#Tick borne diseases how to

Tick-proof your gear: Look for insect repellents specifically made for clothing that contain 0.5% permethrin, an insecticide.

“But, generally, you have to be careful in the spring and summer months.” However, tick season is getting longer thanks to warmer climates, so you may want to slather on insect repellent into the fall (or any time.) “Some ticks, like the black-legged tick, which is more common in the northeast and midwest, have a different cycle than ticks in the southeast,” he says.

Be extra-vigilant during warmer weather: Tick season varies depending on where you live, Glen Ramsey, senior technical services manager at Orkin, tells SELF.

It’s important to take the following precautions against ticks while walking your dog or doing yard work.

Know where ticks thrive: Ticks usually hide in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas, which can include your backyard, parks, and gardens.

#Tick borne diseases how to

But you can make yourself less attractive to ticks and learn how to spot them with the following tips from the CDC: You may not be able to avoid ticks entirely, depending on where you live and how often you’re outdoors. Lyme disease symptoms include fever, chills, and a red rash that tends to get larger over several days, according to the National Library of Medicine. Lyme disease, which is spread by deer ticks, remains the most prevalent tick-borne infection in the U.S. Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells SELF. (You can find the most common ticks in your region on the CDC website.) Despite the recent concern about Powassan virus disease, heartland virus, and alpha-gal syndrome, there is no reason to obsess over those three right now, Amesh A.

That really depends on where you live because some illnesses are caused by specific ticks. It’s only natural that more tick-borne illnesses will spread,” Dr. “A lot of outdoor venues such as national parks have had a boom in visitors. “In the age of COVID-19, people realize that outdoor activities are safer than indoor activities,” he says. The pandemic also seems to have sparked a renewed love of outdoor activities that could put more people in closer proximity to ticks, Thomas Russo, MD, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, tells SELF. When they bite, lone star ticks transmit alpha-gal, a sugar molecule, into a person’s body, which may trigger the allergy. This spread has heightened talk about alpha-gal syndrome, which is an allergic reaction to red meat caused by lone star tick bites, according to the Mayo Clinic. For instance, lone star ticks were predominantly found in the southeast, but have moved to the midwest and northeast, popping up in states like New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan. As a result, tick populations are moving further north, Nancy Troyano, PhD, a board-certified entomologist for Ehrlich Pest Control, tells SELF. Changes in climate patterns, such as warmer-than-typical spring and summer temperatures, allow populations of ticks to live in areas they previously couldn’t survive in, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Generally speaking, ticks thrive in warm weather and grassy, wooded environments, though the preferred temperature and humidity of each species vary. But the reasons for the tick explosion are complex. In short, ticks are thriving in the U.S., leading to more bites and tick-borne illnesses. Why are tick-borne diseases and illnesses on the rise? All are caused by tick species that are growing in population and expanding geographically throughout the U.S.Īll of this sounds unsettling-but is there any reason to panic? SELF talked to experts about this year’s tick season, so you can keep yourself as safe as possible. But new tick-borne threats are gaining more attention this year: Powassan virus disease, which can cause severe infections like meningitis or fatality alpha-gal syndrome, an allergic reaction to mammalian meat triggered by tick bites and heartland virus, a still poorly understood virus that can be deadly. Lyme disease, which is a bacterial infection that can cause fever, chills, and a red rash, is the most prevalent tick-borne disease. If you look back even further, CDC data shows a worrisome trend: Tick-borne diseases have more than doubled between 20. In 2019 (the most recent year with available data), there were 50,865 reported cases of tick-borne disease compared to 47,743 cases in 2018, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It happens every year: Warmer weather brings out ticks, along with an increasing threat of tick-borne diseases and illnesses.