Deer are their [ticks'] favorite mode of transportation. “They are a huge mammal that goes through the woods and grasses,” says Dr. Gore, “and they’ll pick up and drop off ticks all over the place.”Mr. Shumway, when you interview an exterminator about ticks, he is going to tell you to that "hiring a professional to treat your yard for tick prevention may be the most effective line of attack, but there are products you can buy to treat your own yard." On the PA Game Commission's website, you will learn that "There is no clear relationship between deer density, tick abundance, and Lyme disease incidence." Lyme Disease & Deer Revelation or Red Herring Rats, mice and chipmunks are the main carriers.
Your report says that you were in Peters Township, but you close with, "In Mt. Lebanon, John Shumway KDKA News." Did the Mt. Lebanon pro deer killers have anything to do with that? Why are you perpetuating a myth about deer and lyme disease? I know that the deer haters have been submitting some pretty nasty comments about Sandy Baker who is coming to Mt. Lebanon this weekend.
20 comments:
We should be hearing back from Wildlife Specialists about the deer processor. It has been more than thirty days since they left town.
Elaine
The pro kill ladies want to know if their taxes dollars are paying for the Deer Doc this weekend.
And who received the meat?
Elaine a deer was struck by a car in front of our house last week and when animal control came they screamed at a couple of kids that got close. The officer flipped the deer over and the area under it was loaded with ticks. We were told that once the deer dies and becomes cold the ticks jump off seeking a warm meal. My neighbor sprayed the street down with some kind of bug killer. Did any of those ticks have Lyme disease who knows. But I can tell you that deer have ticks. For the person who hit the deer and drove off... A big hunk of your car is still in our driveway and you can pick it up anytime you want.
12:37 AM, yes. Our tax dollars paid to have deer killed too. What is your point?
Elaine
1:20 AM, yes, that too. I guess a RTK is in order.
Elaine
Gene - If you kill the deer, the ticks look for a different host. That host could be you.
However, no need to panic. Remove the tick carefully, wash the site and preventively, call your doctor and get antibiotics.
The folks who live in Mt Lebanon without running water and/or refuse to shower or change clothes are the only ones in trouble here. Basic daily hygiene and caution in the woods/brush prevent Lyme Disease.
4:58, that is just great, indiscriminate use of bug spray... Great for the environment, great for the ozone layer.
Does anyone think here any more? thought we're suppose to a highly educated community.
I guess we can cull the deer by hitting more of them with our cars. It may be the only way!
4:58, Rachel Carson would've been so proud of your neighbor.
So what makes Chad Gore, Ph.D. a tick, Lyme disease, or deer expert? And what about "objective"? Right, treat your yard with cancer causing pesticides from the company he represents, that's the solution.
Deer and Lyme Disease - THE FACTS
The blacklegged tick that transmits Lyme disease feeds on approximately 27 species of mammal and 70 species of birds. The bacteria is passed through the bite of a tick. But deer do not get Lyme disease nor do they pass it along. Rodents, on the other hand, particularly the white-footed mouse, do contract the disease and pass it along to other ticks that feed on them. Rodents are called “reservoir hosts” for this reason. Deer are not reservoir hosts, they are called “dilution hosts” because, even though a tick can feed on a deer, as one of the many mammals offering blood meals to ticks, the disease is not spread through the deer-tick relationship.
A landmark book published by Oxford University Press called, “Lyme Disease, The Ecology of a Complex System” by Dr. Richard Ostfeld, analyzed and synthesized just about every study to date on this topic. Well over 100 studies are examined in the book, and the conclusion is crystal clear and accessible to the general public: There is little to no correlation between deer and Lyme disease. According to the book, only about 30 percent of ticks are infected with Lyme disease. Four small mammals (including white-footed mice) host 50% of the ticks, but account for 90% of infected ticks. That means that all the other possible hosts account for only 10% of infected ticks. There are, in fact, no credible (peer reviewed) studies that correlate a reduction in deer numbers with a reduction in Lyme disease.
"I am a research scientist who has devoted much of the past twenty years to understanding the ecology of Lyme disease, and other tick-borne infections. A comprhensive review of all the scientific literature on the relationship between numbers of deer and numbers of ticks reveals that the majority of studies find no statistical correlation at all. The lack of a correlation derives from the following facts: (1) deer do not infect ticks with Lyme bacteria, and actually reduce the infection prevalence in tick populations; (2) adult black legged ticks feed on at least 27 different species of mammals and are not specialists on white-tailed deer; (3) when deer populations are culled, ticks crowd onto the remaining deer, resulting in similar total numbers of tick meals; and (4) even when deer affect the number of eggs laid by adult ticks and resulting abundance of larvae, numbers of larvae do not predict numbers of nymphs (nymphs are responsible for transmitting Lyme disease to people). Moreover, although mention is made of deer thresholds in the non-peer-reviewed literature, no scientific data support the existence of a deer density threshold below which ticks decline to low numbers. Scientific literature on which my statements are based can be found in the book cited above." (Dr. Richard Ostfeld, Senior Scientist, The Cary Institute)
In addition, recent work by Dr. Tamara Awerbuch of the Harvard School of Public Health, confirms that deer are not the culprit for Lyme disease but in fact it is the white-footed mouse ("Killing Deer Not the Answer to Reducing Lyme Disease", Says HSPH Scientist" interview dated 11/23/10). Dr. Awerbuch states that, "There is NO linear correlation between killing deer and the tick population."
