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More tick bites are happening closer to home
WTAE • • health
Key Points:
- Ticks pose a year-round risk, with over 60% of tick exposures occurring at home due to wildlife such as deer, groundhogs, rabbits, and chipmunks bringing ticks into residential areas.
- Environmental factors like a larger deer population and increased organic material in Pennsylvania’s forests are contributing to rising tick densities statewide.
- Pennsylvania’s climate, especially last winter’s deep snowpack, benefits tick survival by providing moisture and insulation, leading to earlier tick emergence in spring.
- Summer is the peak season for nymph ticks, which are small, often unnoticed, and responsible for most disease transmission, highlighting the importance of thorough tick checks.
- The Tick Research Lab of Pennsylvania offers free testing for ticks found on people and maintains a dashboard to track tick activity across the state.
