Ticks

Adele and Charles Sands cherish their daily hike in Oregon Ridge Park. But as the vegetation has grown more lush, the Timonium couple has become increasingly apprehensive about the ticks they find clinging to their dog, Samantha. Although the Australian shepherd has had shots to prevent Lyme disease for several years, the Sandses recently joined the first wave of humans to try vaccination as protection from the tick-borne illness.Adele Sands has already had a brush with the infection. About a year ago, she developed a circular rash that looked suspiciously like the classic bull's-eye rash of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that can invade different systems of the body.

With some exceptions, any illness can strike anyone at any time. One of the more dangerous to emerge in recent decades is Lyme disease. Harford County, as many of us know either first-hand or because of someone we know, is not immune from the tick-borne disease. The revelation last week that Harford County Council President Billy Boniface has contracted the sickness is yet another reminder. Lyme disease is treatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it can also be debilitating.

It was plain to see that the mild winter and warm spring had flowers and trees blooming ahead of schedule in March and April. Less easy to see are the ticks and other insects that came with them - unless you're swatting them away. Tick season got an early start this year by as much as three to four weeks, said Michael Raupp, a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Similarly, the mild winter and early spring heat stirred other insects, like mosquitoes, mites and stink bugs, he said.

I was given a potted hydrangea flower as an Easter gift. Can I plant that outdoors? Mophead (Grandiflora) hydrangeas are hardy outdoors, but yours was bred for greenhouse culture and forced into bloom for the holidays, so its chances are less certain. Sometimes they make the transition fine. Because it is essentially a houseplant at this point, adjust it to outdoor temperatures slowly over several days or wait until your indoor temperatures and the outdoor temperatures are similar before taking it outdoors.

The Howard County Health Department reminds residents that spring and summer months increase the risk of exposure to ticks and the possibility of Lyme disease, which spread through the bite of an infected tick. According to the National Lyme Disease Risk Map developed by the Centers for Disease Control, Howard County and Maryland are in the high-risk areas of the United States. Ticks that carry the disease are commonly found in woods and in areas between lawns and woods. Symptoms may include fever, headaches, fatigue and a rash in the shape of a bulls-eye.

Long after the debris is gone, some Central Florida residents may still be feeling the effects of the 2004 hurricane season. In fact, for pet owners, the worst may be yet to come. Lurking in the cracks and crevices of homes across the region may be ticks - thousands of them, in various stages of development - perhaps the result of just one tick that hitched a ride inside on the family dog. Central Florida pest-control companies and veterinarians say there has been a notable increase in complaints about tick infestations since the three hurricanes ripped through Central Florida.

A clock ticks in Baltimore, and I don't mean the one in Oriole Park. It's the homicide clock. It's not something you can look up and see, but something you feel and hear - part of Baltimore's biorhythm - and every year at this time, the ticks get louder, the pulse grows stronger, and anyone who still cares about this stupid waste of life gets a headache. Even if you'd rather not think about it, you can't help but sense the body count building. It's as if you can feel the weight of it. It's not as heavy as it was 10 years ago. But it's still heavy.

As if robocalls didn't have a bad enough reputation in the world of Baltimore media and politics thanks to consultant Julius Henson's activity in the last gubernatorial election, along comes WBFF (Channel 45) Monday night with its own questionable computer-generated calls into hundreds of thousands on Maryland homes. And the calls continued Tuesday. I received one at my home in Baltimore City both days. Raquel Guillory, director of communications for Gov. Martin O'Malley, also received one at home in Howard County Monday night around dinnertime.

I don't know about your neighborhood, but a walk around the countryside in my neck of the woods must be followed this summer with a careful body check for ticks.Dr. Glen Needham of Ohio State University specializes in tick study and recently told me, "Adult ticks may live for several years without eating or drinking water. Their long life is due to a slow metabolism and an ability to suck moisture from air at high humidities."Needham and I recently shared a chumline while fishing with a mutual friend, Ted Burns of Jessup, and he offered us tips on protecting ourselves from ticks and the diseases they may carry.

With some exceptions, any illness can strike anyone at any time. One of the more dangerous to emerge in recent decades is Lyme disease. Harford County, as many of us know either first-hand or because of someone we know, is not immune from the tick-borne disease. The revelation last week that Harford County Council President Billy Boniface has contracted the sickness is yet another reminder. Lyme disease is treatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it can also be debilitating.

