By Morgan Graham, GIS & Wildlife Specialist
If you’re anything like us, you’ve been savoring the opportunity to get out and scout for trout, meander for antlers, scour for flowers, prowl for owls, and eye fungi. As we wander far afield, we’ve been reacquainted with a far less desirable member of the natural world…ticks!! In a single day searching for sheds, our Associate Director, Carlin, recently found no less than a dozen ticks on his person. Well, what’s a body to do? Some of these tips are just plain common sense, however, we hope you uncover at least one new piece of information you can share with family and friends to help keep everyone healthy as we soak up the outdoors.
Classic tick habitat. Photo by Morgan Graham.
Wyoming has two species of ticks: Rocky Mountain wood tick (RMWT) and winter tick (WT). You are most likely to encounter RMWTs in Teton County between late April and early July. Activity decreases as vegetation dries out in the mid- to late- summer. Their populations are densest in shrublands, light woods, open grasslands, and trail edges. Adult ticks looking for a ride will “quest” -or-ascend to the tip of knee-high grasses or shrubs while extending and waving their front legs in an attempt to latch on to passersby. Although Lyme disease is not currently a concern in Wyoming, RMWTs are capable of transmitting several other significant maladies including tularemia, Colorado Tick Fever, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Now more than ever, we encourage everyone to take simple steps to mitigate the risk of tick-borne illness to yourself and your family, including domestic pets and livestock. 1) Treat clothing and gear with products containing at least 0.5% permethrin and/or repellents with at least 20% DEET or picaridin. If you aren’t comfortable with chemicals 2) Wear light-colored clothing that makes it easier to spot ticks 3) Wear gaiters -or- tuck pants into socks and shirts into pants 4) Make a habit of regular tick checks when out and returning from the field. Ask for help, or use a mirror, to check hard-to-reach places. 5) Do the same for children, pets, and stock. 6) Wash and tumble dry field clothes on high.
Rocky Mountain wood tick, photo by Morgan Graham
If you do find a tick that has embedded, bypass all the old tricks involving tape, Vaseline, or matches. Start by grasping the tick with fine-tipped tweezers as close to the skin surface as possible. Firmly and slowly pull straight up and away from the skin. Avoid squeezing the abdomen as it can cause the tick to inject pathogens into the bite site. Clean the site with rubbing alcohol and/or soap and water. Monitor the bite. See your doctor if you feel ill or develop a rash. Consider storing the tick in a sealed and dated container in the refrigerator if alive and freezer if dead, in case it is needed for future identification and testing.
While winter ticks are not known to transmit disease to humans, their environmental impact is not benign. In 1909, Ernest Thompson Seton, co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, described the winter tick as a greater enemy of the moose than "wolves, bears, and cougars.” Winter tick larvae quest in large numbers in the fall, climbing to moose chest height, and attaching en masse to moose as well as elk, deer, mountain sheep, beavers, black bears, and coyotes. Moose are perhaps the least well equipped to remove ticks via self-grooming. Researchers have reported up to 100,000 ticks on a single moose in a season. Warmer and shorter winters are suspected for increasing numbers of winter ticks on the landscape. After developing from larvae to nymph to adult while attached to their host over the course of the winter, adult ticks detach in March or April. If adult females fall on snow, they die. If they fall on vegetation or soil, they lay thousands of eggs that hatch the following fall, and the cycle continues.