To the Editor:
It finally happened! On June 9, above the Tisbury Town Hall in Vineyard Haven, we had a very serious conversation about dealing with the very serious tick situation here on the Island, and our sister island, Nantucket. It is presently completely at emergency level. Seven dedicated, wonderful humans who are chock-full of information and help gave up their evening to share what they know.
God bless and thank you, Ellen McMahon, M.D., Lea Hamner, M.P.H., Aubrey Stimola Ryan, PA-C, Josh Levy, M.S., R.D.N., L.D.N., Virginia Barbatti, heading tickfreemv.org, and Kathleen Fitch, N.P. You are so awesome, and we so appreciate you and all the time and love you are putting into helping us on our beloved Island.
One of my takeaways was to write to your representatives and tell them you want the Lyme vaccine. Tell them you want them to continue funding for tick diseases. And of course, if you can help in any way, please do: tickfreemv.org needs your funding.
Thank you, all you intelligent and gracious people, we are so grateful to you. And thank you, Lea, for your sweet humour. It was so timely, appreciated, and helpful as the topic was/is (albeit essential) quite morbid. I believe you said, “If you couldn’t go outside, you would be sad.” Indeed, we would be very sad.
We look forward to the next meeting, where we might find out more ways that we can help, as well as become more informed.
Corinna Kaufman
Aquinnah
Next door to the Vineyard on the Elizabeth Islands we have no pavement or vehicles so we are into the ticks the moment we step out the door. We devised Ticktogs, an oversock system of tight-weave parachute fabric treated with permethrin that blocks ticks from skin access on the foot and lower leg where they hop on and also traps them at the knee if they try to climb. We have had so much interest that we sewed up a big batch in Fall River. Search Ticktogs to find them. They have allowed us back into the fields and woods with much less concern and significantly reduced our tickbites.