Going buggy over ticks

I was so smug when I arrived in Minnesota a few weeks ago and discovered I'd arrived before mosquito season, at least for the most part.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes (and probably just as many sloughs) is well-known for its population of the blood-sucking insects. Where else would the local daily paper publish a "Skeeter Meter" that tells readers how bad the mosquitoes will be on any given day?

So it was sheer joy to be able to walk about in the evenings without being slathered in Deep Woods Off. My daughter and I took off on a nature trail one evening near my mother's apartment, and I again remarked how lucky we were to have beat the skeeters.

What I failed to realize was that it was tick season - big time. As we strolled through the trees and thigh-high prairie grass, I took note that we were the only people on the trail that nice evening. Now I know why.

When we got back to my mom's place it wasn't long before we realized we were covered with wood ticks.

We initially discovered at least a dozen ticks between the two of us, and kept finding more ticks.

My daughter, having no prior experience with the parasites that also love to suck your blood, was completely horrified. I'd grown up with a healthy tick population in the woods on the farm, but they still give me that creepy-crawly sensation.

Dad used to pick ticks off the family dog all the time during the summer months; it's just the way it was. We were glad he didn't mind doing it.

I'm sure there are plenty of ticks in these parts, too, but I've never found them on me in Montana.

A fellow Montanan I spoke with recently said he'd had the same experience with ticks visiting Northern Minnesota recently. He'd never seen so many, either.

Then I came across an Associated Press article declaring that disease-carrying ticks appear to be on the rise in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Health Department said that the state has an average of about 1,000 reported cases of Lyme disease each year, double what it was in the late 1990s. And that's not the only diseases these little buggers are harboring.

The number of cases of Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis also is on the rise.

Oh, my God! Could I have Anaplasmosis or Babesiosis? I scurried to the dictionary to find out what those maladies are. Since I haven't been stricken with any malaria-like or flu-like symptoms, and don't have the expanding rash associated with Lyme disease, I'm guessing I made it out of Minnesota unscathed - this time!

Lynnette Hintze is the features editor for the Hagadone News Network's Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell.