Ticks and what to do about them

Ticks are arachnids (relatives of spiders, mites, and scorpions), having eight legs and no wings. Ticks might go largely unnoticed if not for their habitat of feeding on pets, livestock, wildlife, and ourselves. They are ectoparasites, living outside the host, that feed on blood as their primary nutrition. In the act of getting a blood meal, ticks are capable of transmitting several tick-borne illnesses to people including Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Tularemia, among others.

In general, ticks have four life stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. Typically, the transition for each stage is take a blood meal, drop off host, shed outer skin (cuticle), and grab onto a new individual, often a totally different species – up to three different species may offer habitat for a single tick. However, some tick species, like the winter tick, stay on one individual through all life stages.

Ticks are attracted to the odor, heat, and breathing of animals and people. Their primary mode of “hunting” involves patiently hanging by their back legs on vegetation, along paths and game trails, for an animal or human to brush up against them. They expertly grab on to their new host and move toward a good feeding spot. Ticks have specialized mouthparts that allow them to bore into skin surfaces and extract blood and other fluids. Once attached, they produce a cement-like substance that glues them in place. In addition, their bodies are flattened so they can lie close to the skin, making it difficult to be removed by an irritated host. On humans, ticks commonly move upward toward the groin, waist area, and scalp.

Tick abundance is highly variable, depending on habitat, abundance of host animals, weather and humidity, and other factors. In Montana, tick season lasts from the onset of warmer weather in the spring until about mid-July when warmer weather and low relative humidity cause the ticks to become inactive.

Seven species of ticks are known to bite and transmit disease to people in the United States including the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and Blacklegged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis). The Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni) is the primary disease vector in Montana. Adult Rocky Mountain wood ticks feed primarily on large mammals while the larvae and nymphs feed on rodents. Adult ticks are primarily associated with disease transmission to humans. Several other tick species are found in Montana and their distribution, unfortunately, appears to be expanding. The blacklegged ticks that are the primary vectors for Lyme disease are not known to occur in Montana at present.

Left to Right Rocky Mountain wood tick: unengorged female, 1/4 engorged, 1/2 engorged and fully engorged.
Photo: Montana FWP

Other tick species common target wildlife species, including rabbits, elk, and moose. Moose can be found covered with the winter or moose tick (Dermacentor albipictus). In wildlife species, ticks do no permanent harm to their hosts, but in some cases disease transmission and sheep number of ticks can cause loss of body condition or death.

Not all ticks carry disease, and not all tick bites transmit a disease to the host. But it is important to know how to avoid ticks, and what to do in the event of a tick bite. Treat any tick bite with concern (see below).

Avoiding Tick Bites

Anytime you are outdoors during the tick season, think tick avoidance:

·         Wear light-colored clothing to allow you to see ticks that are crawling on your clothing.

·         Tuck your pants legs into your socks so that ticks cannot crawl up the inside of your pants legs.

·         Apply repellants to discourage tick attachment. Repellents containing permethrin can be sprayed on boots and clothing, and will last for several days. Repellents containing DEET can be applied to the skin, but will last only a few hours before reapplication is necessary. Use DEET with caution on children. Application of large amounts of DEET on children has been associated with adverse reactions.

·         Conduct a body check upon return from potentially tick-infested areas by searching your entire body for ticks. Use a hand-held or full-length mirror to view all parts of your body. Remove any tick you find on your body.

·         Parents should check their children for ticks, especially in the hair, when returning from potentially tick-infested areas.

Additionally, ticks may be carried into the household on clothing and pets. Both should be examined carefully.

Removing Attached Ticks

Sooner or later you will likely find a tick on you. If it is crawling around, remove it and wash you hands. If it has become attached: 

Image: Center for Disease Control

1. Use fine-tipped tweezers or notched tick extractor. Where possible, avoid removing ticks with bare hands, using a tissue, paper towel, or latex gloves.

2. Grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible and pull upward with steady, even pressure. Do not twist or jerk the tick; this may cause the mouthparts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove mouthparts with tweezers.

3. After removing the tick, thoroughly disinfect the bite site and wash your hands with soap and water. Do not squeeze, crush, or puncture the body of the tick because its fluids may contain infectious organisms. Skin accidentally exposed to tick fluids can be disinfected with iodine scrub, rubbing alcohol, or water containing detergents.

