US north-east sees record tick season as climate crisis sparks arachnid boom

The Guardian

4 days ago

Ticks have been flourishing recently in the United States.
This year, as compared to recent years, there has been an increase in the reported number of blacklegged ticks, the number of such ticks that carry Lyme disease and visits to the emergency room because of bites from the tiny parasitic arachnid, according to data from universities and the US federal government.
The Fordham Tick Index, which measures the chances of being bitten by a blacklegged tick in southern New York, Connecticut and northern New Jersey, rated the week of 20 June as a 10 out of 10, its highest level of risk.
Still, scientists who study ticks are not saying people need to panic and avoid hiking even as a heating planet is seeing ticks spread ever wider across the US and boom in numbers.
'I love being outdoors, and I don't recommend that people not go out if the weather's nice, but you have to be prudent in taking some precautions,' said Thomas Daniels, a vector ecologist and director of Fordham University's Louis Calder Center, which produces the index.
Blacklegged ticks, the most common cause of Lyme disease, are appearing in higher numbers this year and the range of Lyme disease has in recent decades expanded significantly across the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 1995, reports of the disease were rare in north-eastern states like New York, New Hampshire and Vermont and in midwestern states like Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 2023, there were large clusters of cases in those areas.
Daniels said climate change was probably a factor in that expansion of ticks, which are active when the temperature gets above 40F.
'The fact that the distribution of ticks has expanded in the past 20 years is probably largely affected' by the climate becoming 'a little more moderate', Daniels said.
This year, the number of nymph blacklegged tick encounters submitted to TickSpotters has been at or above the seasonal weekly average over the last decade, according to data from the program, which is affiliated with the University of Rhode Island.
But the numbers have started to decrease in recent weeks, said Thomas Mather, a professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island and director of the Tick Encounter Resource Center.
In May and June, the United States has also seen the highest number of emergency room visits during those months for tick bites since 2019, according to the CDC.
But that does not mean that all – or even a majority – of those people have contracted Lyme disease, which can cause a rash and symptoms like fever, chills, fatigue and muscle and joint aches.
Sometimes patients want help removing a tick or have already removed it but now have a rash or they have 'difficult-to-interpret symptoms and want help to try to determine how likely it is that this is due to Lyme disease or a different tick-borne illness', said Dr Shalom Sokolow, an emergency physician at Phelps hospital in New York.
Other illnesses from ticks include alpha-gal syndrome, anaplasmosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
'A good message is to be prudent and proactive in preventing yourself from getting ticks on you or to remove them quickly,' Sokolow said. 'If you're doing that, it's not something necessarily to worry about.'
Mather encourages people who find a tick on themselves to submit a photo of it to the Tick Encounter Resource Center because that can help them determine the risk posed by the bite.
Otherwise, if a person visits a hospital after getting a tick bite, a doctor could unnecessarily prescribe an antibiotic, which could then disrupt the gut microbiome, Mather said.
'That prophylactic treatment is really only appropriate if the tick is a blacklegged tick and you're in a high Lyme disease area,' Mather said.
Webb Kane, an information technology consultant, started frequently hiking after the Covid-19 pandemic because of the exercise, and 'it's also nice to be away from technology and be out in nature,' he said.
In January, he ate shrimp and beef and started to itch. After eating the same thing a few weeks later, it happened again.
He saw an allergist, thinking it was the shrimp.
'He's like, 'You go hiking all the time? This doesn't sound like a shrimp allergy to me. This sounds like alpha-gal syndrome,'' recalled Kane, who lives in a St Louis suburb.
Alpha-gal is caused by lone star tick bites, and for people with it, eating meat or dairy can cause them to develop symptoms like hives, an itchy rash or nausea.
Kane no longer consumes beef or pork but can still eat chicken. He said he had already been careful about checking for ticks before developing the syndrome but now also wears insect-shield pants and socks with permethrin, which repels ticks and insects.
'I wish I had bought them before,' said Kane, who continues to hike regularly.
To avoid contracting a tick-borne illness, experts encourage hikers to wear light-colored clothing, which makes it easier to spot ticks, including a long-sleeved shirt, tucked into pants, which you should tuck into socks, according to the University of Rhode Island. Insect repellent should also be used.
People should check themselves during hikes and again once indoors. That includes a close examination of hair; ears; belly button, legs, clothing, gear and pets.
If a tick is found attached to skin, use tweezers – ideally ones with a fine tip – to remove it and then either place it in a container, wrap it tightly in tape or flush it down the toilet. If a tick is attached for less than 24 hours, the risk of Lyme disease is very low, according to the CDC.