Few officials take swimmers itch (also called cercarial dermatitis) very seriously as a public health problem. With summer looming and people heading for lakes and waterholes for a refreshing dip, those “little buggers” will again become, in parts of the U.S., a very big holiday nuisance. “There are days when I can feel those little buggers grabbing me right when I am coming out of the water.” “Moms will come down to the beach and say, ‘Is Leslie itching?’” says Ritter, who has become well acquainted with the parasites she lures with her body. Ritter’s statistics were instrumental last year when the MSIP successfully lobbied the Michigan legislature to fund research and prevention. If her skin starts to tingle, she knows something in the lake is after her-and swimming lessons are canceled.įor the past few years Ritter has been sending the results of her unusual experiment to the Michigan Swimmer’s Itch Partnership (MSIP), a coalition of more than 20 Michigan watershed associations that shares research and raises public awareness about something lurking in these waters-a scary-sounding parasite that can really ruin someone’s day, even if it has long been considered medically harmless. After 30 minutes she gets out and records wind and temperature data. As head of the lifeguarding program at the Congregational Summer Assembly (a vacation community in northwest Michigan), Ritter wades into Crystal Lake up to her knees. Every morning for about eight weeks each summer, Leslie Ritter becomes bait.
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