of the Association. “While the commonly called deer or black-legged tick is the carrier of the disease, it will hitch a ride anywhere via birds, squirrels, mice, opossum, raccoons, as well as pet cats and dogs. Anyone using a park is as vulnerable as anyone in their backyards or in New Jersey’s wooded areas.”

· Exercising some personal defense is important; anyone who is going to spend anytime outdoors should apply deet or other tick repellent. In garden or wooded areas, one should tuck pants into socks or boots.

· Parents should routinely check their children for any ticks and take immediate steps to remove them. They look like small, black poppy seeds.

· If you have a pet dog or cat, the chances of a tick transferring from them to yourself or family member is increased if they are allowed to be outdoors. Cats, in particular, will often go where dogs will not.

· Homeowners can improve the avoidance of ticks by keeping grass cut low, especially around fence lines, sheds, trees, swing sets, and comparable areas. They are advised to remove weeds and other debris, as well as to avoid maintaining woodpiles as these are attractive to mice as nesting areas. Mice are major hosts for ticks.

· While birdfeeders offer the pleasure of watching the visiting birds, they also attract mice to the dropped seeds. An exterior rodent control program is recommended.

· Attention should be paid to maintaining tight garbage lids on containers to avoid either rodents or wildlife such as raccoons that are known to host ticks.

· A general treatment of one’s entire property with a pesticide labeled for the elimination of a tick population is a good investment when weighed against the costs of medical treatment for Lyme disease.

“The members of the New Jersey Pest Management Association receive extensive training in the best methods to prevent and control various tick species and the wildlife that can transmit them,” said Douglen, “and their expertise can protect individuals and family members against a disease distinguished by infection to joints, the heart and the nervous system.”