Editor's Note: This story was originally published on June 26, 2017.
Ohio has been lucky.
A disease that鈥檚 common on the East Coast hadn鈥檛 made its way to the Buckeye State鈥ntil now.
Health experts say the ticks that carry Lyme disease have arrived.
In this week鈥檚 Exploradio, WKSU鈥檚 Jeff St.Clair explores what to watch for when walking in tick country.
We're looking for ticks in northern Summit County with Summit Metro Parks biologist Rob Curtis.
He's dressed for the occasion.
"I'm wearing white pants, and my pants are tucked into my socks and my shirt鈥檚 tucked into my pants so that they can鈥檛 get up under my clothing.鈥�
Curtis says light clothing makes it easier to spot the ticks, and after just a few minutes of walking through a field of tall grass we see a critter scrambling up his pant leg.
鈥淭his is a wood tick,鈥� says Curtis, 鈥淚 see some nice white markings on its back and it鈥檚 relatively large, almost a quarter of an inch.鈥�
Otherwise known as a , it鈥檚 the most common tick in Ohio. And with the recent mild winter, he says we鈥檙e seeing a bumper crop this year.
They hang out in tall grass where they wait to hitch a ride from a passing mammal, a dog or a person.
Curtis says they鈥檙e easy to avoid when hiking through a field, just stay in the middle of the trail.
There's a New Tick on the Block
While annoying, dog ticks rarely cause problems.
Less than one percent of dog ticks carry a disease called .
The tick to worry about is the newly arrived deer tick, otherwise known as the black-legged tick.
entomologist says it all started in 2010 when he got a phone call from an Amish farmer in Coshocton County.
鈥淗e went out to the phone box and called me,鈥� explains Needham.
The man鈥檚 wife had come down with Lyme Disease. Later the farmer discovered black-legged ticks crawling around in the snow on their property.
Needham says that phone call changed his life.
It was the first confirmed report of an established population of the black-legged tick in Ohio.
Needham says they're now found in two-thirds of the state.
鈥淭he ticks are spreading and it looks like the percentage of ticks that are infected is going up,鈥� says Needham.
Who's Minding the Store?
Ohio had 160 confirmed cases of Lyme disease last year, but Needham says the true number is likely ten times that.
The problem, says Needham, is that no state agency is testing the spread of the Lyme pathogen among Ohio鈥檚 tick population.
鈥淣obody鈥檚 minding the store,鈥� he says.
entomologist Richard Gary is in charge of monitoring ticks and mosquitoes for the state of Ohio.
鈥淲e know that with Lyme disease and some other diseases a lot of cases are probably 鈥�
He says lawmakers have not made the monitoring of Lyme as much of a priority as, say, West Nile Virus or Zika.
鈥淭he money for tick borne diseases is far more limited than it is for mosquito borne diseases,鈥� says Gary.
And this is a concern for Gary.
鈥淲e think of black-legged ticks as little bags of germs because of the diseases that they can transmit.鈥�
Not just Lyme, but also the malaria-like and .
Tell-Tale Signs of Tick Infection
So far this year in Summit County, for example, four suspected cases of Lyme and one case of babesiosis.
People can even come down with a combination of the three.
Richard Gary says keep an eye out for the tell-tale signs that you鈥檝e been bitten by an infected tick.
鈥淔ever, chills, head-ache, almost flu-like symptoms," are hallmarks of all the tick-borne diseases, which often are associated with a rash, says Gary, "and in the case of Lyme disease the rash is called a bulls-eye rash, or .鈥�
And Don't Forget the Mouse
Another thing these diseases have in common is that they鈥檙e all carried by another animal, the .
In fact, that鈥檚 how the ticks get infected.
A mama tick doesn鈥檛 pass on Lyme or other diseases to the next generation, each spring the tiny larva need to feed on an infected mouse.
Then the next phase, called , can pass it on to a human.
Practice Tick Precautions
These are the ones that concern naturalist Rob Curtis as he tromps through the wilds of Summit County.
鈥淭his spring we just started seeing them everywhere,鈥� says Curtis
About the size of a poppy seed, the black-legged tick nymph is hard to spot, but he says it鈥檚 not a reason to fear the great outdoors.
鈥淵ou take precautions," says Curtis, "wearing bug spray, DEET. There are sprays you can put on your clothing where the ticks just drop right off you.鈥�
Curtis has taken his tick defenses to the next level鈥�
鈥淚 go even further and shave my head.鈥�
No ticks up there.
NOTE: As of May 2018, 11 cases of Lyme disease have been reported in .
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