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Published: August 18, 2006 11:03 pm    print this story   email this story   comment on this story  

Lone Star tick could be next local threat

By Patricia Cronin
THE SALEM NEWS (SALEM, Mass.)

SALEM, Mass. — Dr. Robert Kellard has seen ticks before but never one with a large white spot on its back.

When he and his wife noticed the critter in their Danvers flower garden a few weeks ago, Kellard’s mind instantly jumped to a newspaper article about an aggressive tick making its way north on the wings of migrating birds, pursuing the blood of people as it goes.

“I saw him and we brought him in, but we ended up squishing him,” said Kellard, a Board of Health member. “My wife didn’t want to feed him.”

Kellard believes what he saw was a Texas or Lone Star tick, but according to experts, the tiny bloodsuckers have not yet been confirmed on the North Shore. They have been documented on Cape Cod and in Maine and New Hampshire.

“It’s a nasty tick,” said Dr. Stephen Rich, a geneticist and medical entomologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

He said that Kellard most likely saw a deer tick — they also have a white spot on their back and abdomen — but would not rule out that it was a Lone Star tick. It could be only a matter of time before they reach the North Shore, he said.

These foreign ticks search for blood similarly to mosquitoes, he said. They are attracted to carbon dioxide emitted when we breathe and human scents like sweat. What makes this tick unlike others is that it seeks out its prey, rather than waiting for people to brush by.

“They’re coming to find us, and we’re making it easy for them,” Rich said.

While deer ticks are the ones most likely to transmit Lyme disease to people, Lone Star ticks can, too.

Rich recommends sending ticks to the UMass extension school. There, the ticks will be tested and residents will be given a better idea of what is lurking in their lawn. But the service does cost $35 to test up to 10 ticks.

“It’s a way of monitoring where Lyme disease is present and gives people peace of mind about what’s going on in their own backyards,” Rich said.



Patricia Cronin writes for The Salem (Mass.) News.

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