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Ticks close Brewster camp sites
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Nickerson State Park in Brewster has shut down 200 campsites because of a deer tick infestation.Cape Cod Times/Christine Hochkeppel
BREWSTER — State officials have closed 200
campsites at Nickerson State Park due to what they are calling a deer
tick infestation.
The three camping sites —
areas 6, 7 and 6A — won't reopen until spring, when the state plans to
spray the affected areas with a nontoxic pesticide that will kill the
ticks, S.J. Port, spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation
and Recreation, said.
Port said this is the first time that she knows of that the state has shuttered campsites because of a large number of ticks.
"We want our visitors to be safe and enjoy (the park) and not come away with a life-altering illness," Port said.
People
have been complaining since mid-summer about seeing or getting bitten
by the deer ticks that cause Lyme and other diseases, she said.
"It's
a very big concern," said Barry Viprino, 31, who has been living at
Nickerson this summer with his wife and three children. "Someone next to
us got bit and had to be taken to the hospital."
It
is tradition to close one camping area after Labor Day when the number
of visitors falls off, Port said. She said state officials decided to
close two other sections — there are seven total — to reduce camper
proximity to the most tick-laden areas.
In August, staffers began to alert campers about the high incidence of ticks this year, Port said.
Park workers handed out fliers saying people with immune problems might want to consider canceling their reservations, she said.
"Ticks are becoming an increasingly difficult problem for us," she said.
Campers
Kathy and Tom Mai, of Vermont, were not aware the areas of the camp
were closed because of ticks, but they said the arachnids wouldn't
affect their enjoyment of the park or cause them to leave.
"It's not enough to keep us away," Kathy Mai said.
Campers
who had reservations for the now-shuttered campsites will be relocated
to other areas of the park or receive a full refund on their deposits,
she said.
Port said her department is working
with the state Department of Public Health and the Cape Cod Cooperative
Extension on solving the tick problem.
Port attributes the large tick presence to the mild winter that didn't kill off as many of the pests as usual.
But
Larry Dapsis, an entomologist with Barnstable County's Cape Cod
Cooperative Extension Service, said high humidity and a dearth of mice
are probably what allowed the ticks to thrive and seek human hosts this
spring and summer.
Ticks love moisture and
they need three blood meals during their lifetime, Dapsis said. A poor
acorn harvest means fewer mice for ticks to feast on, which increases
the odds they will latch onto a human passing by, he said.
Dapsis said he has advised Nickerson officials to kill deer ticks in their tiny, nymphal stage in late May or June of next year.
He
said he will consult with Tom Mather at the University of Rhode Island
on the safest and most effective pesticides to spray at the campground.
Mather has a federal Centers for Disease Control grant to evaluate tick
control strategies, Dapsis said.
He also advised Nickerson officials to stock repellents containing permethrin at the camp store next year.
"I've found it to be incredibly effective in preventing tick bites."
This
spring and summer Dapsis saw an unusually high number of deer ticks in
the Punkhorn Parklands in Brewster and on Martha's Vineyard.
Although
Nickerson State Park isn't one of the 14 sites on the Cape and Islands
where he regularly collects ticks, Dapsis said he found at least 100
ticks in an hour when demonstrating a field technique to a radio
reporter this spring at Nickerson.
In addition to Lyme disease, deer ticks also carry babesiosis and anaplasmosis.
Cases
of the latter two illnesses have doubled in Massachusetts between 2010
and 2011. And as with Lyme disease, the Cape and Islands are hot spots
for the diseases.
Dapsis heard from a staffer
at Nickerson State Park that at least one camper was hospitalized with
babesiosis after visiting the park.
Port said she was not aware of reports of illness.
"There
have been 28 confirmed cases of babesiosis in residents of Barnstable
County so far this year but none of those cases have been specifically
linked to Nickerson at this time," DPH spokeswoman Anne Roach wrote in
an email.
"There is a significant delay
between occurrence of cases and completion of a case investigation," she
said. "Local boards of health are still in the process of investigating
most tick-borne disease cases from this summer."
Last
year, the DPH confirmed 191 babesiosis cases, including 57 in
Barnstable County and 46 cases in Dukes and Nantucket counties.
Caused
by a parasite transmitted by a deer tick bite, babesiosis might seem
like nothing more than a mild flu — or even prove asymptomatic — in the
young and healthy.
But for those with compromised immune systems, including the elderly, it can be serious and — in rare cases — fatal.
Viprino said he was just as afraid of mosquitoes as he was of ticks.
He
and his family — children ages 2, 4, and 6 — had to move from Area 6
and now Viprino said he doesn't allow his kids to explore the woods like
he once would have.
"With mosquitoes, the algae, and ticks it's been a rough summer overall," he said.
