Milo Garden Club talks ticks

By Victoria Eastman

The topic was ticks at the latest meeting of Milo Garden Club, held on Tuesday, March 11. Guest speaker Griffin Dill, Extension professional and tick lab coordinator from the Cooperative Extension in Orono, presented a very informative program about ticks specifically found in Maine. Members and guests learned about tick behaviors, life cycles, tick born diseases and preventative measures, as well as some surprising facts.

Of the 15 species of ticks in Maine, Dill focused on five. They are brown dog ticks, American dog tick, woodchuck tick, deer tick and a recent arrival to Maine, the lone star tick. 

Not all ticks carry disease. They acquire disease by feasting on an infected host. If a tick’s head was magnified considerably, the viewer would see something almost unworldly. Their mouth has three parts, the center of which is most disturbing. It is like a multi-barbed needle, and works like a fish hook. When the tick bites, it secretes a gluey substance along with its saliva making the tick difficult to remove. Along with that, a mild anesthetic is also emitted. All this may cause some swelling which can look as if the tick is burrowing into the skin. It does not burrow.

Once a tick is removed, recent information suggests that the human body will expel any remaining mouth part.

Ticks do not search for hosts. Hosts unwittingly run into them, perhaps in leaves, on brush or in shrubs. Ticks are generally found from the waist down on human hosts. Because ticks breathe through tiny openings in their body, they can survive underwater. So a washing machine will not remove them from clothing. However, ticks are susceptible to drying out so the heat of a dryer will rid clothes of their presence.

Upon completion of his presentation, Dill also provided each member with a tick removal kit created by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. The kit includes, among other things, a tick removal spoon, tweezers and a mini information guide with instructions and photographs. For more information, contact ticks.umaine.edu.

Please join Milo Garden Club for its next monthly meeting on April 8 at 1 p.m. at the Kiwanis Building located on outer Park Street, behind NAPA, in Milo when the owners of Country Junction Greenhouse will talk about spring planting.

For more information, please call 207-943-2400.