You may want to try swimming from a raft or boat farther out from shore where you are less likely to come into contact with the cercaria. The swimmer’s itch organism may originate somewhere else in the lake and is being brought to your shoreline by wave action or currents. You can try putting an owl windsock or statue on your dock and move it around occasionally so the ducks don’t become accustomed to it. If ducks like to rest on your dock, do what you can to discourage them. If you are feeding waterfowl (ducks and geese) from your dock, stop. Keep waterfowl away from your dock and shoreline. Once the cercariae is in the duck, it easily moves around the lake as a parasite, and ultimately along the shoreline.Īctions to take to help reduce your odds of getting swimmer’s itch: This increases their chances of coming into contact with a duck. The cercariae only live for a day or so and typically swim around in the upper few inches of lake water. Reducing the odds of getting swimmer’s itch Swimmer’s itch is not spread from person to person. Humans are not a suitable host and the cercariae die after penetrating the skin. If the host is suitable, the life cycle starts all over again. When the cercariae find a potential host, they burrow into the host’s skin. The snails then release the cercariae back into the water where they look for another host – aquatic birds, mammals or humans. Once they find a snail, they live inside them and develop into cercariae. Then the eggs hatch into miracidia that swim around in the water until they find a snail. The eggs are eliminated by the host and drop to the bottom of the lake. The worms lay eggs inside the host animal. It starts out as a worm (parasite) in the intestinal lining of aquatic birds and mammals (host). The organism that causes swimmer’s itch has a complicated life cycle. There are several over the counter remedies your pharmacist can recommend to help relieve the discomfort, but see your physician for a definitive diagnosis. Much like poison ivy, however, your sensitivity to swimmer’s itch will increase with each exposure. Some people show no symptoms of swimmer’s itch even though others swimming at the same time and place break out severely. Not everyone is sensitive to swimmer’s itch. The itching and welts are not caused by the organism living under your skin, but by an allergic reaction. The body’s immune system detects it as a foreign protein, then attacks and kills it shortly after it penetrates the skin. The good news is the organism that causes swimmer’s itch cannot complete its life history in the human body. As a part of their life cycle, these parasites are released by infected snails into the water, where they may come in contact with people and burrow into their skin. Officials speculate the warm water causes these parasites to thrive this time of year, causing swimmer’s itch.Īccording to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, swimmer’s itch is a temporary skin rash that is caused by an allergic reaction to microscopic parasites that are carried by waterfowl, semi-aquatic mammals and snails. Swimmer’s itch, sometimes confused with “chiggers,” which are found primarily in moist grassy areas, is pestering swimmers once again on Mille Lacs. This is a combination of information from a few DNR specialists and an Aitkin Independent Age article dated Sep 9, 2020
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