TICK ALERT

Spring has sprung and once again we expect the tick population to be abundant due to the deer and other wildlife on Center. We want to remind employees of some basic safety precautions when working or walking outdoors.

Ticks are present in yards, parks, tall grass, and wooded areas on and off Center. There are several types of ticks, which have been found on both the East and West campuses; deer ticks, lone star ticks, black-legged ticks, dog ticks. Ticks can carry various diseases including ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Lyme disease has been the most prevalent in recent years and is serious because the deer tick that carries the disease is so small that it can go unnoticed in most individuals.

If your job does not require you to be outdoors, you should have less exposure to ticks or other insects and the likelihood of a tick bite is more remote. Do not walk off paved paths or sidewalks on the way to the parking lots. Do not walk near the woods or around the ponds unless you have applied insect repellants.

The Center is taking precautions for your safety by mowing the grass close to the buildings and we will prudently apply pesticides in the vicinity of buildings, as necessary. It is not necessary to spray wooded areas or ponds because there should be very limited employee activity in these areas and area-wide chemical spraying presents a problem due to the toxins it releases into the environment. There are known health hazards to humans and to fish and wildlife with run off of the chemicals into our waterways.

Since 1995, the Center has been supported on the West campus by the USDA in doing research on tick reduction with treatment stations set out to treat deer topically with an insecticide applied to their pelt. The data from this research has been a great benefit to Goddard in reducing the tick population. Since this research was successful, the Center and USDA have cooperatively kept the program operational and added the East campus in 1999.

The Center for Disease Control maintains a website on Lyme disease at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lymeinfo.htm for your information.