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The different kinds of ticks that can be found on the East End. KERRI CUNNINGHAM
Tick season is in full swing on the East End, as more people spend time outside in warm weather, creating more opportunities for tick bites and infections.
Lyme disease is typically the main ailment people think of when it comes to tick-borne illnesses, but experts say there are other ones to keep in mind.
Dr. Andrew Handel, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and physician at the Stony Brook Regional Tick-Borne Disease Center in Hampton Bays, said that while it’s difficult to predict how severe tick season will be, it’s “reasonable to think that we’ll have more activity” this season.
He noted that “it does look like we’re having a few more tick bites earlier in the season than we have in past years,” though not at a significantly higher level.
In terms of bites, there are typically two main peaks: One in late May and early June, followed by a second one in August and September. Determining a peak for infections is less concrete, as, depending on the infection, it can take two to three weeks to become symptomatic.
There are three main types of ticks found on the East End: deer ticks, dog ticks and lone star ticks.
Though deer ticks are known for carrying Lyme disease, they also carry babesiosis, the second-most-common tick-borne illness. Handel said babesiosis is sometimes called “the malaria of the Northeast,” since, like malaria, it infects red blood cells and causes people to become anemic. The disease poses the biggest threat to older adults, those with compromised immune systems and people without spleens.
Another type of tick that can be found on Long Island is the Asian longhorn tick, which first came to the United States from Asia eight years ago. Though they are not a threat at the moment, Handel said, he and other experts are monitoring the species to see if becomes a threat to human health as its population increases.
Another prevalent tick-borne illness is alpha-gal syndrome, which causes a red meat allergy and is transmitted by lone star ticks. Alpha-gal has become increasingly prevalent over the last few years as the lone star tick population increases.
Dr. Erin McGintee, an allergist and immunologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Southampton, has diagnosed nearly 1,100 cases of apha-gal over the past four years. However, she has seen many instances of false positive Alpha-gal antibody tests.
“It’s possible to have a positive blood test for Alpha-gal and not necessarily have Alpha-gal Syndrome when you’re reacting to meat,” she said. “Over the past three to four years, I’ve seen way more people coming in to be evaluated for Alpha-gal syndrome, whether or not I’m seeing people who are actually having allergic reactions to meat.”
McGintee explained that she typically sees two or three patients a day during the summer who “are concerned that they have it, if not definitely have [alpha-gal].” One of the challenges of this is trying to determine whether someone has alpha-gal syndrome or the test is a false positive, so she makes sure to thoroughly check her patients’ medical history before making a diagnosis.
Many tick bites come as a result of walking through tall grasses or brush in forested areas, but McGintee also warned about stepping in lone star lick larvae nests. These baby ticks can’t transmit tick-borne diseases but can cause alpha-gal, and are a particular threat toward the end of the summer. Stepping in these nests can result in multiple bites, and thus more opportunity for infection.
Some other prominent tick-borne illnesses include Rocky Mountain spotted fever and anaplasma, though these aren’t as common as Lyme disease or babesiosis on Long Island. Handel also noted that rarer diseases like Powassan virus, which causes inflammation of the brain, have been found recently on Long Island.
Handel and McGintee offered similar recommendations for East End residents to protect themselves from tick bites. This includes avoiding walking through grasses, wearing long sleeves and long pants, tucking pants into socks and using insect repellents like DEET. Handel also discussed the importance of treating clothes after spending time outside.
“It’s a great idea to treat your clothes with permethrin solution, which kills ticks on contact,” he explained. “You’re also going to want to take your clothes and shoes and put them in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes, which will kill any ticks.”
For parents, Handel recommended doing tick checks on children after being outside, as well as the previous precautions. He also recommended that “If you find a tick on them, you’re going to want to remove the tick with tweezers, put it inside a sealed bag and bring it to your medical provider so they can figure out what type of tick it is and if there’s anything else to do about it.”
Handel said that though there’s typically a lot of anxiety when regarding tick bites and tick-borne illnesses in children, “the vast majority of children respond very well to antibiotics and get better pretty quickly.”
