Ticks in area woods already

Photo: Facebook - Randi Berklande

Randi Berklande picked up an unwanted guest while going for a hike over the weekend.

Berklande posted a picture of a woodtick she found after hiking on Carrot Mountain near Kelowna. A few hours later, she posted she had found another tick in her backpack.

While it is still winter, the Vernon resident posted the warning to others that ticks seem to be out earlier than usual this year.

Wendy Hayward replied, “certain ticks should be sent to CanLyme so they can be tested for Lyme disease. If we can show that we have ticks with Lyme here maybe it will finally be recognized.”

CanLyme is the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation and according to its website, it was formed to provide the public, including medical professionals, with balanced and validated information on Lyme disease and related co-infections.

According to CanLyme, Lyme disease is an inflammatory infection that spreads to humans through tick bites.

Lyme is a borreliosis caused by borrelia bacteria, which commonly infects woodland animals like mice or deer. Ticks pick up the bacteria by biting infected animals, and then pass it on to their human hosts. The are many strains or genospecies of borrelia that cause Lyme disease (borreliosis) in humans just as there are many strains of the flu virus that cause flu symptoms in humans, with some strains more virulent than others.

Canada is home to many species of ticks, but the Ixodes Tick – more often known as the “black-legged” or “deer” tick – is the most common Lyme-carrier.

CanLyme and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control suggest people who suspect they have Lyme disease be tested.