Griffin Dill speaks with Camden Herald about abundance of acorns, mice, ticks
The Camden Herald interviewed Griffin Dill, a pest management specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, for the article, “Abundance of acorns: mice and ticks to follow.” This year, acorns are particularly prevalent as a result of an agricultural mast year, and the tree fruit is a harbinger of increased rodent and insect populations, according to the article. “The large quantities of acorns allow mice and other small mammals to be better fed, breed and have more offspring,” Dill said. Mice serve as ideal hosts for larval ticks because they reproduce at a high rate and can live in much smaller spaces than larger mammals such as deer, the article states. Mice also carry the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which becomes Lyme when transferred to ticks. Dill said a “vector bridge” is necessary for the bacteria to become Lyme in a human who is bitten by an infected tick.