NO MATTER WHAT YOU CALL IT, THIS LITTLE CRITTER HAS A BITE THAT'S DANGEROUS
A new name doesn't mean a tiny tick has changed its disease-carrying ways.
What's still widely known as the deer tick has turned up increasingly as the "black-legged tick." While both terms are common, the re-branding hasn't helped, as the tick remains the chief cause of Lyme disease in humans.
University of Minnesota Extension entomologist Jeff Hahn said it's a science thing. What entomologists had regarded as two species turned out to be one, and they agreed to call it by its older name: "black-legged tick." That was 20 years ago, but time hasn't added clarity. Recently, Hahn said, he identified someone's sample tick as a black-legged tick. "They said, 'Phew, I thought it was a deer tick,'" Hahn said. "I'm very careful to say both names, and that it's a potential vector of disease. Half the battle has been to get people at least familiar with the name."
BILL MCAULIFFE
