Deer tick found in Ojibway

By Mandy Matthews

A nature walker with a good eye has recorded the first known deer tick to be around the Ojibway Prairie Complex.

Shane Butnari ventured off the beaten path Tuesday, Oct. 14 and found himself in a natural area just outside the complex where he picked up a blacklegged tick on the outside of his pants. This specific tick is known to be a carrier of Lyme disease, but has not been seen in the Ojibway are for the last 40 years that the complex has existed, said Karen Cedar, Complex Manager.

“We have wood ticks now, or dog ticks as people like to call them. They’ve been here in our park complex for the last 15 years,” said Cedar. “Before that, there wasn’t any of those either.”

Cedar said it is common to pick up bugs on your pants.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful life we’ve had here, we’ve just been lucky,” said Cedar.

The number of white-tailed deer in Ojibway has increased over the past 25 years. Groups of 10 to 20 are regularly seen. Cedar said they do not conduct any sampling of the deer for blacklegged ticks.

Kellie Vincent owns two dogs and has never been to the park before.

“My friends brought their dogs here a couple weeks ago, so I thought I would bring my dogs and now I don’t want to walk here.”

She usually walks them along the river front and has never heard about Lyme disease in the area.

“I’m pretty concerned, I don’t want to walk my dogs here if there is ticks out here that could have Lyme disease,” said Vincent. “It’s very dangerous for them.”

Cedar said they have not sent the tick away for testing yet, but do plan to in the upcoming weeks.