“Lions and Tiger and Bears, Oh My!”

One of the review quiz questions for my ski patrol mountain travel/rescue course is:

“Lions and Tiger and Bears, Oh My!” -- or, when animals attack, Part III: type of Northeastern U.S. animal attack with the most incidents of potentially highly adverse health effects = 

Only about half the students get it right.  So courtesy of a regional newspaper article, here's a heads-up for the coming season.  A few especially scary excerpts:

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there were 4,019 cases of Lyme disease confirmed in Massachusetts in 2009, the most cases for any state in New England and more than double the number of cases in the state in 2004.

"The ticks that are active right now are adults, and about 50 percent are infected with Borrelia. That rate is pretty constant wherever you find adult deer ticks," he said.

It is the nymph and adult ticks that can infect a human. And because the nymph tick is so small - about the size of a fleck of black pepper - it is the most dangerous, as it may not be seen as readily by someone checking for ticks.