4. Save the tick for identification in case you become ill. This may help your doctor make an accurate diagnosis. Place the tick in a sealable plastic bag and put it in your freezer. Write the date of the bite on a piece of paper with a pencil and place it in the bag.

Consult your health care provider if you experience any signs of illness. Early detection and treatment is the best cure for any tick-borne disease.

Diseases carried by ticks in Montana.

Symptoms of tick-borne diseases vary from mild to severe infections requiring hospitalization for care, with the potential for death in rare cases. Early recognition and treatment of infection is important to decrease the risk of serious outcome. Known diseases carried by ticks in Montana are: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Colorado Tick Fever, Tularemia ("rabbit fever"), and Tick-borne relapsing fever. To learn more about the diseases and their symptoms, go to http://fwp.mt.gov/recreation/safety/wildlife/ticks/diseases.html

Resources

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Tickborne Diseases of the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/

Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks. Ticks. http://fwp.mt.gov/recreation/safety/wildlife/ticks/

Montana Communicable Disease Epidemiology. Tick-borne Illnesses. https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/cdepi/diseases/ticks

Sagebrush Galls

Big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) flowers in the fall and produces small fruits with tiny seeds. So what are the ball-like growths attached to a leaf or stem?

Round and smooth, greenish or reddish, sometimes hairy, sometimes wrinkled up, often with a small hole visible on closer inspection, the balls are not fruits but galls.

Galls are tumor-like plant tissues growth in reaction to an insect. Their size shape, location, and host plant are specific to a particular species or family of insects -- be they flies, moths, beetles or other species. Grown in response to the invading insect, the gall provides shelter, food and water to its new occupant. Typically, galls do not cause harm to the host plant, though they don’t provide any benefit either.

Big sagebrush is known to host dozens of different species of gall midges – small, two-winged flies with long legs and long antennae, commonly confused with mosquitoes.

Sample of gall-producing insects. Encyclopaedia Britannica

On mating, female gall midges lay eggs on a sagebrush leaf. The egg hatches and the larva begins feeding on the leaf, using its saliva to digest the plant tissue. In response, the plant produces a tumor-like growth that forms an encircling gall. The larva may occupy its new home from a few weeks to more than a year. On a hormonal cue, the larva pupates and mines a tunnel to the gall’s surface, using newly formed antennal horns. On emergence, the pre-adult, splits the pupal exoskeleton, and flies away to find a mate and repeat the cycle.

While the gall feeds, waters, and shelters the larva, it is not immune from attack. While in the gall, the midge larva may become prey to parasitic wasps which penetrate the gall and lay an egg directly inside the body of the larva. The result should be obvious. Other insects may feed on the gall and use existing galls for their nursery.

Wildfire & Mountain Sky

When the first European settlers came to America, they found not the pristine forests so commonly depicted by Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, and other Hudson River School painters, but rather they found a landscape marked by fire.

As fire chronicler Stephen Pyne (1997) has observed, human-set fires once cleansed the landscapes of North America, but today fires are absent from regions like the Northeast that formerly relied on them for farming and grazing; they have receded from the prairies, once near-annual seas of flame; and they have faded from the mountains and mesas, valleys and basins of the West.

 Fire is a natural component of the Gallatin-Madison range ecosystem. It is a driver of change that influences the overall structure of the forest, its species composition and its age class distribution. Fire helps drive the recycling of carbon and other nutrients in the soil, and stimulates the regeneration of fire-dependent, fire-adapted vegetation. For wildlife, fire removes the overstory of trees, causing openings that release grasses and forbs as well as creating snags and tree cavities for food, roosting, and nesting.

While wild fire is a natural process, it is commonly not welcome in conflict with humans, and the values society places on private lands, human-built structures, and desired natural resources (e.g., timber, recreation, water supply). While prescribed fire is a useful tool, in reality, its use is highly constrained due to risk of escaped fires threatening private and state land, as well as federal lands.

Two influences on today’s forest, and our ability to respond to wildfire, are noteworthy: 1) Smokey Bear and 2) the lure of building next to wildlands.

The first influence is a decades-long policy of attempting to prevent forest fire, as symbolized by Smokey Bear’s “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.” Though well-intentioned at the time, it is now widely acknowledged by researchers and managers that the policy of aggressive wildfire suppression has contributed to a decline in forest health, an increase in fuel loads in many forests, and wildfires that are more difficult and expensive to control (Donovan and Brown 2007). Fire suppression, combined with other influences like climate change, insect pests, and diseases, are contributing to vast changes in wildland vegetation with the result that landscapes are drier, less resilient, and more likely to burn once ignited. The number of large wildfires (>50,000 acres) has increased over the past 30 years, and wildfires are more intense than they were in the past.

