Lyme Numbers in Massachusetts Are Actually Decreasing

With the recently reported increase in tick and mosquito-borne illness over the last 13 years, it probably makes you wonder where we stand with the increase of Lyme disease in Massachusetts. We have great news… it’s actually decreased in our state over the last few years.

If the CDC says numbers are up then how can we be telling you numbers are down?

There’s a cool interactive map and graph that’s going to help you understand. You’ll notice if you go to the graph while other states’ Lyme instances are going up, ours are going down. Yay us! We love this map as well. It actually shows county by county the number of cases of Lyme disease from 2000 to 2016. Evidence that our numbers are going down is right here on the map where you can see that in 2012 there were 1.38 cases per 1,000 people in Plymouth County and .95 cases per 1,000 in Bristol County. In 2016 these numbers are down to .05 in Plymouth and .02 in Bristol. These are great tools to see what’s going on with Lyme disease across the country.

Keep Up the Good Work with Tick Safety!

If our numbers are going down while other states are going up, that means we are doing what we are supposed to do. That’s on the state education level, on the professional pest control level, and on the personal level. Remaining educated and aware of what’s going on in the state is a key element of all three.

However, we have to understand that just because our numbers are going down, that doesn’t mean we can slack off. Professor Kim Lewis of the Northeastern University Biology department tells News at Northeastern that as our urban and suburban spaces grow, we create parks and yards that are the perfect size for mice but too small for their predators. That makes for more mice and subsequently more ticks. Without continued diligence in tick control, we can lose ground as easily as we’ve gained it.

At Mosquito Squad of Southeastern Massachusetts, we are going to continue our efforts by bringing you as much information as we can. We recognize that it’s always changing and that our customers look to us to keep them informed. We hope you will continue doing what you’ve been doing: keeping your yard clear of tick habitats, keeping your pets protected with topical treatment, and reporting the tick activity you encounter. All of these things are going to help us continue this trend. We’d like to put our efforts together with yours. If you take all you’re doing on your own and add our tick treatment programs we can eliminate 90% of the ticks in your yard and keep them out. Eliminating ticks is how we are going to keep our Lyme numbers down in Massachusetts. Call us today to create the plan that’s best for you