Outdoors columnist shares Dill’s tick advice

Outdoors columnist V. Paul Reynolds recently shared information about ticks provided by Jim Dill, a pest management specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, who appeared as a guest on his call-in radio program, “Maine Outdoors.” Along with Lyme disease, deer ticks carry other bacteria and viruses, including babesiosis and anaplasmosis, the article states. According to Dill, the Tick Lab at the Cooperative Extension Diagnostic and Research Laboratory has tested 1,800 ticks that have been submitted to the facility since April. Of those ticks tested, Dill said that about 40 percent of the ticks carried at least one prevalent infection. Dill recommends always checking for ticks after spending time in the woods and using a spray for clothes that contains Permethrin. The Piscataquis Observer, Sun Journal and Machias Valley News Observer carried the column.