Pests pick up assault on Pinellas pets

Ick! A tick! For whatever reason, exterminators, groomers and vets say they've witnessed a tick infestation the past few years.

[Times photo: Fred Victorin] Peggy Van Gorder, owner of Dog Busters Grooming, blows dries and looks for ticks on Picalina, a cocker spaniel, after a bath.

By ANDREW MEACHAM

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 26, 2000

Earlier this summer, someone brought a large mixed-breed dog to Central Animal Hospital in St. Petersburg. When veterinarian Mark Brown laid eyes on his canine patient, "this place shut down," he said. "It was like a three-alarm fire."

Two assistants hustled the dog to a tub and began pulling off more than 400 ticks the owner had never noticed.

This was not a case of neglect, said Brown of the hospital at 4801 Fourth St. N. "Just city folks who had never seen the woods a day in their lives."

There are no hard numbers to prove what many pet owners, veterinarians, dog groomers and exterminators say they are seeing lately in Pinellas: a marked increase in tick infestation in the last two years. But their stories are almost all the same. So is the verdict among experts, who say a rising tick population presents health risks for animals and humans.

"No doubt about it," said veterinarian Harvey Partridge of VCA Riviera Animal Hospital, 6920 Fourth St. N. "I've been living in St. Petersburg for 30 years. The first 20, we didn't have any ticks. For the last two years, we've had a lot of them." He attributes the rise to more effective flea killers for animals, which means fewer people are spraying their yards.

Five years ago, the Pinellas Cooperative Extension Service rarely fielded a call on ticks. Now, according to Andy Wilson, "I take two to three calls (about ticks) a week. And I'm only one of seven horticulturists here."

The cooperative extension office in Pasco County has not received the same volume of tick calls. And a representative of the Hillsborough office said it had received more calls this year and last, but not a very high number.

Still, University of Florida entomologist Philip Koehler said pet owners and pest control companies in higher numbers have been calling him this year from around the state. They are reporting more ticks on their dogs, in their houses and sometimes on their children.

"There are a lot of factors in what's going on," Koehler said. "We have much more of what I call urban wildlife." Possums, raccoons, birds, mice, and rats -- all of which can carry ticks and other parasites -- are adapting to urban environments.

"A lot of people like to feed possums and raccoons," Koehler said. Chemicals are also to blame, he said. Yesterday's products killed fleas and ticks, but now some popular brands such as Advantage kill only fleas. Some pesticides that used to kill ticks have since been deemed environmentally unsafe and taken off the shelves.

While theories vary on the causes, experts agree on a few fundamentals. Most of the ticks in Pinellas are likely to be rhipicephalus sanguineus, the brown dog tick.

Ticks tend to cluster in groups and crawl upward, whether the surface is foliage or the wall of a house. They are attracted to and fall onto warm bodies.

"We've seen a steady increase over the last three to four years," said Peggy Van Gorder, who owns Dog Busters Grooming on 6427 54th Ave. N. She points to a plastic cup containing a half-inch of bleach and the bodies of nearly two dozen ticks.

"That's from Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," she said.

"They are harder to get rid of than fleas," said Glenn Smith, a veterinarian at Sunshine Animal Hospital, 2807 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. in Clearwater. Like two pest control companies interviewed for this story, Smith contends that people tend to underestimate the importance of exterminating their house.

"If one tick has laid eggs, then your house is infested," Smith said.

Ticks carry diseases that can transfer to humans, Smith said. Babesiosis destroys red blood cells. Erlichia, which is more common, causes problems ranging from anemia to kidney functioning and joint inflammation. Some good news is that brown dog ticks are not thought to carry Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Still, there is reason for caution.

"If I had kids and a tick problem in my house, I wouldn't take the theory that you can't (contract those diseases)," said Brown of Central Animal Hospital. Thursday he sent three ticks to the state laboratory in Kissimmee. They looked to him like the Texas Cattle tick -- a cause of rabies, tetanus and Texas cattle fever.

Brown has his own theory about what may be causing a rise in the tick population: mulch from shredded cypress trees. "They climb up vertical surfaces. They lay eggs. And what do we do? We take these cypress out of the swamp. We de-bark them, shred them, and sell them to people as mulch."

However observers may differ on the causes, expert advice runs the same: Take ticks seriously before they take your house. Use preventive treatments on your animal. Finally, get a professional to attack the ticks that may already be in your house.

"A lot of people want to knock them out themselves," Brown said, "and it is just not a go."

Controlling ticks

Ticks can lodge anywhere on an animal, but check for them on the ears, toes or tail.

Pull them out. (Don't worry about getting the whole tick.)

Use tick treatments such as Frontline, Revolution, or Preventic collar for pets.

Stores sell chemicals to treat your house and yard, but veterinarians and other experts often recommend professional exterminators.

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