LYME, Conn., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- There was a high number of Lyme-disease-causing deer ticks this year in Lyme and Old Lyme -- the Connecticut towns that gave disease its name.
"(Young tick) counts were higher in southwest and northwest Connecticut, but the dramatic increase was in Lyme-Old Lyme, (which had an) 80 percent to 90 percent increase over the numbers we picked up last year," said Kirby C. Stafford III, vice director of the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station and the state entomologist.
The number of black-legged ticks was up throughout the state, particularly in sampling areas in the Lyme-Old Lyme area, reported the Hartford (Conn.) Courant Friday.
In the 2.5-. In the study area in the Lyme-Old Lyme area, last summer's number was 78 ticks. This year it was 390, just shy of the all-time record of 391 in 1997.
Stafford speculates last winter's snow might have acted like an insulating blanket protecting the ticks.
