Community Corner

Don't Get Ticked This Season, Says Tick Expert

Tick guru Tom Mather offers five actions you can take to cut down your chances of contracting a tick-borne disease.


Here's a startling fact: in 2012, the tick population in areas like Rhode Island were 116 percent higher than the previous five-year average.

"In some settings, we saw increases as much as 1,800 percent over the previous year, which is a little bit scary actually," said Tom Mather last week at a press conference at Goddard Park. Mather would know. He's the director of URI’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease and the Tick Encounter Resource Center.

He's one of the people behind the state's new Get TickSmart/RI campaign, an effort backed by Sen. Jack Reed, who was at Goddard Park with Mather. Over the years, Reed has been able to get more than $1 million in federal funds to help URI researchers like Mather develop and implement tick-bite provention and education programs.

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"One reason we're here today is to sound the warning in a pro-active way," Reed said. 

Mather outlined five actions people can take to stay "tick safe":

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1. KNOW the kinds of ticks active throughout the year where you live.

2. PERFORM daily tick checks, especially below the waist. 

3. TURN play clothes and other outdoor clothing into tick-repellent clothes.

4. TREAT your yard with tick-killing insecticides.

5. PROTECT your pets using products with rapid kill or knockdown capability.

According to Mather, a tick can be as small as a poppy seed. People often don't believe that, so he brought along a poppy seed bagel with a few ticks on it for reporters to look at (see video attached here, or click here). Looking closely, with the aid of a microscope, you could see – sure enough, there was a poppy seed with legs, i.e. a tick. 

That's why, he said, it's important to check yourself and your children carefully. And he had a suggestion: check yourself any time you are sitting on the toilet. Most ticks will be found from the waist down, so that's a good time to get a good look.

As far as wearing tick-repellent clothing, that can get expensive. Mather said there is a cheaper alternative – sending your clothes to Insect Shield, the company that produces store-bought insect-repellent clothing, and it will use the same repellent on your existing clothing. According to Insect Shield, the repellent will last through 70 washings. The cost isn't huge: around $10 a piece, but cheaper the more items you send. Click here for an order form.

Protecting pets has gotten easier, if not cheaper. In addition to the monthly applications, there are now effective tick collars on the market, Mather said. Certifect, a new product from Frontline, is considered better because it starts working within six hours of application. 

Protecting your yard is a little more complicated because there are a lot of people out there promising to do the job. Mather said it's easy to get duped, so be sure to ask questions. 

There were other suggestions, like if you think you've been in a tick-infested area, throw your clothes in the dryer first. Ticks do not respond well to high heat. 

For more information – lots more – check out Mather's TickEncounter website here. The tick research taking place at URI is cutting edge, and it's right here in our own backyard.


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