Lake beautiful - from your encouraging comments, to practical hands-onĪssistance and financial support . The HLSIO appreciates all you do to support our efforts to keep Higgins WeĪre also considering doing additional research work that can help us diminish Remove any Common Merganser broods that might appear on Higgins Lake. Solutions, Dr Curt Blankespoor and Dr Randy DeJong, to monitor our lake and We will once again work with Swimmer’s itch Looking ahead to 2022, we intend to continue to do the things that we haveįound to serve us best in the past. Please read the report to see more deeply into how the study wasĬonducted and the specifics of the results. Parasite and continued testing produced no significant SI in the study’s test Helisoma parasite seems to have very little else in common with the Stagnicola Although similar in physical characteristics, the NOT act similarly to the Merganser / Stagnicola snail parasite and causes Our research project gives strong evidence that the Helisoma parasite does Protective clothing and / or avoidance of time spent in their lakes to keep SI to a To this end, they stopped merganser relocation and relied on Other lake associations believed that the goose / Helisoma parasite wasĪ large part of their problem and that Common Merganser relocation was simply Presence of a similar parasite from a Helisoma snail that cycles with the Canada Northern Michigan have stayed away from merganser relocation based on the Our summer research problem was a real eye opener. Long way toward keeping the number of SI cases small. Migratory birds can still perpetuate the problem even if they are only on our lakeįor short periods of time, the absence of Common Merganser broods goes a Level of Swimmers Itch cases that were reported this summer. What we would have considered an impossible scenario has now The really great news is that Higgins Lake once again had no broods to remove The year end report and the summary of the results of a research study that we Hello Higgins Lake Swimmers Itch supporter,Īs we come to the end of the year we want to update everyone on the HLSIOĪctivities of 2021 and what we look ahead to in the future. We will use the information to continue our data Using the link found here on the website. We would ask that everyone continue to report broods and Swimmer’s Itch cases by We have some thoughts about what we may be able toĭo and we have some research ideas to think about, but the relocation program is on Numbers that we had seen in the past, but yearly migration does allow for new birds toįor now, we will be pursuing whatever paths may be available to us and that we feel may Program has definitely been a factor in keeping mergansers from returning in the Snail infection rate of the SI cycle has been kept to an extremely low percentage. An important result of our relocation program that began in 2015 is that the But the zero brood scenario was highly unusual and seems unlikely In the past two summers we have not had merganser broods on the lake and relocation ![]() Goose round up as we had in past years in late June. So for 2022, Swimmer’s Itch solutions will not be trappingĪnd relocating merganser broods this summer and we will not be conducting our Canada ![]() Thanks to everyone that supported our 2021 dinner, which was a great success.Due to what the DNR describes as a highly pathogenic avian flu that has already affectedīoth wild birds and commercial flocks, relocation of merganser ducks and Canada geese Please join us on August 18 for our annual fundraising dinner. Our Future: HLSIO will continue to trap and relocate merganser ducks and to assess potential other waterfowl and snail species that may contribute to swimmer’s itch. The 2020 analysis of Stagnicola snails from Higgins Lake indicated a 99% decrease in avian schistosome snail infection levels from the pre-control program level. ![]() Since 2015, Higgins Lake has seen a significant reduction in the swimmer’s itch causing parasites in the lake. Our Success Story: HLSIO realizes that currently there is no known control program or technology that can totally eliminate swimmer’s itch. Our Mission Statement: To explore and understand the causes of swimmer’s itch and use science-based, humane, and environmentally-sound methods to significantly reduce swimmer’s itch. Health problem of swimmer’s itch at Higgins Lake.
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