Biff: Why? Because it sounds like TikTok?

That’s ridiculous!

I’m writing about ticks because the subject is so relevant. We’re all worried about ticks and the diseases they carry.

My main problem with writing a humor column about ticks is that ticks are not funny. Another problem is that just thinking about ticks makes me itchy.

Back when Shir Filler was editor at the Lake Placid News — or was Andy Flynn editor then? — anyway, more than 20 years ago — there was considerable controversy over the possible presence of ticks in Essex County. Someone was mentioned in an LPN article as having identified deer ticks near the Keene Central School pond (formally titled Lake Winifred). Many residents just couldn’t accept this.

“We don’t have ticks here,” they insisted.

When I first arrived in Keene Valley 34 years ago, the United States Department of Agriculture designated the town of Keene as hardiness zone 3, having winters with average minimum temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees F to minus 30 degrees F. Since then Keene has warmed to USDA zones 4a and 5a. Better and better, say the ticks, who are moving on up from downstate.

And it isn’t just that the thought of finding an arachnid with its head buried in your flesh, bloating up like a little balloon on your blood, is so disgusting, although that certainly is bad enough.

Even worse is the possibility of contracting Lyme disease or any of the other bacterial or viral infections carried by ticks.

Lyme disease, named for Lyme, Connecticut, has become a problem in the Adirondacks. The three most common ticks in New York state are Ixodes scapularis, the deer (black-legged) tick, Dermacentor variabilis, also known as the American dog tick or wood tick and Amblyomma americanum, also known as the lone star tick, northeastern water tick, turkey tick, and cricker tick.

Only deer ticks can carry the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. They are also a vector for babesiosis and human granulocytic anaplasmosis.

American dog ticks can carry the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and lone star ticks can transmit monocytic ehrlichiosis to humans; they can also induce a red-meat allergy in a human host.

Ticks can sense animals’ breath and body odors, body heat, moisture and vibrations. Some can even recognize a shadow. Ticks can’t fly or jump, but many tick species engage in “questing,” gripping vegetation or rocks with their third and fourth pair of legs while reaching out with their first pair of legs, waiting to climb on to a potential host as it brushes past.

Burma, a little black and white cat who turned up at my friend Clementine’s house a couple of years ago, became an indoor pet. The other day Clementine noticed that the screen had fallen out of a downstairs window and Burma was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until the following afternoon she was able to coax him out from under the porch, where, as Clementine said, “He was hiding with the chipmunks.” His eyes were ringed with tiny tick nymphs, and ticks had also attached to his nose, lips and throat.

Clementine was no doubt right about the chipmunks. According to the Pennsylvania Tick Research Lab, “The top carriers of deer ticks are bovines, moose, deer, dogs, chipmunks, shrews, mice, reptiles, and birds… mice, shrews, chipmunks, and birds may be infected with Lyme disease and will transmit it to a biting tick.”

Lyme disease is probably not a concern for cat owners, according to the Cornell Feline Health Center, although Lyme is common among humans and dogs.

Burma is fine now, after a visit to his veterinarian.

The lifecycle of the deer tick generally lasts two years and includes four life stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. After hatching, the ticks must have a blood meal at every stage to survive. They can feed from mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Most ticks prefer to have a different host animal at each stage, although Some tick species, like the brown dog tick, prefer to keep feeding on the same host.

Biff (passing through with a sandwich): But only on brown dogs?

What?

Biff: Does it matter if the dog is only part brown? Because Bosco has a lot of white on him.

For accurate and useful information about tick bite prevention, as well as what to do if you are bitten, go to cdc.gov.

Have a good week.

——

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)