The Littlest Party Crashers

Ashley Baker Staats, a writer and editor who lives in Tribeca, moves out to the Springs area of East Hampton, New York, each summer. But unlike past seasons, when idle cocktail chatter centered on the traffic, Eleven Madison Park, kid activities and celebrity spottings, a hard-shelled, surprisingly resilient uninvited guest has become everyone’s obsession: ticks, ticks, ticks.

“They’re rampant,” Baker Staats said. Despite spraying peppermint oil on her property every two weeks hoping to deter ticks, and stocking up on pet tick removal keys, she has found three ticks this season.

Her husband is thinking about following in the footsteps of friends who bought 30 guinea fowl that all but eradicated ticks on their property. That is not a perfect solution, though. “They’re noisy, and owls, foxes, hawks and weasels, which are abundant in the Hamptons, love to eat them,” Baker Staats said.

Loud birds would blend right in at a summer lawn party in those parts if only the guests actually stepped on the grass. Fernanda Niven, who has battled chronic Lyme disease for years, said that when she is in the Hamptons, she does not stand on the grass for long and avoids dunes and woods.

She sprays her shoes and socks with permethrin, which is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a way to repel ticks. She also uses a daily essential oil that includes lavender and geranium, which may act as a light repellent.

Niven is hardly alone. Fear and anxiety over ticks have fanned across the Northeast corridor. In Montauk, Rachelle Hruska Macpherson, the founder of the Lingua Franca clothing label, strips down her children daily and uses a flashlight to inspect them thoroughly for ticks — “front side, back side, hair and nether regions,” she said.

Her husband, the hotelier Sean Macpherson, contracted babesiosis from a tick bite four years ago and almost died because of a missed diagnosis, she said. So she readies a tick kit that includes special tweezers and small plastic tubes to keep the tick for lab diagnosis if necessary.

Over in Hudson, New York, Andrew Goetz, a founder of the beauty line Malin & Goetz, has suffered from Lyme disease twice. “The first time I got Lyme was really scary,” he said. “I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and it was like I was speaking in tongues. I had a very high fever and was delirious.”

Now, instead of shorts in the garden, he wears long-sleeved shirts and pants tucked into socks with his tall Hunter rubber boots, even in the dead of summer. “It’s definitely less carefree,” he said.

Indeed, parents sending their children away for summer camp have new worries and swap information on which camps are tick ready. Anne Fahey-Storment, a founder of NFHF Projects, a public relations and communications company, sent her daughter to a camp in the Berkshires only after she carefully vetted it for a tick action plan.

“They spray the grounds, cut the grass short, and they have the campers walk on a clearly marked path,” she said. Fahey-Storment, who also visited the grounds, noted that the camp has “a great health center on site, where they are very sensitive to any bites, rashes, etc.”

If all of this seems like a lot of hyperventilating, Max DeShaw, an infectious-disease specialist in Florham Park, New Jersey, said that he has seen a rise in the number of Lyme cases in his practice compared with five years ago. The worst situations are those that go undiagnosed, DeShaw said. “Early detection of Lyme disease is the most important way to cure it — the earlier the better,” he said.

Lyme is treatable and usually responds to antibiotics. But tales of untreated cases or post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) have cast a pall over summer escapades. “I’ve had some patients for over 20 years, and I’m still treating them,” DeShaw said.

Niven, whose Lyme disease went undiagnosed for more than a year, has used a combination of Western and Eastern therapies, she said. She looked for alternative options, including some common ones, like infrared sauna and lymphatic drainage, and lesser-known options, like ozone therapy, glutathione IV and phosphatidyl supplements.

“My main goal was to be able to function like a normal human being again and not be bedridden,” she said.

Ozone therapy is but one of the many alternative treatments dismissed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is also apitherapy (that is bee venom), cryotherapy and “every different cocktail of herbs in the world,” DeShaw said. He has yet to see any alternative therapy cure Lyme disease, but they can help manage symptoms, he said.

“I allow the use of alternative medicine in my practice,” DeShaw said. “The truth is that it’s not fringe. It’s mainstream now.”

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HEADS UP

With the right precautions, there is a lot you can do to prevent Lyme disease. Here is what you need to know.

Max DeShaw stresses that a thorough daily check is key. Ticks, he said, particularly love to hide in these places: (1) behind the knees; (2) in the groin; (3) in the scalp; and (4) in the armpits. A tick should always be removed with tweezers. Grasp it as close to the skin as possible and pull out firmly and smoothly.

DEET (on skin) and permethrin (on clothing) are the recommended repellents. Essential oils may have some repellent effect, but do not rely on them, DeShaw said.

— If you live in an area where Lyme disease is prevalent, like Connecticut, you may want to treat your lawn or have it treated by a professional. Benjamin Asher, an ear, nose and throat specialist in Manhattan, emphasizes that spraying should be limited to natural options. “We should be respectful to the environment,” he said.

— “I’ve had kids that have gotten Lyme at summer camp,” DeShaw said. “If the camp is in the woods, assess if it has a tick awareness program, availability of bug repellent and that type of thing.”

— DeShaw suggests wearing light-colored clothing. “Ideally you want to wear long pants tucked into socks, but if it’s 90 degrees out, that’s probably not feasible,” he said. “At least with any kind of light clothing ticks are easier to spot.”

— Katy Noble, a pediatrician in Stamford, Connecticut, recommends making “a daily shower or bath at night your nightly ritual, and use that time as a means to check your family for ticks. You may wash off any before they’ve really had a chance to really dig in.”

— If you remove the tick in the first 24 hours after the bite, the chances of being infected with Lyme disease are greatly reduced, but DeShaw points out that other virally transmitted infections, like Powassan virus, can take root much faster. Monitor for any symptoms.

— Keep the tick! Asher recommends sending the tick to tickreport.com. “They will analyze the tick in three days and tell you whether it carries Lyme disease or co-infections,” he said. “Not all ticks carry something.”

— Only about half of the Lyme disease cases DeShaw has seen started with the traditional bull’s-eye rash around the bite. (Note: the CDC says 70-80 percent do.) “The real telltale sign is flulike symptoms in summer,” he said. “Also know that the fever and chills resolve, so a lot of the time the primary stage of the illness is missed. Then Lyme goes to other areas and can cause real problems.”

— People are not the only ones vulnerable to tick-borne illnesses. According to the CDC, dogs are “very susceptible” and need to be checked for tick bites as well. They can also bring ticks into the house. Carrie Ellen Phillips, a fashion publicist, said that she is “obsessed” with Wondercide, a cedar oil-based spray for pets and home. She saw it on “Shark Tank” and likes that it is a natural option for pets and is safe to use around children.

— According to DeShaw, July and August are the peak months for Lyme disease. Do not slouch on fall, though. He recommends staying vigilant through September and October.

The CDC website for ticks is a comprehensive and accurate source of information.