Key TakeawaysWhile you might be seeing more dog ticks, it’s shaping up to be an average year for most other types of ticks.Not every tick carries and transmits tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease.Your risk of getting a disease-spreading tick bite depends on the type of tick. Your risk also varies depending on where you live.
Key Takeaways
While you might be seeing more dog ticks, it’s shaping up to be an average year for most other types of ticks.Not every tick carries and transmits tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease.Your risk of getting a disease-spreading tick bite depends on the type of tick. Your risk also varies depending on where you live.
Every spring and summer, people throughout the United States start to theorize whether the year will bring a particularly bad tick season.
“I get asked that all the time,”Thomas Mather, PhD, a professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island, tells Verywell. He’s also the director of the university’sTickEncounter Resource Center.
“Right now, we are seeing a banner year for dog ticks all through the country,” Mather says. The presence of black-legged ticks (deer ticks orIxodes scapularis)—the ones that carry the bacteria that causesLyme diseaseand other pathogens—has already begun ramping up for the year.
However, Mather notes deer ticks are no worse than usual this year—though steady numbers aren’t necessarily good news. “Normal is bad," Mather says. “Normal translates into 406,000 news cases ofLyme diseaseevery year.”
How Risk Varies By Tick
Several species of ticks can spread diseases to humans, but Mather says that not all ticks carry and transmit the same diseases.
Tick Disease Risks
Different types of ticks can carry and spread different tick-borne illnesses. One tick that gets a lot of attention—and worry—is the black-legged tick. Mather says that:
How Lyme Disease Spreads
The risk of contracting a tick-borne disease depends on the region in the U.S. where a person lives or happens to be spending time outside.According to Mather, even when a tick species moves into new regions, its behavior changes in ways that may limit disease transmission.
For example, in the South, the black-legged tick lives deep in the leaf litter on the forest floor, so it’s less likely to climb onto shoes or clothing of human hikers.
According to Mather, the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum)—named for the white spot on its back—has spread through the southern Midwest and up into Rhode Island and Massachusetts. A bite from the lone star tick can not only transmit several diseases but has also been linked to the development of a severe allergy to red meat.
Overall, Mather says that climate change plays a small role in how ticks are spreading through the country. But more importantly, the expanding population of white-tailed deer—the primary hosts for ticks—remains one of the major driving forces. White-tailed deer are widespread in the U.S. and are even being found in areas adjacent to urban settings.
What This Means For YouTick season is ramping up in the U.S., but there are steps that you can take to keep your family (and your pets) safe from tick-borne illnesses, such as using tick repellent, staying out of long grass, checking yourself regularly, and knowing what to do if you find a tick on you. For more information about which ticks are common in your area or what diseases they can transmit, you can check out the University of Rhode Island’sTickEncountersite.
What This Means For You
Tick season is ramping up in the U.S., but there are steps that you can take to keep your family (and your pets) safe from tick-borne illnesses, such as using tick repellent, staying out of long grass, checking yourself regularly, and knowing what to do if you find a tick on you. For more information about which ticks are common in your area or what diseases they can transmit, you can check out the University of Rhode Island’sTickEncountersite.
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.Spending time in your own yard can bring you into 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.
Tick Prevention
The best way to avoid any tick-borne illness is to prevent them from getting on you.There are a few steps that you can take to keep yourself, and your pets, safe:
Lyme Disease Prevention
What to Do If You Find a Tick
While you might be tempted to immediately yank a tick off your skin, be deliberate about removing it. For best removal, the CDC recommends:
Once you’ve removed the tick, you can usually get a better look at it and figure out what kind of tick it is. However, depending on its stage of development, it can be tricky to identify it correctly.
If you aren’t sure, your state’s public health department, local universities, and healthcare facilities often provide tick identification services.The TickEncounter site also allows you to submit a photo of a tick for identification. If you find a tick on yourself or a family member, identifying what kind it is can help determine your risk of contracting an illness.
Mather says that while most people worry that every tick will give them Lyme disease, most of the ticks found from May through early summer are American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis)—which do not transmit Lyme disease.
“I’m trying to get people to ‘know your tick, know your disease,'” Mather says.
9 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Regions where ticks live.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Alpha-gal syndrome.University of Rhode Island.TickEncounter.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks in the yard.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ticks.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Avoiding ticks.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks on your pets.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Tick removal.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How ticks spread disease.
9 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Regions where ticks live.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Alpha-gal syndrome.University of Rhode Island.TickEncounter.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks in the yard.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ticks.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Avoiding ticks.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks on your pets.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Tick removal.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How ticks spread disease.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Regions where ticks live.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Alpha-gal syndrome.University of Rhode Island.TickEncounter.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks in the yard.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ticks.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Avoiding ticks.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks on your pets.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Tick removal.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How ticks spread disease.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Regions where ticks live.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Alpha-gal syndrome.
University of Rhode Island.TickEncounter.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks in the yard.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ticks.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Avoiding ticks.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Preventing ticks on your pets.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Tick removal.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How ticks spread disease.
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