Petaluma hikers, dog-walkers warned of tick proliferation

Late rains, delayed trail brush removal, raise likelihood of prickly arachnid encounters.|

The North Bay’s extended rainy season, which has led to delays in clearing tick-friendly vegetation from popular hiking trails, is contributing to a rise in the number of hitch-hiking ticks - and the potential for contracting Lyme disease - that trekkers have been picking up on the trails of Helen Putnam Park and other local recreational spots.

“Ticks are bad right now,” said Sonoma County Ranger Jesse Cablk, just days after a study was conducted at Santa Rosa’s Spring Lake, generally representative of conditions at other parks in Sonoma County, including Petaluma. “Ticks are definitely out in force at the moment. I’ve had a few crawling on me myself, though I haven’t been bitten yet. If you go out on the trails, definitely check yourself, and check your dogs if they go hiking with you. You don’t want to mess with ticks.”

Regarding the Spring Lake tick study, Cablk said, “they are definitely finding quite a few ticks,” adding, “It’s not any worse than last year, but it’s definitely not any better.”

Cablk, who admitted he’s been bitten a number of times over the years, is careful to point out that, in spite of the fact hikers are reporting higher numbers of ticks on themselves and their dogs, one shouldn’t presume that the overall tick populations have increased.

Nor does it mean that a wet winter necessarily leads to more ticks in the spring.

According to Cablk, the increased contact with ticks is less a matter of how many of the critters there are, than of how overgrown trail conditions in some places are bringing those ticks into closer contact with human beings.

“Basically, we just haven’t gotten to the weed-eating part of our job on all of the trails yet,” Cablk said. “That’s because the rains have been hanging on longer than usual. When there’s more brush along the trails, people walk through that brush, and the chance of them picking up a tick increases. That’s the biggest part of how a long rainy season leads to more tick encounters.”

Ticks like moisture, he pointed out, which affects the time of day hikers are most likely to find more ticks in the grass waiting for some warm-blooded animal to walk by.

“It’s kind of a two-punch combination,” Cablk said. “One, there’s a lot of vegetation still on the trails, and two, when it’s moist and drippy out, as opposed to being a really hot, dry day, the ticks tend to be hanging out on all of that grass we haven’t had a chance to cut back yet.”

Does that mean tick encounters happen more frequently early in the morning, when the grasses are wet with dew and fog, than at noon, when the sun has burned all the morning moisture away?

“Probably,” Cablk said, “but I would do a good full tick check regardless, every time you go out, no matter when. There’s really no safe time when it comes to ticks.”

The primary concern is that many ticks carry Lyme disease, which can lead to debilitating side-effects when transmitted to humans if not treated early. In recent years, Sonoma County has seen a higher number of Lyme disease cases than anywhere else in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That said, Sonoma County pales in comparison to New England, where, between 2010 and 2014, there were 10 times the number of Lyme disease cases (410 confirmed cases) as in Sonoma County (41 confirmed cases).

Should one become bitten by tick and believe they are at risk of Lyme disease, Cablk advises them to seek medical attention immediately, a course of antibiotics can prevent the illness taking hold. If a tick has attached itself, after removing it, the bug-bitten victim can always take the tick to be tested for Lyme, further determining the risk of contracting the disease.

“I’ve done it before when I’ve been bitten by a tick,” said Cablk. “You just put the tick in a baggie, with a little bit of water to keep it from drying out, and take it to Sonoma County Health. It’s not expensive to have them test the tick. If a tick has been in you less than 24 hours, that’s not long enough to contract Lyme disease, but you’re better safe than sorry.”

(Contact David Templeton at david.templeton@arguscourier.com.)

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