Lyme Disease in Louisville

Lyme Disease is Spread By Deer Ticks in Louisville

Lyme disease in Louisville is a threat to our health & well-being. If you love being outdoors, you know how the thought of injury or illness can inhibit the joy of outdoor activities. With the active spread of deer ticks across the nation over the past 10 years, Lyme Disease is on the rise in our area.

What is Lyme Disease?

Lyme Disease is caused by a bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi that is spread by infected black-legged ticks (deer ticks). Deer ticks attach themselves to mammal hosts such as mice, cats, dogs, deer and humans for a blood meal needed for reproduction or growth from the nymph stage to adult stage. Deer ticks become infected at the nymph stage when they attach themselves to small rodent hosts who are carrying the bacteria. The bacteria is then passed on to humans and larger mammals by the infected tick, causing Lyme Disease. Watch a quick video about Lyme disease here!

Louisville Deer Ticks

When infected nymph ticks venture out of the rodents nest looking for their next meal, people and our pets become most susceptible to catching Lyme Disease. Nymph deer ticks are tiny, sometimes as small as a poppy seed, making it very difficult to notice if one embeds itself into you. Deer ticks love to hang out in shady cool places like tall grass, along retaining wall bases and in leaf piles.

Lyme Disease Symptoms

The symptoms of Lyme Disease in humans can vary but can often include chills, fever, headache, muscle & joint pain, swollen lymph nodes and a bulls-eye rash. According to the CDC, the bulls-eye rash appears in 70-80% of Lyme cases. Chronic Lyme can occur if left untreated. The lasting symptoms of chronic Lyme Disease can include neck stiffness, bulls-eye rashes in other areas of your body, severe headaches, arthritis in the large joints, facial paralysis (Bell’s palsy), nerve pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath & dizziness, inflammation of the brain & spinal cord or problems with short-term memory. If you think you have Lyme Disease you should seek treatment immediately.

Lyme Disease Treatment

Lyme Disease can be successfully treated with antibiotics. Patients who receive proper treatment early, usually recover fully. In some cases, Lyme patients may require intravenous antibiotics. Early diagnosis and treatment is essential to avoiding long-term symptoms. Knowing if you have been exposed to deer ticks is important in assisting the diagnosis process.

Lyme Disease Prevention in Louisville

The best way to prevent Lyme Disease is to avoid deer ticks and deer tick bites. Limiting the deer tick population in your yard is a great way to protect your family & pets in the place you spend most of your outdoor time. Mosquito Squad of Louisville can eliminate 85-90% of the ticks and mosquitoes in your yard with our tick barrier treatment. Our technicians will pay special attention to all of the areas where ticks like to hide, coming back every 3 weeks all season long to keep your yard tick-free. With tick tubes placed twice per year, we can eliminate even more ticks by killing ticks in the nymph stage when in a rodents den. Tick tubes are highly effective as they eliminate future generations of ticks on your property by eliminating ticks before they become adults and breed.

Take back your yard today with tick control by Mosquito Squad of Louisville. Call today for a free quote at (502) 443-9889. And be sure to follow the 6 C’s of tick-proofing your yard for additional tick control benefits.