Ohio
Some Ohio tick species carry potentially fatal diseases. What to know
Tick Bite Prevention Guide
Essential steps to prevent tick bites and protect your family and pets while outdoors.
Although they’re silent and among nature’s stealthiest stalkers, ticks now seem to be creating considerable public buzz.
Certain ticks can operate year-round. Nonetheless, interest heightens during spring when intersections increase between reactivated ticks, people and people’s pets.
What happens post-encounter depends on how long a person takes to find and disengage from a tick that has found them. Infection can occur after two-hour attachments. In short, hunters, anglers, hikers, noodlers, birders and anyone else wandering woods and fields, especially during May and June, demand speedy self-inspection and precautionary repellent use.
Lyme disease, a malady that can leave sufferers with chronic malfunctions, draws much attention because of its inexorable and fairly rapid spread from New England into seemingly virgin territory, including Ohio.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS: More about Ohio hunting and fishing
Specific tick species carry different maladies, though some deal out more than one.
Blacklegged ticks, aka deer ticks, are the primary spreaders of Lyme disease. The bite from a lone star tick, another relative newcomer to Ohio, can trigger several illnesses, the most trumpeted being a potential killer known as alpha-gal syndrome that makes the bitten allergic to red meat and dairy.
A few years ago, former Columbus Dispatch nature columnist Jim Fry lay on a hospital bed while paralysis crept up his legs to his arms and neck. Spreading immobility made him unable to lift his head.
“I was terrified,” said Fry, then 79.
Fortunately, a healthcare attendant noticed an engorged tick on Fry’s upper left arm. Removal of the tick veered Fry away from a proximate path to eternity, though full recovery took time.
The would-be assassin turned out to be a dog tick, historically common in Ohio. Also known as a wood tick, the relative of spiders and scorpions can carry in its saliva a neurotoxin that triggers what is known as tick paralysis in susceptible people, dogs and cats. Tick paralysis – rare enough not to ratchet up public awareness, let alone mania – can kill.
Climate change has been popularly depicted as the reason deer ticks and lone star ticks have spread from the South into New England and the Midwest. Climate probably has an influence, but it’s not the primary cause, concluded the Entomological Society of America with findings shared in the publication Entomology Today.
Researchers found it highly probable that tick species currently viewed as newcomers were here spreading their diabolical wares before a wave of settlers mowed down trees for agriculture and virtually wiped out the deer through hunting and habitat destruction.
Deer are not themselves vulnerable to Lyme disease, but they are spreaders of ticks.
It was especially extreme in Ohio around 1900. By that time, the landscape had been transformed from 95% forested to about 5%. Deer went absent. When much marginal farmland reverted to native trees during the next 100-plus years, it stimulated the growth of a teeming deer population.
More deer have allowed more tag-along ticks to reoccupy lost territory, the study hypothesized.
Parting shots
Pro bass fisherman Charlie Hartley, who led the 2008 Bassmaster Classic for a day and who earned a paycheck in 78 of 296 Bassmaster tournaments in which he competed, has been named to the Ohio Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. Hartley resides in Grove City. … Turkey season ends May 24 at sunset in central Ohio and May 31 at sunset in five northeastern counties. Through May 17, the turkey take exceeded the three-year average at a comparable date by about 550.
Ohio
Four Things to Know About Oregon’s Biggest Regular Season Test vs. Ohio State
The Oregon Ducks’ 2026 season is getting closer to opening at Autzen Stadium, and the Ducks have some of the loftiest expectations surrounding the program in recent memory. The Ducks faced their toughest test in the regular season last season when the eventual national champion Indiana Hoosiers visited Autzen Stadium, and faced their toughest test of the 2024 season when the eventual national champion Ohio State Buckeyes visited Eugene.
Oregon Ducks Will Face Hostile Crowd in Columbus, Ohio.
With the start of the season around the corner, there is one game on the Ducks ‘ regular-season slate that stands out as their biggest test of the year.
Perhaps Oregon’s biggest test of the 2026 season won’t be at Autzen Stadium but rather on the road. The Ducks face the Ohio State Buckeyes on November 7 in Columbus at the Horseshoe for what promises to be another all-time classic. Ducks coach Dan Lanning is 1-1 in his career against Ohio State, defeating them in Eugene in 2024 before falling to Buckeyes coach Ryan Day’s side on January 1, 2025, at the Rose Bowl.
In terms of a game being a “test,” the Buckeyes in Columbus will certainly present one. At the late stages of the season, if the Ducks or Buckeyes both have one loss heading into the matchup, the loser of the game could potentially see their College Football hopes scattered to the wind.
Oregon Defensive Coordinator Chris Hampton Will Have to Slow Down Ohio State Stars
Eug 031623 Uo Spring Fb 06 | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
The Buckeyes’ offense could very well be the biggest test new Oregon defensive coordinator Chris Hampton will see all season, as he will be tasked with coming up with a game plan to stop not only Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Julian Sayin, but arguably the best wide receiver in all of college football in Jeremiah Smith.
The Ducks should have the advantage in the trenches as far as the defensive line in nearly every game this season, with the entire starting defensive line having chosen to come back to Eugene for another season.
Oregon Ducks Quarterback Dante Moore Will Have to Have Poise
Ducks quarterback Dante Moore will face a massive test in his own right. The Horseshoe is routinely one of the toughest places to play, and Moore will have to call back on his calm demeanor in the Ducks’ win over Penn State in Happy Valley to put in a respectable performance away at Ohio State.
Dan Lanning Will Have Massive Test Game Planning for Julian Sayin
Perhaps the biggest test in the Ducks’ late regular-season game against the Buckeyes will be for coach Dan Lanning. Lanning has shown that he can game plan well against teams coached by Day, evidenced by the Ducks’ win over the Buckeyes back in 2024, but he will have to do it on the road this time. Lanning has also been prone to big losses in critical stages, with his two losses last year against the Hoosiers and the blowout loss to the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl Game two seasons ago.
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Ohio
Car crashes into fitness center in Warren
WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — Police are investigating after a car crashed into a popular fitness center in Warren.
Just before 10 p.m., a car drove into the Planet Fitness on Elm Road. The car has since been removed from the building.
Bystanders tell our crew on scene that two people were taken away by ambulance.
Warren’s Police Department is investigating the cause of the crash.
Alex Sorrells contributed to this report.
Ohio
Veteran Officer Among 4 Dead in Ohio Shooting
A nighttime call about a break-in in small-town Ohio ended with four people dead, including a police sergeant and a 13-year-old girl. Authorities say officers arrived around 9:30pm Sunday in Rittman, about 20 miles west of Akron, and were immediately met with gunfire, the Canton Repository reports. Sgt. Scott Ries, a 10-year veteran of the Rittman Police Department and a former Wayne County deputy sheriff, was fatally shot while responding to what officials described as a disturbance call.
- Four other officers—three Medina County sheriff’s deputies and a Hinckley Police Department officer—were injured, the AP reports. Two were hospitalized in stable condition and two were treated at the scene. A Wayne County K-9, Vick, was badly injured.
The suspected shooter, 38-year-old Brandon Fazekas, died from a wound consistent with suicide, the coroner said. The Wayne County coroner identified the other victims as the suspect’s ex-partner and her daughter, WKYC reports. The coroner said 43-year-old Christine McWilliams and her 13-year-old daughter, McKinley, were both killed in what appear to be homicides. Rittman is a town of around 6,100 people on the border between Wayne and Medina counties.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe. In a statement, the city of Rittman praised Reis, 54, for his “honor and courage” and “enduring commitment to protecting others.” “Our hearts are broken with this unimaginable loss,” the city said.
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