CBC News: This Toronto woman says she’s ‘living in hell’ as ticks invade her back yard
May 18, 2022
Michelle Snider says she’s has had to pull 25 to 30 ticks off her dogs and herself in 7 days
A Toronto woman is warning people to check for ticks after she found several on herself and her two dogs in the past week.
Michelle Snider, who lives in the Long Branch neighbourhood of south Etobicoke, said she pulled between 25 and 30 from her two dogs, Juju and Heavy D, and herself in the last seven days.
“My experience has been horrible and nightmarish,” Snider said on Wednesday.
“They’ve taken over my yard. They’ve taken over my house. It’s a health concern for both my dogs and I. I’m living in hell, honestly.”
Snider said she was bitten by two ticks last year and saw a few on her dogs two years ago. But this year she says she’s been bitten by five, all dog ticks, in the past week. Three years ago, she said she didn’t even know what a tick looked like.
Ticks don’t like to get dried out so one might expect that this is a shaded cool damp backyard with a hedge and tall grasses or weeds around the edge. Learning how to make DIY tick tubes using dryer lint and 0.25% permethrin ant sprays available in nurseries or hardware stores would likely help. See Prevention on this CanLyme website. In a worst case scenario gravelling and zeriscaping the yard should work. Tick Management Handbook, Connecticut, pdf. http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/bulletins/b1010.pdf
I know of at least 2 cases of people with all of the symptoms of Lyme disease. Doctor refused to test for it and said it couldn’t be Lyme disease. This was in Saskatchewan. Why isn’t it mandatory that the doctor muse test if asked by a patient.