CLEVELAND — Ticks and mosquitos and mayflies, Oh My!
It is summer bug season, and the best way to avoid getting a mosquito or tick-born illness is prevention, such as bug spray or wearing long pants when going through high grass.
"That's primarily what we encourage is some kind of mosquito repellent," University Hospitals physician Dr. Amy Edwards says, "and for ticks, our ticks — most of our ticks — don't carry anything, much like our mosquitos, but our deer tick here does now carry Lyme disease."
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According to Edwards, there is treatment for Lyme disease, and the first symptom could not be more clear.
"The very first sign of Lyme disease is a bullseye rash right where the tick bit you," she explained. "So, if you know you had a tick on your shoulder, keep an eye on it for the next week. It takes about three to seven days.
While rare, Edwards says there is no treatment but only management of symptoms for mosquito-borne illnesses, most of which impact the brain. That's why places like the Lake County General Health District are taking it one step further than just warning people to wear EPA-approved repellent and avoiding the creation of any stagnant pools of water.
"We have to have drivers trained on proper use of the trucks and pesticides, so we are going to start training them tonight," Bert Mechenbier with Lake County General Health District said. "Our trap numbers haven't shown a need to start spraying, but with the wet weather we've had and the higher temperatures coming, it's just a matter of time."
There are even concerns for safety when it comes to mayflies: At night, their attraction to streetlights has caught the attention of FirstEnergy.
The company has started a program where they keep those lights off in cities like Port Clinton to prevent swarms, because when they are killed in large numbers, they make surfaces very slippery and a danger for motorists, especially when it rains.
