What is going on? Has there been a rise in ticks? I went my whole life without ever seeing one or knowing someone who experienced it. But in the last few years they have been getting increasingly reported more often.
Edit: thanks for the responses, didn't expect so many. I should file for a PhD at this rate.
Exactly lol. In my very rural area. Every time I go outside I get at least 2-4 ticks on me. Now I just spray poison on my pants because I just can't deal with those fuckers.
Especially since the state I live in has ticks they have a lovely disease that can make you allergic to meat. Itās scary honestly. I did Boy Scouts in the past and luckily never got bitten by any ticks, but I always wore pants and long socks, along with a ton of bug spray. Theyāre the one pest I would be happy if they got wiped out
Yeah Im usually very pro ecosystem. But I would wipe out ticks, mosquitos, and human based bed bugs in an instant. Childhood fear of mine has always been parasites and disease.
I live in Florida and chiggers love the Spanish moss that is on practically every tree with overhanging branches. If you're a tourist and you see this, DO NOT touch it. And if you are already dealing with chiggers, apply clear nail polish to the affected area. It'll be a pain to get off, but it gets rid of them easy because it traps and suffocates them.
My mom got this, couldn't even be in the same room as pork that was cooking. It even made her allergic to mammal food products in general, so she couldn't eat milk or cheese.
It sometimes comes and goes, and you can sometimes make it go away with more niche remedies, in my mom's case acupuncture. But we have epi pens at the house permanently now
Permethrin is honestly fucking great. Totally non-harmful to humans and dogs and stuff (far as we know), and kills any creepy crawly dumb enough to look in your general direction.
Unfortunately (like fucking everything), itās highly toxic to cats.
I grew up in the UK, constantly playing in fields of grass. Only ever heard of ticks from the US cartoon The Tick. Felt lucky that we donāt have them. Then, as an adult I found out we totally did have them, complete with Lyme disease. I guess ignorance is bliss cos no way I would have spent so much time in the woods or laying in the grass
I grew up in a heavily forested area where there are wood ticks but not deer ticks. Wood ticks do not carry lyme disease. I picked hundreds of them off myself every year playing outside. It was not a big deal at all.
I was genuinely shocked to find out as an adult how afraid of them everyone is.
I work in pest control and my area is covered in ticks. So I try to keep informed as much as I can. Bed Bugs are what you should be afraid of. Itchy, prolific, and hardy fuckers. HOWEVER if you might have bed bugs, check to see if itās a Bat Bug. Very similar and related species but not so bad and much easier to get rid of.
Same, we would find them in the ears of our dogs a lot. Sometimes they were super fat and I'd pluck them off and smash them with a piece of wood as a kid to watch them pop. š¤¦š»āāļø
i like the outdoors, and love hiking in the woods, but ticks are pretty common once you start doing that, if your hiking or anything like that I you can use tape facing outward to trap them so they don't crawl up and take root
I grew up constantly hearing about ticks. That said, climate change making winters warmer means tick season is longer and conditions are generally more favorable for them than in the past.
TBF it's not entirely intuitive since insect/arachnid populations have gone down in a lot of other areas and species. The fact that ticks target mammals rather than predating on insects, and therefore thrive in areas like the suburbs, means they're having a much more successful time exploiting warming conditions.
I heard about ticks all the time too, and I spent tons of time in the woods as a child. But I never got one until very recently, and lately I've gotten quite a few.
Iām in Canada, itās crazy how there were none in my area and suddenly theyāre all over us this summer. They had to send letters home to families via school about it and thereās tons of signage on trails and public health messaging. Growing up camping and living in the country ticks were a thing other regions had and we didnāt have to worry about.
It does seem like it. Yhough maybe it is just that people and governmenting agencies are more aware of the potential long-term consequences of tick bites.
Like, if we suddenly found out bee stings carries the same risks as ticks, I'd imagine there'd be a lot more talk about bee stings and warnings about bees.
Or for an example related difference, I also don't recall being young and seeing billboards advertising the option to send in ticks for diseases testing.
On the other hand, I do recall visiting a state park in elementary school and being told to prepare for the possible ticks there by wearing jeans and high socks to school and to tuck my pants into my socks before getting off the bus.
Yes. Changing climates due to human caused global temperature rise is making more areas far more suitable to ticks. So more people are becoming exposed to them.
Protect possums. They eat shitloads or ticks. Try to go out of your way to be kind to and help possums if you can.
I live near some farm fields, and it used to be I had to go out into those to pick a tick up. And even then it wasnt every single time.
