May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month – Free Materials for Schools

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has partnered with more than 35 agencies and organizations throughout Maine to promote the awareness of Lyme Disease and educate as many people as possible about prevention efforts. The 2021 Lyme Disease Awareness Month theme is “Stop. Check. Prevent.”  This reminds us to stop and practice tick prevention measures frequently. The easiest way to avoid tickborne diseases is preventing tick bites. Please remember to:

  1. Use caution in areas where ticks may be found.
  2. Wear light-colored clothing that covers arms and legs.
  3. Use an EPA approved repellent such as: DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
  4. Perform tick checks on yourself, family members, and pets daily and after any outdoor activity. Take a shower after exposure to a tick habitat to wash off any crawling ticks.

In Maine, adults over the age of 65 years and children between the ages of 5 and 15 years are at highest risk of Lyme disease. People that work or play outside are also at high risk of encountering infected ticks. It is also important to be aware that Lyme disease is not the only disease that deer ticks in Maine can carry. Read Complete Announcement from MeCDC here…

Maine CDC has free downloadable curriculum resources available on their website. These Vectorborne School Curricula Materials include modules and resources for grades 3 – 8 with updated resources for remote learning (one focuses on mosquitoes and another on ticks). There are also materials that schools may order for use with students, both at school as well as home, including Tick ID Posters, Lyme Disease Brochures and much more on the Maine CDC Infectious Disease website.

This year the Maine DOE, in partnership with the Maine CDC and Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, are making available free education kits for Tick, Mosquito, and other pests. These kits are great for schools and include tick removal spoons, identification cards and fact sheets to the first 150 who request one. To request yours, complete this form.

For more information on Lyme Disease Awareness Month go to this Maine CDC website. For more information on the Tick, Mosquito, and Other Pest educational kits contact cristina.stade@maine.gov.