Tick all the boxes in fight against bloodsuckers

A warm winter and sunny spring mean tick season has come to Manitoba.

Data from etick.ca, which identifies tick sightings from the public, has received 75 reports of ticks on humans or animals since March 1. During the same timespan last year, it had 24 submissions.

While other factors, like increased awareness of the site, could be a factor in that change, milder winters with less snow on the ground mean a longer and more prevalent tick season, said Kateryn Rochon, acting department head of the University of Manitoba’s entomology department.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of snow this year, and everything melted quickly, and it got warm, and ticks, over winter, they’re under the snow,” she said Wednesday. “(When) the snow cover melts, and it’s warm, if it’s more than three, four degrees Celsius, they’re moving around.”

Blacklegged ticks (also called deer ticks) can spread Lyme disease and other illnesses, including anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Powassan virus disease, and are identifiable by their reddish-orange body and black legs. Wood ticks, the more common tick species in Manitoba, do not spread disease, and are larger and brown in colour with white markings.

Anyone who finds a tick on a human or animal can send a photo through etick.ca to have an expert identify which species it belongs to and if it is capable of transmitting diseases.

While southern Manitoba remains the highest-risk area for ticks, a provincial media bulletin published Wednesday warns climate change and balmy winters have also expanded the range of ticks throughout the province.

In the coming months, blacklegged tick nymphs will become more prevalent and are considered a public health concern, Rochon said.

Unlike the adult blacklegged tick, they are smaller, about the size of a poppy seed.

“It’s important that people do a tick check at least once a day. Even if you just went into your backyard, ticks can be in your backyard,” Rochon said. “Just get into the habit.”

Manitoba Health data shows there were 27 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in Manitoba, and 11 probable cases, in 2022. Data for 2023 is not yet available.

“It’s important that people do a tick check at least once a day. Even if you just went into your backyard, ticks can be in your backyard.”–Kateryn Rochon

Those numbers underrepresent the true case counts of Lyme disease in Manitoba, said Marnie LePage, of advocacy group Manitoba Lyme.

“Lots of people might not even realize it’s Lyme, the people that are here in our support group are the ones that are digging further because their health isn’t making sense,” she said.

In Manitoba’s most recent annual tick-borne disease report, which chronicled cases from 2013-18, less than 40 per cent of those with Lyme disease recalled being bit by a tick even though that is the only way to get the illness.

Awareness is key, LePage said: wearing proper bug repellent, wearing long-sleeved clothing, and — if you do get bit — removing the tick as soon as possible, keeping the tick for testing and seeing a doctor immediately to attempt to stop chronic symptoms from forming.

“Here in Manitoba, we’ve always had lots of wood ticks, so people don’t really take a tick bite seriously, they’re like, ‘Oh, I’ll just remove them, I will burn them, I will squeeze them, put Vaseline, put dish soap,’ but all of those are incredibly bad to do to remove them,’ she said.

“And we can’t be thinking that way anymore, that a tick bite isn’t a big deal, because we have different types of ticks here, and they’re carrying more and more pathogens.”

Ticks can be removed using tweezers, by pulling it upwards out of the skin without crushing or twisting the tick. Clean the skin afterward and keep an eye out for a rash.

There’s still a prevalent misconception that Lyme disease doesn’t have severe symptoms, said Catherine Kinsella of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation.

“And we can’t be thinking that way anymore, that a tick bite isn’t a big deal, because we have different types of ticks here, and they’re carrying more and more pathogens.”–Marnie LePage

“I think it is starting to change, but I think that it has been minimized over the years, not only in the severity of it, but also in the scope of it,” she said.

Kinsella contracted Lyme disease after a hike in 2013, and suffered symptoms ranging from fatigue and brain fog to Bell’s Palsy, which left half of her face paralyzed.

“I actually did check for ticks during that hike, but I didn’t do a really thorough check for ticks, I didn’t understand that you don’t feel the bite a lot of the time,” she said.

“Ticks like to hide in places where you can’t see them.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca