Beware Ticks! CDC Warns of Early and Aggressive Tick Season

ATLANTA – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued a warning for all people working and recreating in the outdoors that tick season will be starting much earlier and could be much worse than in previous years.

… the sustained high temperatures in March will be bringing the ticks out sooner and they will be found in great numbers in search of food

The problem stems from a very mild winter and a warm spring, causing the eggs to hatch sooner. The typical tick season is May through August, but the sustained high temperatures in March will be bringing the ticks out sooner and they will be found in great numbers in search of food.

The CDC is warning people who engage in sustained outdoor activity to continually check for ticks and quickly remove any that you find on your body. They recommend wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts when working or hiking in areas that are overgrown or thickly planted. It is recommended that for businesses that are predominately outdoors to have protocol in place for your employees and post educational materials on ticks and tick borne illnesses in plain view at all times.

These precautions can help protect your and your employees from a variety of tick borne illnesses such as Lyme disease, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosisis, and recently discovered in the US in Lackawanna County, PA, the powassan virus. Many of these diseases are hard to diagnose and can have life long negative health effects.

For more information on ticks and how to prevent being bitten, check out http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/ and http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/index.html or call Green Pest Solutions for all you professional pest and termite control solutions in the Philadelphia metro and surrounding areas.