One day after a fine spring hike near our Helena home, my friend found a tick embedded in her neck, under her hair. As we sat in our car in front of a convenience store, I used the tweezers from my Swiss Army Knife to slowly and carefully pull the critter out.
Then she discovered a second one, near the first. I plucked that one out as well. Unpleasant, but no big deal, we thought. We’ve lived in Helena for half a century and, for anyone who spends time in the woods, ticks are part of life. This year looks set to bring a bumper crop. “Watch out for ticks,” Jefferson County Public Health Director Pam Hanna said in a recent town meeting. “They’re out in force this year.”
Montana has a storied history with ticks. Scientists in western Montana played a critical role in early research on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which ticks carry. Dubbed “black measles” because of the rash it created, it was especially common in the Bitterroot Valley where people lived and worked in the woods. Many of them died from ticks.
