Quoted Text

Region's tick population flourishing
Rise in illnesses reported for pets, people
Monday, July 20, 2009
By Justin Mason (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

CAPITAL REGION — It takes only 15 minutes on the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail for more than a dozen ticks to latch onto Keri Pratico’s German shepherds.
The Rotterdam Junction resident routinely plucks up to a half-dozen of the disease-carrying parasites from her cat each night. Then one day last month, she found a deer tick attached to her underarm.
“It’s out of control down here,” she said this week. “And it’s getting worse every year.” Less than a decade ago, Pratico didn’t worry about walking outside without tick repellent for herself or her pets. Now she pays about $126 every six months to provide her dogs with tick preventive that kills the small arachnids when they bite.
“I have to worry about it constantly,” she said. “I can’t even go on the bike trail anymore without getting ticks.”
She’s not the only one who has noticed a steady increase in the population of ticks. Several local veterinarians confirmed they’re seeing an increase in the number of pets testing positive for Lyme disease, a crippling bacterial infection often carried by deer ticks.
“There is definitely more ticks out there,” said Paul Sausville, a technician at the Rotterdam Veterinary Hospital who said he’s seeing about two pets each week testing positive for Lyme disease.
Before, Sausville said, the animals testing positive for Lyme disease were primarily hunting dogs and other animals taken along forest hikes. Now, he said, he’s seeing the bacteria show up in all types of pets.
“Now it seems like you can find it everywhere,” he said............>>>>........................>>>>......................................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/jul/20/0720_ticks/

Directly related to the rodent population increase too. This report is 2 years overdue and outdated. Nonetheless I won't personally let bugs stop me from going into the woods. "Why aren't THEY trying to do something..." It is up to US to take heed and precautions. The government can't protect you all the time like the utopian liberals want you to think they can.