CLB and Walking Buffalo make some good points.
The species of tick that transmits Lyme Disease is likely a recent arrival to Alberta (likely carried here by migrating birds) and its distribution is spotty. But it is likely well established so Alberta will likely see more human cases of Lyme Disease in the future. And this disease can be serious.
Here, some information that I have lifted from a book I wrote about winter ticks on moose.
"Ticks are common parasites of mammals, including humans. Some species are also found on birds and reptiles. There are over 800 species of ticks worldwide, but only about 35 species occur on hosts in Canada. Of that number only 10 or so occur in Alberta and of those few, only two [now three counting the tick that spreads Lyme Disease]get much attention.
"The Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni, occurs on large mammals such as deer, elk, cattle and humans from south central British Columbia, southern and western Alberta, and east to southwestern Saskatchewan. This tick deserves the attention it gets because hikers and dogs, walking game trails, commonly become infested in spring and early summer and disease can result.
"Wood ticks ascend grasses and shrubs along game trails and ambush large mammals including man. They occur in Alberta’s foothills and mountains from Jasper to the Montana border. Basically, where elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep are found, so too are wood ticks. Moving east, wood ticks occur south of a west-east line running through Lake Louise and Hanna.
"Wood ticks vector the human disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which, in spite of its name, is not very common in Alberta, but rather reaches near epidemic proportions in dogs of the southeastern Atlantic states. The disease, which first produces a mild-to-nasty skin rash often accompanied by headache, fever, general soreness, then more severe signs later such as agitation and insomnia, is readily treated with antibiotics.
A second ailment is tick paralysis, which occurs rarely in humans or other animals in Alberta, but is more common in cattle of British Columbia. Ticks produce a neurological toxin that is passed to hosts, such as cattle and man, during tick bite. Infection results in a gradually spreading loss of feeling from the extremities to the body core.
"In summary, getting ambushed by wood ticks is part of hiking in southern and western Alberta in spring, but infection with Spotted Fever or Tick Paralysis is rare. Nonetheless, these diseases can be serious, which merits taking precautions to reduce chances of tick attack:
▪ avoid resting (that is, sitting or lying down) along game trails or mountain meadows obviously frequented by deer, elk or bighorn sheep;
▪ use repellents containing DEET on clothing below the waist; that is, those areas that might come into contact with low-lying tick-infested vegetation;
▪ tuck pants into the socks, and
▪ do a body search for ticks of everyone in the hiking party during and at the end of the day. Search everyone for ticks, especially young children. It takes several to many hours for disease transmission to occur, so these searches are worthwhile. Wood ticks tend to attach around the ears and back of the neck, often just under the hairline. Check the dog.
If an attached tick is found, use tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and gently pull so as to remove both tick and its mouthparts. By the way, those home-spun remedies such as using nail polish, end of lit cigarette or hot match, petroleum jelly, lighter fluid, do not work when trying to remove a tick embedded in skin. Treat the site with antiseptic. See a physician if you are not certain that the mouthparts have been removed (and one sign that they have not been removed is inflammation at the site of the attached tick), or if you do not feel well following the hike.
"The second attention-getting species of tick in Alberta is called the moose-, elk- or winter tick, Dermacentor albipictus. The common names refer to the hosts on which the tick is noticed most often and the season in which these ticks are observed most often. Humans are seldom, if ever, infested with winter ticks; this tick is not considered a pest of man.
That's my tictoc.
ticdoc
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