By Rhea Karty
(Editor’s note: Karty, a Lincoln resident, is a senior at Lincoln-Sudbury who has always been interested in biology, particularly diseases and ecology. “After taking biology and AP biology, I wanted to continue to broaden my understanding and look into some practical applications,” she said. “Lyme disease was really meaningful to me because many of my friends and coaches from cross-country and school have had scary experiences with it. So I worked with my former biology teacher (Ms. Shopiro) to develop an independent study curriculum where I studied the ecology, immune response, treatments, and microbiology of Lyme, and I interviewed some doctors and community members. Now I’m doing some projects to spread awareness.”
Acorns and mice and ticks — oh my!
With the onset of spring comes the bane of New England: Lyme disease. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, other diseases may have slipped off our radar, but Mother Nature is not so quick to give us a break. In fact, there may be a significant uptick in Lyme disease cases this year due to a bumper crop of acorns.
Oak trees operate in cycles: they naturally have years where they produce blankets of acorns and others where they have very few. As you may have noticed, 2019 was a particularly plentiful year for acorns in suburban New England, called a mast crop These blankets of acorns are great for wildlife and rodents, but also provide a building block for Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria and is transmitted to humans through the bite of black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), sometimes known as deer ticks. The ticks pick it up from mice and other small rodents that are already infected with the bacteria.
Ticks feed three times in their life. In their larval stage just after they hatch from eggs, they bite and drink the blood of mice and small rodents. This is when they potentially become infected with Lyme disease. (Surprisingly, even though they are called deer ticks, they don’t actually get Lyme disease from deer.) Once a tick picks up Lyme disease, it will carry it for the rest of its life and is able to transmit it to humans.
In the next two years of a tick’s life, it will bite once or twice more. This is when humans can get the disease.
Our ecosystem operates in harmony, where changes in one section cascade to other areas. The plethora of acorns from the mast year provides plenty of food for the rodent population, which will then cause a higher population of infected ticks for the next one to two years, so, the acorn mast year in 2019 will be felt this year with increased ticks.
An illustration of how Lyme disease is transmitted between species (click to enlarge). Image courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
With indoor restrictions on gatherings still in place, we’re all hoping for an active outdoor spring. However, as kids go outside to play and families begin to start biking and walking in the woods, we should be aware that Lyme disease will be particularly bad this year and must keep an eye out for the symptoms. Here are a few things you can do to stay protected:
Dress — wear light-colored clothes, long pants, high socks, and bug spray, especially when venturing off trail.
Environment — Consider spraying for ticks or other remedies like tick tubes, essential oils, chickens, keeping deer out of your yard, maintaining a well-kept yard, and staying away from the edge of the woods.
Awareness — check for ticks after going outside. If a tick is pulled out within a short period of time, Lyme disease may be avoided. Make sure you have all the parts of the tick, including the eight legs and head.
If Lyme disease is caught and treated early, the worst effects can be prevented with antibiotics, so keep an eye out and be prepared. For more information about Lyme disease and symptoms, visit www.cdc.gov/lyme or www.mass.gov/service-details/lyme-disease.
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