Dear Editor:

Would you please print this note about what bit I know about wood ticks. There are two types here, the Rocky Mountain and the Black Legged. The latter can carry the Lyme disease bacteria.

In April 1996 I removed a tick that was firmly attached to me. In a few days, the bitten area was circled by a rash and very itchy. Dr. Walsh at the Duthie Clinic diagnosed it as a Lyme disease infection and gave me an antibiotic.

An old timer here, the late Jim Dilworth, used to say there were no wood ticks in the upper Kootenay Valley north of the Sinclair Pass. This may be true as I lived for 24 years at Crook’s Meadow in Kootenay National Park and never saw one. Also, there were no black-tailed deer there, which is the primary host of the wood tick.

Do not neglect any tick bite if it’s circled by a target type rash or a rash of any kind. See your doctor as Lyme disease has many unpleasant side effects.

Ray Crook

Invermere