It wasn’t quite so humid in the afternoon a few weeks ago, so I went outside to do some yard work. Pretty routine, not a big deal.
That is, until I spotted several ticks. I found a tick crawling on my socks, another on my shorts and still another on my baseball cap.
And it appears I’m not alone in spotting a lot more ticks.
“There are more ticks than normal this year because there was a warm spring not only in North Carolina but also in a large part of the country,” said Marcia Herman-Giddens, DrPH, an adjuct professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s also the scientific advisor for the Tick-borne Infections Council of North Carolina.
“There are six species of ticks found in the state and as weather patterns shift due to climate change, tick populations are expected to increase in new places,” Herman-Giddens adds.
Climate change makes what are called the “shoulder seasons,” spring and fall, warmer, which makes for longer feeding seasons for ticks. Rising temperature also allow ticks to shift their range to essentially all over the U.S., which is one of the reasons why North Carolina is seeing more ticks. Lastly, ticks have a better chance of surviving year ‘round if winters are warmer.
The American dog tick and the brown dog tick are both responsible for spreading various forms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is the #1 tick-borne illness in the state. The black -egged tick (also called the deer tick) carries Lyme disease, which is the #2 tick-borne illness.
“People are surprised Lyme disease is so prevalent because for many years it was thought Lyme disease wasn’t found in the state," said Herman-Giddens. “Years ago cases were rare and it was thought people had been bitten elsewhere. But there are enough cases of Lyme disease that are spread throughout the state that it’s pretty clear Lyme disease is here and has likely been here all along.”
For a broader view, I checked TickEncounter. It’s a crowdsourcing website to collect tick data from people all over the U.S. and the data people have submitted shows an uptick (no pun intended) in reports of tick sightings throughout the southeastern states. Tom Mather, an entomologist at the University of Rhode Island, runs the site. Here’s the website:
Mather said it’s also possible more people are seeing black-legged and other tick species in new places because white-tailed deer are spreading into more urban areas allowing ticks to breed in the kind of parklands that see heavier use by people. Also, because of COVID-19, more people are getting outside and venturing into areas they haven’t been in before.
Add it all together and it’s a new problem those who like to get out into nature must keep in mind. Areas that had one form of tick borne illness are now seeing new diseases carried by ticks.