A five-month stretch of job losses in Maryland ended in August with a small gain, too meager to keep the state's unemployment rate from ticking up to 7.1 percent, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. And some economists said even the apparent job increase in August looks suspect. The labor agency, which measured losses in most major industries and both federal and state employment that month, estimated a 1,400-job gain overall as a result of a 6,700-job increase in local government.

With time growing short to call a special General Assembly session on gambling legislation, House Speaker Michael E. Busch plans to huddle with his leadership team Wednesday as top Democrats assess whether there are enough votes to justify calling lawmakers back to Annapolis. Interviews with leading legislators suggest that Busch faces an uphill climb in trying to build a majority to back a measure that would allow a casino in Prince George's County and open the state to table games such as poker and craps.

The Chicago Bears' Matt Forte and the Ravens' Ray Rice were linked as two Pro Bowl-caliber running backs given the franchise tag by their respective teams. But the Bears just made sure that Forte won't have to play the upcoming season with that tag. The Ravens have less than three hours to make sure that Rice can say the same thing. The Chicago Tribune  first reported today that Forte had agreed to a long-term extension with Forte, who has rushed for 4,233 yards and 21 touchdowns in four seasons with the Bears.

Hundreds of Baltimore-area families have volunteered for a government study to spray their suburban yards with pesticide, which researchers hope can protect them from Lyme disease but that environmentalists warn is unsafe. The goal, federal and state health officials say, is to find a new way to prevent the widespread illness, which is spread by tick bites and can cause fever, headaches and fatigue — and, if untreated, may even affect joints, nerves and the heart. Half of the 185 families who've signed up this year in Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties are having the edges of their yards sprayed with bifenthrin, a chemical pesticide commonly applied around homes to fight ticks, fleas and mosquitoes.

As if robocalls didn't have a bad enough reputation in the world of Baltimore media and politics thanks to consultant Julius Henson's activity in the last gubernatorial election, along comes WBFF (Channel 45) Monday night with its own questionable computer-generated calls into hundreds of thousands on Maryland homes. And the calls continued Tuesday. I received one at my home in Baltimore City both days. Raquel Guillory, director of communications for Gov. Martin O'Malley, also received one at home in Howard County Monday night around dinnertime.

These days, the seconds no more tick away than the hours slip through the narrow part of an hourglass, but as the weather turns warmer and the days get longer, there's ever more reason to spend more time outside and that time is marked by different kinds of ticks. Yes, the tick tock of the clock has been largely replaced by the silence of a digital display, but no matter how much time passes, ticks continue to loom large over time spent enjoying the wild places. Years ago when I was a kid, the main reason to worry about ticks was an infection called Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which has a cool name, even though I'm fairly certain it's as unpleasant as any fever.

I live near a national park and walk my dogs in the woods. There are ticks everywhere. I stop and pull ticks off myself every few minutes, but I hate to just throw them back in the bushes where they will wait for me the next time I go for a walk. Is there an easy way to kill or dispose of them? Put on insect-repellent-containing DEET before you leave home. Spray shoes and socks, and tuck your trouser legs into your socks. Carry a roll of Scotch tape in your pocket. Whenever you spot a tick, use the tape to trap it. Once it is sealed in tape, it can't escape.

It took just one minute for Kenneth Young to capture 100 tiny ticks in Patapsco Valley State Park near Ellicott City."This is tick heaven up in here," said Young, a U.S. Department of Agriculture biochemist laboratory technician, as he counted the ink-dot-sized insects scattered across a piece of canvas.Young is part of a team trying to determine where in Maryland to place feeding stations designed to attract deer and kill their ticks. The most heavily infested areas will get the stations in September as part of a $2 million federally sponsored experiment aimed at curbing the rising number of cases of Lyme disease, which can be transmitted by the insects.

It was plain to see that the mild winter and warm spring had flowers and trees blooming ahead of schedule in March and April. Less easy to see are the ticks and other insects that came with them - unless you're swatting them away. Tick season got an early start this year by as much as three to four weeks, said Michael Raupp, a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Similarly, the mild winter and early spring heat stirred other insects, like mosquitoes, mites and stink bugs, he said.

Patients and their insurers won't see much of a difference in hospital bills in the next year, as the state rate-setting panel decided to adopt a plan favored by the hospitals that holds payments "to a near-freeze level. " In a close vote, the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission agreed to lower the rates for inpatients by 1 percent but raise the rates for those receiving outpatient services by 2.59 percent, giving the hospitals an overall increase of 0.3 percent. The rates are for the year starting July 1. "This is not a pop-champagne-corks-and-confetti kind of moment," said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association.