Tick season is coming. Ticks are biting bugs that transmit pathogens to humans and animals. A mild winter and early spring has allowed the tick population to have a good survival rate.
This will help tick season to start early and allow the bugs to spread diseases, such as Lyme disease. 🕷️ Tick season is here in Ontario! Stay safe this spring and summer. Protect yourself & your pets from tick bites and Lyme disease.
Learn how to identify, remove and prevent ticks with these helpful resources 👉 https://t.co/33NYwQ3Jlb pic.twitter.
com/PlUCHdpgyT Associate professor Manisha Kulkarni, with the University of Ottawa’s School of Epidemiology and Public Health, leads the UPTick research project and anticipates early tick activity. “There isn’t normally much activity before April, but this year on the eTicknorth_eastexternal link we’ve seen an increase in the number of eastern Ontario submissions,” Kulkarni said in a release. “Black-legged ticks can be active when it’s above 4 C so the mild winter in Ontario likely helped ticks remain active.
Based on the tick photo submissions we have received, people and/or pets have been encountering ticks in parts of southern Ontario and a few spots in eastern Ontario in December and January.” Kulkarni said they’ve seen a “continued expansion of blacklegged tick populations with more regions becoming endemic in Ontario. “With more time in the spring, summer and autumn to find hosts, more ticks can reproduce,” she sa.