This research emphatically refutes the notion that killing deer will reduce the tick population or lyme disease. In the face of this indisputable facts it becomes unsupportable to kill deer for Lyme disease reasons.
Read the comments on Elaine's KDKA link.
Yep...spray, spray, spray...kill, kill, kill....every little bug around you. That'll help keep those annoying bug eating birds away. And treat your compost so you can ingest it and naturally repel ticks. Good grief, they act like it's a friggin plague or something.
4:58 am Sorry "Gene", but I don't believe your story. I'm an ex-hunter, and I've been around a lot of dead deer. And when you turn them over the ground is not loaded with ticks. Please identify the street, time deer was hit, how long the deer was lying in the street before animal control arrived, the animal control officer's name you spoke to, if you made a police report, what police officer you talked to, and your house number if you will, so that I can follow-up to confirm your tick story. Thanks
KDKA comment cont.
The third paragraph says they don't jump, but it goes on to say, in two different parts, that they DO jump. Make your minds up.
"Allegheny County reported no cases in 2013 and only 10 cases in 2012."
BTW, those 10 cases do not mean that the Lyme infection was contracted in Allegheny County. We have a lot of hunters that travel to other counties to hunt. In addition, there is no definitive test for Lyme disease. It's probably one of the most misdiagnosed infections. So all these statistics are suspect for accuracy. That said, based on these reports, there is very little risk of contracting Lyme disease in Allegheny County.
12:36 KDKA has become a joke, their "reporters" are just readers with concern for whether the stuff they're reporting makes sense or not.
Thank you, 12:17 AM for your wonderful summary of the facts (just the facts) about Lyme disease and its transmittal! I don't know whether or not you have presented this information at any of the Commission Meetings, but it would be great to have someone with this knowledge and understanding of the topic spend the Five-Minutes-of-Fame covering the issue, not only for the benefit of those in attendance but also for those who will watch the recording at a later date. As you no doubt know, this is only one of the recurrent red-herring arguments used by the garden biddies and Commissionettes, and it's gotten so tiresome!
What is getting tiresome is reporters like Shumway that don't have a clue and no interest in acquiring a clue on topics they report to the public.
Whom does he go to for the scoop on deer ticks... the CDC, the PA Dept. of Heath or Game Commission, doctors? No, he goes to Ehrlich Pest Control.
Here's information from the Game Commission on deer ticks.
"Species Affected
B. burgdorferi has been isolated in many species of wild mammals and birds. In North America, the bacteria have been found in coyotes, raccoons, chipmunks, rabbits, and several species of rats, mice, and shrews. The bacteria have also been isolated in several bird species including but not limited to the mallard, ringnecked pheasant, wild turkey, house wren, song thrush, American robin, gray catbird, song sparrow, and house sparrow without causing disease. Domestic animals including dogs, cats, cattle, and horses can also become infected. The Lyme disease bacteria can cause a very similar illness in humans.
Distribution
Most cases occur in the northeast and mid-Atlantic region, but it has been reported in almost every state. In 2009, 95% of reported cases of Lyme disease in the US occurred in the following 12 states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, and Virginia. The incidence of Lyme disease in domestic dogs in Pennsylvania currently varies between 10 and 13%, but no assays of deer mice have been conducted.
Transmission
The black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), also known as the deer tick, is the most important vector for B. borgdorferi in the eastern and Midwestern United States. The western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) is the primary vector in the western US. Other tick species and biting insects such as mosquitoes, deer flies, and horse flies can also carry the bacteria, but it is still unclear how well they can transmit the bacteria to new hosts.
During the summer, the larvae feed on the blood of mice, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, and other small vertebrates. The larvae mature into nymphs in the fall and hibernate over the winter. The larval and nymphal ticks can become carriers of the Lyme bacteria by feeding on wildlife reservoir hosts. White-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) are the most important reservoirs for B. burgdoferi in the eastern and Midwestern United States. If they acquired the bacteria as larvae, the nymphs can transmit the bacteria to new vertebrate hosts when they feed the following spring or summer. If not, they can acquire the bacteria as nymphs and infect other species in the fall of that year. The bacteria are typically transmitted to humans by nymphs. In the fall, the nymphs develop into adults that feed on their third and final host. Adults previously infected as larvae or nymphs can also transmit the bacteria to new hosts, including humans and domestic animals. Adult female black-legged ticks feed preferentially on deer to get energy to lay eggs, but deer do not act as reservoirs for the Lyme bacteria."
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1721301&mode=2
So now that Shumway kissed up to the MTL gardners and panicked everyone about deer ticks what happens after we've eliminated all the deer?
Will we kill all the robins and songbirds? How about your dog or cat?
Yep, you get it, 5:07 PM. It is all bunk.
Elaine
2:17, if you go back and watch some of the commission meetings, we did have some very experienced folks talk about the facts of Lyme disease. There is also a page on our very own website that highlights some of these same facts at http://www.mtlebanon.org/documentcenter/view/9631. The problem is, the commissioners who supported the deer management program didn't want to hear it. They rejected all the facts that were presented.
Nick M.
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