I was walking in the woods yesterday, on a trail on the property I grew up on. In the course of a 45 minute walk on a (mostly) clear trail I had to pull at least 12 ticks off of me. Between the group of 3 adults and 1 child who went for a walk, we estimate we pulled 40 off of us.
I’ve been walking that trail for decades now and that was by far the worst I’d seen it.
Anyone else seeing similar things this year? It looks like the were predicting a tough year for New England, and the CDC has been warning about an increase in tick-borne illnesses, but I didn’t think it would be quite that bad.
Related: Vox did a good explainer about Lyme Disease a few weeks ago, which is worth reading if you don’t know much about it. I’ve had a family members and friends have rather scary experiences with it, and it’s worth learning about if you’re in (or traveling to) an affected area.
graph paper diaries 
300 yards, about 60 wood ticks on 2 adults. 2 miles more, about 8. Then at home; another the next day, and another the next. Sneaky little beasts. 1 deer tick in the lot. I think it was one, anyhow. It reached an unexpected end before it could bite us.
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Ugh. I’m pretty sure one on me was a deer tick…it’s was tiny and quite feisty.
Apparently showering shortly after going out helps quite a bit.
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I used to think a cold winter would drive the tick populations down based on my climate experiences in the 1970s in the northeast. But I think it is more related to rebounding deer, chipmunk and other animal populations. In Connecticut the deer herd was about 20,000 in the 1970s and is near 100,000 today. Lots more of these are near houses and in the suburban forests.
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That would make sense! I’ve heard their may be a link with mice as well:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/07/17/why-this-adorable-mouse-is-to-blame-for-the-spread-of-lyme-disease/?utm_term=.e96f4c18c918
Apparently the mouse population thrives with acorn seasons, and we’ve had a few good ones.
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I’m just not going into the woods anymore, despite my enjoyment of it. No point.
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I had a similar feeling with the trail by my parents house. I love it, but that level of tick infestation is just kind of gross.
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Is there any tracking of gypsy moth population compared to tick population?
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I couldn’t find a graph, but it looks like their inversely correlated. A high mouse population is bad for gypsy moths but good for ticks:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/1998/02/mice-and-moths-and-lyme-disease
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Interesting. Thanks for looking.
Like being between a rock and a hard place.
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Nature: it’s always something.
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Yes, the reports for the northeast are calling for a lot of ticks this year. My sister lives there and gets at least one per day on her.
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