The number of infected deer ticks continues to multiply and spread each year, and the ticks hitch rides on plenty of creatures other than deer.

Paul Dube says he made a deal with nature several years ago. He swears the promise has kept him free from everything from troublesome black flies to fearsome deer ticks on his daily forays into the woods.

“I made a vow not to kill any living thing – no matter how small – and it seems to have worked,” the 60-year-old Lewiston man said with a laugh.

Dube contends he never wears bug spray, rarely wears long pants and doesn’t sport funky head gear with built-in netting. While many hikers painstakingly prepare for journeys in the woods, Dube takes it all in stride, without fear of bugs.

On a recent day he emerged from the woods at Lewiston’s Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary near his Montello Street home dressed in shorts and a T-shirt – minus any insect repellent and unaware of the deer tick warning posted at the entrance to the 357-acre wildlife preserve.

Health officials, perhaps not as confident about human pacts with nature, recommend protection, particularly against ticks.

They say tick-borne Lyme disease is creeping inland from southern coastal counties and spreading to the lakes and mountains of mid-Maine.

“It’s increasing significantly,” said Geoff Beckett, assistant state epidemiologist with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Tick-borne diseases are a reality and people should know about it and take appropriate measures no matter where they are.”

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread by tiny deer ticks. Early symptoms often mimic the flu, and can easily be misdiagnosed. The telltale sign discovered by 70 to 80 percent of those afflicted is a circular rash that resembles a bull’s-eye. The rash often begins at the site of the tick bite within three to 30 days, and gradually expands outward over several days. It can reach up to 12 inches in diameter. Some people with the disease never get a rash but may suffer hives or other reactions to the bacteria.

For many, early symptoms include joint pain, aches, fatigue and numbness. If untreated or not caught soon enough, the disease can have debilitating, long-term effects such as arthritis and neurological and cardiovascular problems, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jon and Susan Holmes of Dixfield know the disease all too well.

Jon fell ill in 2004 with overwhelming fatigue and frequent fevers spiking up to 104.8 degrees. “It scared me,” Susan said. “They put him in the hospital in July of that summer, and he went through another bout in October.”

Jon had been spending up to 22 hours a day in bed, and had such pain in his joints that he couldn’t stand up straight or walk without difficulty. The couple was forced to sell their business, Holmes Market, because Jon wasn’t well enough to work and Susan had become his full-time caregiver.

Over the next 18 months, Jon went through a battery of diagnostic tests, which Susan estimated cost their insurance company close to $100,000, before a doctor in Connecticut confirmed Lyme disease, originating from three different bacteria transferred by tick bite.

Since then, the couple has become politically active in Maine, trying to educate the public and lawmakers about how debilitating the disease can be.

Susan Holmes urges people to take tick bites seriously.

“You listen to your body and if you’re starting to get flu-like symptoms in the summer and they come and go, that’s not normal,” she said.

Maine numbers on the rise

In Maine, the number of Lyme disease cases reported to the state doubled between 2005 and 2007 – from 247 to 529.

The number in Androscoggin County doubled in 2007 compared to the previous year, from 10 to 21. There were six confirmed cases in Oxford County last year and one in Franklin County. In Cumberland County, nearly 100 cases were confirmed in 2006.

Beckett attributed the increases to better recognition of the disease among the general public and a growing research base among health-care providers. Also, the number of infected deer ticks in Maine continues to multiply and spread each year, he said.

More deer can lead to more deer ticks, but deer ticks – like most ticks – go through several life cycles and host animals, said Lee Kantar, a deer biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Hosts can range from rats to four-legged hiking partners. To help control the spread of deer ticks and Lyme disease, Kantar said the state strives to maintain a count of 15 deer per square mile.

Sally Southwick, 44, of Lewiston strives to stay tick-free. She hikes three to four times a week and never leaves home without her bug spray. She has never found a tick on herself, and believes her efforts to prevent it are paying off.

“When it’s cooler outside I do the long pants tucked into my socks,” Southwick said as she prepared to head into Thorncrag last week. “But when it gets too warm, I hose down with the nasty chemicals, then I hose off as soon as I get home.”