The second influence is the lure of living next to wildland. It sounds idyllic, and more and more people are choosing to live in these natural areas -- referred to the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Unfortunately, as more people dwell in the WUI, fire management becomes more complex and the costs to fight wildfires and protect homes and human lives has risen sharply as a result. Firefighters are forced to fight wildfires based on private property and structures rather than the best way to contain fire or guide the actual fire -- adding millions of dollars in cost and increased risk to responding fire crews. Slowly efforts are building to incentivize private landowners to become ‘fire-safe,’ to initiate hazardous fuels reduction projects and increase landowner’s ability to defend structures and increase firefighter safety.

But the question is not if a fire event will occur, but rather a question of when, where, and to what extent. Forest and fuels management cannot prevent fire, but it can greatly influence its behavior, intensity, and extent.

The effects of two fires on Mountain Sky Guest Ranch are plain to see.

Big Creek Wild Fire, July-August 2006.

 A lightning strike on a power pole within State Section 16 started the fire. On July 29, 2006, it was 97 degrees and 9 percent humidity. The fire was promptly reported and managed by two U.S. Forest Service incident management teams and several local fire teams. Full perimeter control was used on the north, south and east sides where homes and private land are present.  On the west side, where there were safety concerns and no human values at risk, very limited action was taken. The fire burned a total of 14,000 acres, 6,500 acres of national forest and 7,500 acres of private and state land.  It was declared controlled on October 19, 2006 at a cost of approximately $3 million. On Mountain Sky Guest Ranch, the fire burned some 1,720 acres in the north-central/Dry Creek area.

(photo taken from Leo Drive in South Glastonberry, 7-31-2006).

 “I remember a thunder storm on Wednesday, and high winds. Evidently a lightning strike smoldered till the wind on Saturday ignited it. We sat down for dinner about the same time that the wranglers turned out. Looking up from the picnic tables behind the main lodge, we saw a huge plume of smoke northeast of the upper ranch. The wranglers brought the herd back down and sent them to the lower ranch. The decision was made to evacuate the ranch. And we did.” Randy Venteicher, MSGR Head of Maintenance

Big Creek Prescribed Burn (March 2004, September 2008)

The Big Creek prescribed burns were authorized by the Gallatin National Forest, Paradise Valley Fuels Management and Prescribed Burning Project Decision Memo, on April 7, 2003.   The first prescribed burn, aimed at treating a ≈430-acre area (map), was implemented during the last week of March 2004.  Due to the fact that objectives were not achieved with this burn, the area was burned again in September 2008.  The 310-acre burn required about 130 acres of juniper slashing in 2007.  The burn was accomplished in a prescription burn window on September 14-15, 2008. In 2010, the riparian area between the upper bridge and the Big Creek Ranger Cabin was burned to reduce conifer encroachment and stimulate willow sprouting. Overall project goals were:

1.       Reduce conifer encroachment on grass and sagebrush meadows and aspen stands

2.       Maintain area with their natural fire occurrence and severity

3.       Public and firefighter safety during wildfire events

4.       Allow fire to play its natural role in the HPBH Wilderness Study Areas

5.       Provide and/or maintain existing defensible spaces within the drainage to facilitate fire suppression tactics and staging areas during wildfire events

Resources

Geoffrey Donovan and Thomas Brown. 2007. Be careful what you wish you: the legacy of Smokey Bear. Front Ecol Environ 2007; 5(2): 73–79. www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2007_donovan_j001.pdf

Susan Stein et al. 2013. Wildfire, wildlands, and people: understanding and preparing for wildfire in the wildland-urban interface—a Forests on the Edge report. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-299. Fort Collins, CO. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 36 p. https://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/fote/reports/GTR-299.pdf

Ashley Sites, Zone Fire Management Officer, CGNF, Livingston, MT. Source for information on 2006 and 2008 Big Creek fires.

Stephen Pyne. 1997. Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire. Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books. 680 pages. https://www.amazon.com/Fire-America-Cultural-Weyerhaeuser-Environmental/dp/029597592X

Custer Gallatin National Forest Fire History, 1980-2015 (>100 acres)