Warmer weather brings early tick bites

With spring already here and summer just around the corner, more people are getting outside to enjoy what Central Oregon has to offer. But there’s something small to keep an eye out for: ticks.

But in a place like Central Oregon, that’s not always so easy.

Shelise Murray and her family recently moved to southeast Bend. On Sunday, her 2-year-old son, Jack, was playing outside. Come Monday morning, Murray’s husband noticed something strange about Jack.

“He thought that he had a scab on his head, and he was like, ‘Oh, what happened? Do you have an owie?’ And he was kind of parting his hair looking for it. And then he saw the legs moving, and he was like, ‘Honey, come here, there’s a tick in his head!'” Murray recalled Wednesday.

“So as soon as I came over, I totally freaked out, I was like, ‘It’s moving, it’s alive! Is it embedded? When did he get this?'”

Fortunately, Murray and her husband were able to get the tick out with tweezers, which expert Theresa Denham of Bend, president of the Oregon Lyme Disease Network, said is the right way to do it.

“The way to take the ticks out is using a tweezer at the head of the tick and pulling straight upwards — do not twist,” Denham said.

Denham said the number of tick bites in Oregon is growing.

“We have seen a significant increase over the last three years, and if we normalize our veterinary data across the country to the human incidents, we can assume there will be about 850 new infections in the state of Oregon next year,” Denham said.

Just last week alone, 32 tick bites were reported in Oregon. Among those were five bites in the Sisters area, two bites in Bend, one bite in Redmond and one bite in Prineville.

Warm winter and spring weather is largely to blame for the uptick in bites.

“We’re seeming ticks more active earlier, which means we’re going to have a longer tick season and with a longer tick season, we’re going to see more exposure, more people are outside,” Denham said.

And that’s concerning, because of the number of diseases attributed to ticks, including Lyme disease.

Ticks can be found almost anywhere from trees to sagebrush, but they especially like the long grass in Central Oregon

Ticks are usually born clean, but often bite already-infected mice.

“Then their second meal is going to be on something a little bit bigger — could be a cat, dog, deer, could be us,” Denham said. “And when it comes to suck on us, it’s going to first get rid of whatever is in its gut. So if there were diseases in that mouse, they’re going to trade us — they’re going to give us the disease and take our blood.”

While the fear of ticks shouldn’t stop you from getting outside, it should prompt you to wear proper clothing and do a body check when you’re done.

“I love the fact that we we are surrounded by a little bit more of the natural plants and everything that grows natively here,” Murray said. “But I guess that’s what goes along with that — there are some critters.”

Experts ask that if you’re bitten by a tick, you send it in it to be tested.

Oregon Lyme Disease Network: http://www.oregonlyme.com/

Information on tick bite therapy courses: https://www.lymecme.info/

How to remove a tick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wotB38WrRY