While Lyme disease is by far the most prevalent, accounting for nearly 35,000 cases in 2019, ticks also carry pathogens that can make you allergic to red meat or cause acute respiratory distress. Minnesota Department of Health employees demo a smart hack for keeping critters off while out in the field: Wrap duct tape around socks and pant legs to prevent ticks from crawling in. The sheer number of ticks may be forcing them to branch out into new habitats, Mayo Clinic parasitologist Bobbi Pritt theorizes. That trend has continued, with ticks are showing up in places previously deemed safe from the disease-carrying arachnids, from those coastal California beach areas to manicured lawns in the Northeast. Now, "as the numbers expand, we see ticks in areas that we don't think of as traditional habitat," Pritt says. For years, people who track black-legged ticks - the kind that carry Lyme disease - have been finding them in further flung territory, though still in mostly traditional habitats of forested areas with tall grasses and leaf litter. "Contrary to most people, we were delighted at the high numbers of ticks! It was exciting in terms of sample sizes and data," says Salkeld, whose findings were published in June.īut it's also sobering. Ticks aren't known as beach-lovers, so ecologist Dan Salkeld and a colleague were surprised when they found 180 ticks in less than a mile on a coastal trail near Muir Beach in California one day in 2016. The black-legged or deer tick, which carries Lyme disease, appears to be expanding its territory.
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