Being aware of tick season

MARQUETTE COUNTY — It will be warm up here in the Upper Peninsula one day and when it does we need to be more wary of the possible hidden dangers of the outdoors.

It may still be feeling like winter right now but the warm weather is just around the corner. This means we will have more critters running around and the beginning of tick season.

“Here in the Upper Peninsula involves getting outdoors and people wait for that all winter long and sometimes all spring,” said, DNR Officer, John Pepin. “But from April through September is generally the time when ticks are active and we have deer ticks and also wood ticks are by far the most tick we have here.”

Ticks are known to harbor dangerous bacteria as well as disease.

Therefore, it is always a good idea to be on the look out for ticks while enjoying the outdoors.

“Well you remove them by the head,” said, Director of Environmental Health, Patrick Jacuzzo. “Kind of promptly the thing is if you are out in a tick habitat type area you should be checking yourself for ticks as soon as you come in. So the quick identification of a tick bite and the removal of ticks is the key to preventing Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses.”

Heavily wooded areas as well as UN-kept trails can be the prime areas for ticks to wait for its next host. It is also a good idea to know the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease so that if infected you can receive the necessary treatment.

“The CDC recommendation is that if you have any of those symptoms rashes, fever, exhaustion, muscle pain and or joint pain within several weeks of identifying a tick bite,” said Patrick. “Then it is a probability that you may have Lyme disease.”

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