Pa. leads the nation in Lyme disease cases, and kids make up about half of them
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette link: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2023/06/18/tick-season-lyme-disease-pennsylvania/stories/202306090067
Melanie Haynes of Ross watched her 3-year-old daughter, Josie, frolic on a recent comfortable spring evening at a North Park playground. When they got home, an important task awaited.
“We check every night — all [body] crevices and hair for ticks — before Josie goes to bed,” she said. “We have found a couple of ticks we had to remove.”
Haynes’ older daughter had previously been infected with Lyme disease, she said, coming down with symptoms that dissipated after treatment with antibiotics. So she has a strategy to deal with potential future Lyme disease infections: vigilant surveillance.
- more at link -
Yikes! I usually check my dog for ticks but I never realized how vulnerable the little kids are too!
= new reply since forum marked as read
... when really it's more like "neglected."
I live in the city of Pittsburgh - where there's no hunting allowed of course - and I'm surrounded by deer. I can't grow daylilies, roses, or many other beautiful flowers in my garden and neither can my neighbors. The deer treat our yards like their "free salad bar" every night, and they are entitled to help themselves. Forget trying to grow parley, basil or other fresh herbs which won't make it past the seedling stage. Complaining to Allegheny County doesn't accomplish anything either. It seems their main concern is the gamelands area which is far from where I live.
And don't get me started on the accidents they've caused. Several people I know have had accidents where the deer jumped right out in front of them, causing a fender-bender or worse. One good thing about City Maintenance is that if you report an injured or dead deer in the road, they'll pick it up rather quickly.
Long story short - I don't know any actual deer hunters, but several friends and neighbors are regularly annoyed, endangered or even injured (in a car accident) by wild deer. Ticks and lyme disease are a major problem in the more populated counties. The deer population needs to be cut back, or relocated to the gamelands.
