A Calgary woman says that a trip to a provincial camp became “a nightmare”, after discovering that her family was covered with about 30 tics.
In May, Gerri Kunneke, her husband Lloyd Rose, and her two dogs visited the Gooseberry Lake Provincial Park in East Alberta, near the consort, about 290 kilometers to the southeast of Edmonton, to camp in her trailer.
The next day, Kunneke and her husband took their dogs to walk around the park.
“We decided that we really wanted … approaching the lake and seeing what birds from the coast [were] There, “said Kunneke.
She said they left the road, to the high grass, but said they were only in the brush for a few minutes.
Later that night, back on his trailer, Kunneke’s husband told him that he felt something in his hair and asked him to look at him.
“I got up, [and] When I approached him, he told me: ‘Oh my God, you have something on your face, it’s a tick’ … On my cheek, “Kunneke said.
And that feeling in her husband’s hair? It was also a tick.
“It’s really a nightmare … Every time you feel something in your skin, you think it’s another of them crawling,” Kunneke said.
“Even hours later I found something on my back and here, it was another tick that was embedded in my back.”
The incident in the Provincial Park surprised an expert in ticks, who says that the Alberta area is not usually known by large tick populations.
“Usually, at this time of the year, I would expect the ticks to be in the … Alberta Mountain, so it was really shocking for me to discover that in a provincial park on the side of Alberta Saskatchewan was so bad,” said Janet Sperling, president of Lyme Nursing Canada.
“There are places in Saskatchewan where it has been a problem for quite some time, but … it was really surprising to hear that Gooseberry Provincial Park had such a large tick problem.”
In a statement to CBC, the Office of the Minister of Forestry and Parks said that “Alberta is home to many tick species that can be found throughout the province, even within the provincial parks.”
Conditions where ticks prosper
The ticks in the meadows, says Sperling, thrive in wet climates, and parasites can survive cold winters.
She says that the tick population probably arrived at the Gooseberry Lake Provincial Park, either by making a trip with migratory birds or deer.
“I knew that the ticks were from Saskatchewan, but I had not realized that they had arrived in this issue,” said Sperling, who says that the great Tic populations are more common in the south of Alberta.
WARNING TO CAMPISTAS
After what happened in the Gooseberry Lake Provincial Park, Kunneke wants the province to install warning signals for campists during the Tick Pico season, which extends from April to June.
“Shausta your trust is like, why was I not warned about this? … I could have been attentive, but no one is saying a word about it,” Kunneke said.
“[A tick] I was walking on my face and they were attached there, I felt nothing and I am a well -educated and conscious person. ”
Sperling says that campers must be armed with insect spray and a tick elimination kit, and must remain covered. She says that campers can protect themselves even more with special clothes treated with insect spray.
“If you bit yourself, eliminate that brand immediately because you are reducing the possibility that you are really transmitting anything.”
She says she keeps the tick that enters her skin and takes her to a laboratory to be tested.
“They can evaluate the diseases I would expect in that tick, and it really helps guide you and the doctor to know what you face.”
Sperling says that Lyme disease levels in Alberta ticks are not super tall, but in New Scotland, Ontario and Quebec, more than 50 percent of ticks carry Lyme’s disease.
The province says that “Alberta Parks includes messages in educational programming, reminding the campists to verify the ticks and how to be safe,” urging campers to see the provincial website for more information.
