Let’s rewind to the middle of February in Lander. It was an unseasonably warm 53 degree day. I was recording a story about Wyoming’s coal industry, when I spotted a little tick inching its way toward my microphone.
I let out a dramatic squeal of disgust. Not just because I find them to be creepy – ticks can also carry diseases. It’s likely the blood-sucking parasite hitched a ride inside from my dogs or from the horses onto me.
Normally, I expect ticks in April or May. Not February.
But this winter has been one of the warmest in Wyoming history. Instead of harsh snow storms, many areas have had rain or sunny days in the 50s and 60s. Warmer winters mean fair-weather critters, like ticks, are out and ready to bite earlier and earlier.
So I called up the tick expert in Wyoming: Mikenna Smith.
“I was just gonna say I haven't seen any yet. But that's not true, someone put some ticks in the mail and sent them to me,” said Smith, an entomologist for Teton County Weed and Pest District.
That’s right. People collect ticks around the state and mail them to Smith, dead or alive.
“I love it. It makes me super happy to get ticks in the mail. It's like opening Christmas presents,” she said.
Smith has 3,000 ticks in her freezer. They’re little specimens for Wyoming’s first tick database.
“Unfortunately, we in Wyoming don't have a long-term data set that's long enough to say some years are more tickier than others,” she said.
On the East Coast, ticks are well studied, especially because of Lyme disease. Lyme isn’t here, yet, but if we keep seeing mild winters, that could change.
Other tickborne diseases, like tularemia and Colorado tick fever, are here. Both can have intermittent flu-like symptoms. Also, a rash and joint aches. There’s also Rocky Mountain spotted tick fever, but the Wyoming Department of Health says those cases are rarer.
Over time, Smith’s tick database will give us more solid answers on Wyoming tick trends, like where they are, what species are here and the risks they carry. For this year, Smith is not at all surprised ticks are out early.
“Ticks don't really keep a calendar like we do, and they only eat once a year,” she said.
Basically, if there’s not much snow and it’s in the 50s, ticks are out, which gives many people the ick, including me. But for Smith, it’s a research opportunity.
“It's not their fault that they're so disgusting,” she chuckled. “They're just trying to survive like everyone else. It's hard being a parasite.”
But even Smith doesn’t want to be bitten. So she developed a protocol.
“This is from someone who, me, literally looks for ticks for a living,” she said. “I've caught thousands of ticks, and I've never once been bitten by a tick.”
Tuck pants into socks. Shirts into pants. Spray DEET on boots. Do a quick tick check before going inside. And if you’re really worried, hop in the shower and zap your clothes in the drier for 10 minutes.
But also, don’t forget your furry friends.
“We have definitely been hearing from clients that they are seeing ticks on their horses, their dogs, even their kitties,” said Emily Zavorca, a veterinarian with The Stock Doc in Riverton.
Ticks can crawl from animals onto people. They can also make pets pretty sick.
“A high fever. We can see stiffness, we can see limb swelling. They're lethargic, they're laying around. Sometimes we can see some lameness, too,” Zavorca said.
There are drops and pills to keep ticks off pets. There’s also an insecticide spray called permethrin. It can be sprayed on horses’ coats, which is exactly what I did on a warm early March day.
To do so, dilute the permethrin concentrate with water. Amounts vary, but typically two ounces of permethrin with a gallon of water. Notably, permethrin is highly toxic for cats and sometimes dangerous for dogs.
To apply to horses, shake the batch up in a spray bottle. Then, focus on spraying body parts that are lower down where they might come in contact with ticks, like legs and groin areas.
They’ll be in the clear for a couple of weeks. No ticks on them, no ticks on you, is the hope.
It’s hard to speculate if ticks being out earlier means a bigger tick year. Smith, the tick expert, said it depends on the spring weather.
“They are really sensitive to moisture loss and drying out,” she said. “So they don't really like the heat. They have to work harder to stay hydrated when it's really, really hot.”
She added that a mild winter this year likely means more ticks survived, so the populations this year could be greater, which may have compounding effects.
“Ticks live two, three years. So if there's a mild year in terms of tick mortality, because they survived the winter, and we have a big tick year this year, that could perpetuate more ticks the following year,” Smith said.
She recommends having your hackles up for ticks, starting now. And if you or your pets have any symptoms, go see a doctor or veterinarian.
