Article: Parasite causing an itch for swimmers

It's a condition caused by a tiny water parasite with a barbed tail that will bore into your skin and cause welts and itching if it mistakes you for a duck or goose paddling in a lake or bay.

Swimmer's itch, rarely reported a decade ago in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, has become a rite of summer in several lakes in the East Bay Regional Park District in the last few years.

Complaints about the itch have prompted the park district this summer to post warning signs at Crown Beach in Alameda, Lake Anza at Tilden Park in Berkeley, and Quarry Lakes in Fremont.

In the last three or four years, Shadow Cliffs Reservoir in Pleasanton and Lake Temescal in Oakland also have been hit by the itch. ...

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