Problem May Flourish

Sun., Sept. 5, 1999

Staff Reports

Lyme disease

A story in the July-August issue of Audubon magazine warns this may be a prime year for exposure to Lyme disease, based upon heavy acorn production in 1997.

Authors Richard S. Ostfeld and Clive G. Jones, ecologists at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., quote scientists who connect acorn production to this debilitating disease because deer and white-footed mice tend to stay close to good food sources, especially acorns.

Tiny deer ticks feed on deer blood, then burrow beneath leaf litter for the winter. By spring they produce a mass of larvae that, in turn, feeds on infected mice that live nearby.

As the ticks continue searching out warm-blooded meals, they transmit the disease to humans who unwittingly collect them on their hair, limbs or clothes while walking through the woods.

Don’t think staying clear this year of forests, particularly in Lymeridden parts of Wisconsin, will be enough to avoid the disease. Ostfeld and Jones note that 1998 also was a fine year for acorn production, meaning Lyme disease will flourish next year, too.

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