Re: Watch out for deerticks in the DC Metro area...(and this includes NIH employees)
- From: "the 3rd Man" <sir_der05@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Mar 2007 16:42:23 -0700
On Mar 25, 6:39 pm, "the 3rd Man" <sir_de...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I used to live there myself, for awhile. About 12 minutes from NIH on
Rockville Pike. Chevy Chase area. Hated it. Horrible traffic. Idiot
drivers who ignore redlights and bop their interns.
But there were these beautiful deer that would come right through the
yard...
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In Swelling Herds, A Growing Risk
Larger Va. Deer Population Making Lyme Disease a Public Health Issue
By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page C01
A surge in reported cases of Lyme disease in Fairfax County has
prompted an outcry from residents who say the lawns and woodlands
surrounding their homes are overrun with infected ticks and the deer
that carry them.
The exponential increase has also led county health officials to
acknowledge that managing Fairfax's burgeoning deer population, which
in some locations has numbered 400 per square mile, is no longer about
nuisance control. It has become a serious public health issue that
requires immediate attention, they say.
Despite Fairfax County's efforts to control the deer population, the
animals are an increasing presence, stripping branches bare and
causing concern about Lyme disease, which is carried by deer ticks.
"The ticks are all over the county," a county health official said.
(Photos By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)
A Deadly Disease From a Tick Bite
Lyme disease is a bacterial illness transmitted by ticks that can lead
to nervous system, heart, mental and arthritic complications.
Thwarting Ticks
Steps to prevent Lyme disease include using insect repellent, removing
ticks promptly, tucking pants in socks, wearing light-colored clothing
including long-sleeved shirts, wearing shoes and socks, tucking in
long hair, wearing a hat, and putting clothes in the dryer for at
least a half-hour after...
"Deer are the Metro system for the ticks" that carry Borrelia
burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, said Jorge R.
Arias, who manages Fairfax's disease-carrying-insect program. "The
ticks are all over the county. Wherever the deer can go, they will
take the ticks with them."
Confirmed cases of Lyme disease, which is characterized by such varied
symptoms as a bull's-eye-shaped rash, fever and fatigue, rose from
three in 2004 to 82 in 2006, according to county data. Much of the
increase is due to better reporting of a disease that is often quickly
treated with antibiotics without being confirmed by blood tests.
Still, public health officials say there is little doubt that case
numbers are rising locally and nationally.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
reported cases rose from 19,800 in 2004 to 23,300 in 2005. Cases
remain relatively low in Virginia -- 274 in 2005 compared with numbers
in the thousands in such Northeastern states as Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.
But the increase in the Washington region is causing growing concern.
Loudoun County claims half of all reported cases in Virginia. In
Maryland, Montgomery County has seen confirmed cases grow fivefold
since 2004, to 216.
And the very neighborhoods where deer are least welcome might be
attracting the tick-carrying herds.
"Suburban lots with azaleas and rhododendrons is just like laying out
a buffet for deer," Arias said. "We have created in suburbia what is
essentially a perfect habitat for them." That, in turn, has created
the perfect environment for transmitting the bacteria to humans, he
said.
Country Club Manor in Centreville, a neighborhood of 20-year-old
colonials on the edge of Cub Run Stream Valley Park, is riddled with
hoof prints and deer droppings. The lower branches of dozens of shrubs
are stripped bare. The lawn of Deer Park Elementary School is littered
with torn grass tufts, a telltale sign of deer grazing. It is not
unusual, neighbors say, to see a herd of 12 or more deer ambling down
the road in broad daylight.
Nor is it unusual to pull a tick from one's body after gardening or
playing in the yard with grandchildren, said resident Robert E.
Jakubowski. It has become a way of life on Pamela Drive to tuck
trousers into socks, apply insect repellent and perform a full-body
check for the tiny nymphs, or baby ticks, that usually transmit the
disease, he said.
Lyme disease has become a way of life, too. Jakubowski is one of 13
people within a one-block radius who say they have been treated for
Lyme disease in the past two years. Jakubowski has been treated three
times, he said. A few doors down, Sally L. Pekarik spent eight days in
June in the intensive care unit at Reston Hospital Center after
flulike symptoms prompted a Lyme disease diagnosis.
"The deer population has been out of control for years," Jakubowski
said. "There have been minimal attempts to control it."
(more)...
In Swelling Herds, A Growing Risk
Fairfax launched a deer management program about a decade ago after
several traffic accidents involving deer made headlines. The county
sponsors managed hunts during the winter months, during which screened
applicants participate in a daytime hunt on parkland. Separately,
police sharpshooters "cull" herds on overnight expeditions several
times a year.
But the results are limited, said Earl L. Hodnett, the county's
wildlife biologist, who noted that most county parks where deer are
counted remain far from his goal of no more than 15 to 20 deer per
square mile. Officials are limited to parkland where firearms pose
little risk to people but where shooters have limited access to deer,
which are not constrained by public boundaries. Managed hunts in
January and February netted 133 deer. An additional 48 deer have been
killed in four sharpshooting events this year.
Despite Fairfax County's efforts to control the deer population, the
animals are an increasing presence, stripping branches bare and
causing concern about Lyme disease, which is carried by deer ticks.
"The ticks are all over the county," a county health official said.
(Photos By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)
A Deadly Disease From a Tick Bite
Lyme disease is a bacterial illness transmitted by ticks that can lead
to nervous system, heart, mental and arthritic complications.
Thwarting Ticks
Steps to prevent Lyme disease include using insect repellent, removing
ticks promptly, tucking pants in socks, wearing light-colored clothing
including long-sleeved shirts, wearing shoes and socks, tucking in
long hair, wearing a hat, and putting clothes in the dryer for at
least a half-hour after...
"We're starting out with a big problem," Hodnett said. "There's no
easy way to quickly fix a problem that's been building since the
mid-'80s."
There's also no easy way with no staff, Hodnett said. In the early
years, Hodnett had a part-time assistant, but the job has not been
filled for several years. And although the county's deer population
seemed to be decreasing in the years after the program began, numbers
are on the rise again, he said.
"We are losing ground where we had gained," he said.
Fairfax supervisors are likely to include money in next year's county
budget to hire an assistant for Hodnett as well as two part-time
workers. Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully) has led the push.
Frey said he has not always supported the county's herd-thinning
efforts, which he has viewed as more of a "feel-good" policy than
effective control. Shooting deer in Bull Run Regional Park in
Centreville doesn't reduce car accidents in Great Falls, he said. He
also noted that until now, he viewed deer as more of a nuisance than a
health risk and was less willing to devote more county dollars to the
problem.
"A car collision with deer, while tragic, I don't know that it's
avoidable in an area like McLean," he said. "You're never going to be
able to hunt deer in an area like that. But in areas with large herds,
when you see a huge spike in Lyme disease, that sort of puts it in a
different perspective. We need to increase the efforts to reduce the
herd size."
Officials also want to know more about the true prevalence of Lyme
disease at a time when reporting efforts are unreliable. State and
local officials are stepping up surveillance of deer and ticks to
better understand how widespread disease-carrying ticks are. (An
analysis last year of 500 deer ticks collected across Fairfax showed
that about 15 percent carried the bacteria, Arias said.) They are
working with doctors to improve reporting of Lyme disease. And they
plan to improve public education about preventing infection by wearing
proper clothing and applying insect repellent.
But all agree the problem cannot be erased overnight.
"Eradicating the deer herd is probably not achievable," said Frey, who
counted more than 40 deer on a recent daytime tour of Cub Run Stream
Valley Park. "Short of shutting down the parks and hunting 24 hours a
day, I'm not sure how much we can do."
.
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