Pa. tick experts explain why outdoors enthusiasts need to plan ahead to prevent tick bites
With Pennsylvania having a relatively mild winter, those spending time outdoors should be concerned about ticks now.
“It’s always going to be a bad tick year because of all the pathogens that they carry and transmit to us,” said Christian Boyer, tick specialist for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
“They’re tough little buggers. It takes quite a bit to tamp them down."
The region would need to have extremely cold weather for an extended period of time when there’s no snow to kill off some of the ticks. Snow acts like an insulator for these arthropods and that helps them to survive the winter.
Adult blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, can be active throughout the year and people can be exposed to them during the winter months as well as other times of the year.
Mark O’Neill, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said all Pennsylvanians in all regions of the state are considered at risk for Lyme disease, especially those who spend time outdoors or who have pets who spend time outdoors.
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The agency reported 8,413 cases of Lyme disease in 2022. The numbers for 2023 haven’t been released yet.
Southeastern Pennsylvania had the most cases with 2,691, followed by 1,635 cases in southcentral Pennsylvania, 1,457 in southwestern Pennsylvania, 1,065 in northeastern Pennsylvania, 821 in northwestern Pennsylvania and 744 in northcentral Pennsylvania.
“Although deer ticks, the ticks that transmit Lyme disease in Pennsylvania, can be found in every county of the state, some areas are more conducive to higher tick populations,” O'Neill said through an email. Areas bordering forests tend to be higher risk for deer ticks. In addition, areas that have high wildlife populations may have more ticks as they are a food source for ticks.
Boyer said deer tick and dog tick populations have been steady in the commonwealth, however some invasive ticks that he’s seeing, like the longhorned tick, are expanding in numbers.
In 2019, longhorned ticks were in six southeastern counties and now they are in 25 counties. “They marched across the state westward in the western direction and north,” he said.
When it comes to Lyme disease or other illnesses, Boyer said removing a tick as soon as possible is imperative.
“If you are bitten by an adult deer tick, you have a one in two chance, if it’s on you long enough, of contracting Lyme disease or any other of these pathogens it can transmit,” Boyer said.
“We are never going to be able to eradicate ticks,” he said, but there are things people can do to reduce the number of these tiny critters.
Homeowners can purchase sprays for their yards or edges where there is habitat for ticks.
“The biggest thing that people need to understand, is we need to be cognizant of ticks now,” Boyer said.
Tick prevention
People should be thinking about ticks when they spend time outdoors.
“Always be cognizant about ticks and taking precautions when people are in the field, fishing or hunting, hiking or camping," Boyer said.
There are things people should do when they are planning to spend time outdoors.
Boyer recommends wearing light-colored clothing so you can see when a dark colored tick is on your shirt or pants.
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Tucking your shirt into your pants and your pants into your socks to create a barrier is another tip to keep ticks from easily reaching your skin.
O’Neill said the Department of Health is also focused on preventing Lyme disease and strongly encourages Pennsylvanians to be proactive and take precautions to prevent themselves and family members from getting Lyme disease.
The DOH says the best ways to prevent Lyme disease before you go outdoors:
Apply the insecticide permethrin to shoes, clothes, and gear that people use outside while doing yard work, hiking, camping and other outdoor activity.
Use EPA-registered insect repellents containing DEET and picaridin before spending time outdoors, especially in higher risk areas.
Avoid wooded and brushy areas with high grass.
Walk in the center of trails.
Boyer also recommends clothes you can buy that are pretreated to kill or repel ticks.
“No. 1 is to do tick checks. Not only when you are in the field but when you return home and not only on yourself but on companion animals as well,” Boyer said. Ticks that get on your pets may come off on your furniture or bed.
He recommends placing the clothes you wear outside immediately in your dryer to kill any ticks that you didn’t see on the garments. “Washing your clothes won’t necessarily kill the ticks, but if you put them in the dryer on high heat, that will take care of the ticks,” he said.
People should also take a shower after spending time outdoors as the water can wash off any remaining ticks.
Boyer said ticks are found along edges of fields and grass lines and those areas should be avoided when walking outdoors. “Stay in the middle of trails away from the edges where the ticks are most likely to be,” he said.
People can find them in the woods, fields and even in their back yards and gardens.
“We don’t want to scare people and tell them now they can’t enjoy the outdoors, people just need to be aware now that ticks are part of our lives and they always will be when we are outside,” Boyer said.
If you discover a tick on your body, he said to use a pair of tweezers to grab it close to your skin, and remove it as soon as possible. “The longer they are attached, the more likely there is to be a transmission of any kind of pathogen that’s in them to make you sick,” Boyer said.
People should wash the areas with soap and monitor it for a rash and fever-related symptoms.
Lyme disease can be transmitted within 24 or 48 hours, but deer tick virus can be transmitted to a human within 15 minutes, he said. Some ticks carry more than one pathogen where people end up needing to be treated for more than one illness.
Some of the hotspots for deer tick virus in recent years have been Centre, Clearfield, Wyoming and Beaver counties.
In areas of the state where they have discovered larger numbers of ticks, Boyer said there have been efforts to control and reduce the population with sprays and tick tubes.
“To control ticks statewide is an insurmountable task, but if we have something that calls for surgical, really pointed treatments, we can do that,” he said.
Going forward, outdoors enthusiasts need to plan and prepare for ticks to have a safe time enjoying their favorite activities.
“Ticks are here now and they are here to stay," Boyer said. "They are part of our lives."
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: What do you do about tick bites?
