Scratching the Right Itch

Editor's note: Rural Innovation Exchange has partnered with Interlochen Public Radio to share occasional news coverage in rural Northern Michigan.

Glen Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world – clear turquoise-colored water, Sleeping Bear Dunes off in the distance. It was an ideal setting for Ron Reimink’s summer job.

One particularly beautiful day, Ron, who’s a biologist, was walking around the lake, through the water, up and over docks, doing research on ducks. Then, a couple hours after he’d wrapped up for the day, he started to get this sensation in his legs. He looked down, and there were all these red spots popping up. Each one was around the size of a nickel. They started to itch like crazy.

“And I literally scratched many of them until they bled,” Ron said. “It was so intense.”

Ron had a bad case of cercarial dermatitis. Otherwise known as swimmer’s itch. It’s caused by parasites found in lakes across the country, but is especially common in the Great Lakes region.

Ironically, as a biologist, Ron spent the better part of 30 years trying to eradicate swimmer’s itch from lakes across northern Michigan. He did this by trapping and relocating common mergansers – a duck that’s often a main carrier of the parasite that causes swimmer’s itch.

But as technology progressed, Ron realized he had it all wrong. He shouldn’t try to eradicate swimmer’s itch from the lake at all. We needed to change our behavior, not change the lake.

To hear the full story, go to the Points North episode. You can also listen on Spotify.