Your Family's Safety

Assess Your Risk

Deer ticks...Lyme disease...Assess your risk.

Do you...

If you answered YES to several of the above, you may have deer ticks in your immediate area and be at risk of contracting tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease. Lyme disease was named in 1977 after a number of children in Lyme, Connecticut suffering from similar symptoms came down with an unidentified illness later found to be transmitted by the black legged tick, better known as the deer tick. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported 28,921 confirmed and 6.277 probable cases of Lyme nationwide, with the majority of infections occurring in the northeast and mid Atlantic regions of the United States. In Maine, the CDC statistics showed 2,507 reported cases from 1996 through 2008. Officials concede, however, that actual totals may be much higher. According to the CDC, "studies from the early 1990's suggest that Lyme disease cases were underreported by 6 to 12 fold in some areas where Lyme disease is endemic." You could have Lyme disease and not even know it.

Who's at risk? Anyone who spends time outdoors in proximity to deer tick habitat.

It's estimated that 75% of Lyme disease cases are contracted within 100 feet of the home.

Even though humans aren't the tick's first choice of hosts, suburban sprawl into wooded habitat has placed people in closer proximity to white-tailed deer -the adult ticks' natural host and chief source of transportation. If deer are feeding on vegetation around your property, that is where a female tick may lay her eggs. Each adult female lays as many as 3,000 eggs per year. And contrary to popular belief, small rodents, not deer, are responsible for transmitting the Lyme disease bacteria to ticks. A typical mouse can carry dozens of ticks during peak tick activity periods and all have the potential to transmit Lyme disease.