Is it a bad year for ticks? It depends on where you live

Every spring and summer, people across the United States begin to theorize whether the year will bring a particularly bad tick season.

“I get asked that all the time” Thomas Mather, PhD, professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island, says Verywell. He is also director of the university TickEncounter Resource Center.

Mather says that when people ask if tick season looks worse in any given year, he responds by asking which tick the person is talking about and where it is.

“Right now we’re seeing a banner year for dog ticks across the country,” Mather said. The presence of blacklegged ticks (deer ticks or Scapular ixodes) —Those that carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and other pathogens – has already begun to increase for the year.

However, Mather notes that deer ticks aren’t worse than usual this year, although stable numbers aren’t necessarily good news. “Normal is bad,” says Mather. “Normal results in 406,000 new cases of Lyme disease every year.”

How risk varies per tick

Several tick species can transmit diseases to humans, but Mather says not all ticks carry and transmit the same diseases.

Risks of tick disease

Different types of ticks can carry and spread different tick-borne diseases. One tick that attracts a lot of attention and concern is the blacklegged tick. Mather says that:

• Only about 25% of blacklegged ticks carry Borrelia burgdorferi—the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. On the west coast, about 5% of western blacklegged ticks carry Lyme disease.
• About 5-8% of blacklegged ticks can transmit anaplasmosis.
• About 5-10% of blacklegged ticks can transmit babesiosis.

Risk by region

The risk of contracting a tick-borne disease depends on the region of the United States where a person lives or spends time outdoors.seEven when a tick species moves to new areas, Mather says, its behavior changes in ways that limit disease transmission.

For example, in the South, the blacklegged tick lives deep in leaf litter on the forest floor, so it is less likely to climb on the shoes or clothing of human hikers.

According to Mather, the lone star tick (American amblyomma) – named after the white patch on its back – has spread across the southern Midwest and as far as Rhode Island and Massachusetts. A solitary tick bite can not only transmit several diseases, but has also been linked to the development of a severe allergy to red meat.sese

Overall, Mather says climate change is playing a small role in the spread of ticks across the country. But more importantly, the growing population of white-tailed deer, the primary hosts for ticks, remains a major driving force. White-tailed deer are widespread in the United States and are even found in areas adjacent to urban settings.sese

How to protect yourself from ticks

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you don’t have to go out into the woods to pick up a tick.seSpending time in your own garden can put you in close contact with them. In general, ticks live in grassy, ​​brushy or wooded areas. You can also come into contact with them from your pets.sese

Tick ​​prevention

The best way to avoid any disease transmitted by ticks is to prevent them from invading you.seThere are a few things you can do to keep you and your pets safe:

• Use a tick repellant. Before hiking, walking, mowing the lawn or gardening, spray your clothes with products containing 0.5% permethrin.
• Dress to protect yourself. If you spend time outdoors, especially in wooded areas or places with tall grass, wear clothes that cover your arms and legs well. It also helps to put your socks on your pant legs to prevent ticks from entering your shoes. You can also use permethrin on your clothes or even buy pretreated clothes.
• Keep your garden tidy. While you may not be able to avoid tall grass and overgrown areas in nature parks or on a hiking trail, you can make your own garden less attractive to ticks by keeping it mowed and removing all of it. debris, like leaves, garbage, and old furniture, that they like to live with.
• Regular tick checks for you and your family members. After you’ve been outside, even just in the yard, check yourself for ticks. Look carefully at places that you might not usually see, such as under your arms, in and around your ears, around the hairline, around your waist, and between your legs. It is also helpful to take a shower after gardening or hiking.
• Check your pets. Pets can take preventative flea and tick medications, but these treatments aren’t always foolproof.seWhen you go out with your pets, try to keep them away from grassy or wooded areas. If you are on trails, keep them in the center or on the mowed areas. Check your pets for ticks after a walk or even just a walk in the yard. You can use a tick comb to help look through the thick layers.

What to do if you find a tick

Even though you might be tempted to pull a tick off your skin immediately, consider removing it. For better elimination, the CDC recommends:sese

• Use fine tweezers to grab the tick as close to the skin surface as possible
• Pull upward with constant, even pressure. Do not twist or shake the tick; it can cause the mouth to rupture and stay in the skin
• After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water

Once you remove the tick, you can usually better examine and understand what kind of tick this is. However, depending on its stage of development, it can be tricky to identify it correctly.sese

If you are unsure, your state’s public health department, local universities, and health facilities often offer tick identification services.seThe TickEncounter site also allows you to submit a photo of a tick for identification. If you find a tick on yourself or a member of your family, identifying which type it is can help determine your risk of getting a disease.

Mather says that while most people worry that every tick will give them Lyme disease, most ticks found from May to early summer are American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) —Which do not transmit Lyme disease.

“I try to make people ‘know your tick, know your disease,’ says Mather.