My house is probably 150 yards from those fields, and now they are all in my grass right up to my porch. Its not so bad right off the porch, but it gets worse as you go. I even sprayed cutter already. And they are SUPER tiny compared to normal, like the size of some coarse ground pepper.
The change in climate (colder winters with more snow pack creating insulation and warmer summers perfect for breeding) coupled with habitat loss in their primary feeders stretching into more suburban areas, and a good storage year for the food storing rodents which are a primary source of food for the larva has created the perfect storm for tick populations to explode. Coupled with the fact that the fuckers are the cockroach of the outside, theyāre adapting nicely and spreading to places they arenāt typically seen.
There has been a massive rise in tick populations because of higher global temperatures causing less ticks to die from low temperatures that normally cull them during colder seasons like winter. The lack of culling not only means their populations don't drop but instead explode exponentially due to more favorable conditions and more of their species to mate with. It used to be that you were only really at risk of encountering ticks if you were in certain areas or otherwise out in the deep wilderness, but it's rapidly approaching a point where just about any grass anywhere may have them if their populations continue to grow like this (hint: they will).
My dog dropped two within a weeks time. Sorry for the grainy quality on the bottom one, was taken on kids old iphone. First year this has ever happened and we've had the dog for 7 years.
I've seen people talking about ticks this year as casually as they've been talking about the weather it's been so bad (Minnesota).
Did some volunteer work at a state park and one of the ladies ended the day with twenty two of them on her. Luckily 0 that day for me. Oddly enough, the only one I've gotten this year was when I was inside painting an old (1920s) school for the entire day lol.
Where we live we get ticks all the time, I agree - Something about this year is really great for ticks...Especially over the spring, Every day is just Tick after Tick.
If I remember right, it takes around a month till the effects kick in. You may seem fine and then you're eating a burger one day and next, you have the symptoms of an allergy. If you're concerned about it, take one bite of whatever meat you're going to have and wait to see if anything happens. Preferably have another person near you, so that if something does happen, they can call 911 (or the number of an emergency service in your area).
Thatās just what they write on the chalkboardā¦ āThis week: Momās Meatloafā but mom ran away with that Bob guy years ago and theyāre probably living in down Florida if I had to guess. The point is that momās gone and sheās not coming back!
It bit me and was attached for about 17 hours before I noticed. It was between my butt cheeks but I was able to get its head out (no homo). It was alive but I killed it and put it in a Ziploc bag.
I believe you're thinking of Alpha-gal. It doesn't make you vegan, just allergic to mammal products, like beef, pork, etc. So poultry for example is safe as well as fish.
Yeah thatās the one Iām worried about the most. If I canāt have beef and pork for dinner it would suck but like, thereās nothing to do about it, Iāll survive. But my medicine though, itās all capsules, I canāt live without my medicine and thereās no alternative medicine I can take instead.
Iām not sure what a compounding pharmacy is I think, Google says itās a place that custom make medicine? If so we donāt have those in my country, I have never even heard of the concept until now
On one hand it IS a ... sort of? a good idea to keep the ticks that bite you if you're not sure what kind they are -- so when you go to the doctor they can test the tick too. But keeping a tick family is...extra.
I hate the idea of toxic pesticides but I now keep DEET in my shed, potting bench, barn, and by the back door so I can spray myself down anytime I decide to venture into the grass. Iād rather inhale DEET than end up with alpha-gal, chronic neurologic lyme, or whatever abomination the tick world comes up with next.
this is the second post iāve seen today about someone being told to touch grass and something bad happening.. first one was a rash from an allergic reaction lmao
I cannot recall ever having a single tick during my childhood in the late 80s or 90s. Yet I was constantly out in the grass, climbing trees, and crawling through the bushes.
If you start to feel like you're getting sick, do not wait to see a doctor and make sure they know you've recently be bitten by a tick in case it's Lyme Disease.
You need to burn it btw. Squish and burn. They canāt drown or at least itāll take months for them to drown or something like that.
The tweezer you used was probably what you had available so no judgement just a tip because theyāre arenāt the best for it. You can buy tweezers or plastic cards made for tick removal that makes it more likely to get the whole tick off in one go so the mouth isnāt left on the skin.
Do not use alcohol it can make them puke which isnāt good, do not use fire on it while itās on either. Just a tweezer or card make for it, underneath the back of the tick and snap it off quickly, then toss it in a fire. In some countries though Iāve heard you can bring the tick to a doctor for testing? In that case idk what to do with the tick once itās off
Anyone that spends any significant amount of time outside should definitely invest in either permethrin treated clothing or permethrin spray for your existing clothing. Repels them real good, and kills the fuckers within a minute if they linger on you for too long
It will always baffled me that ticks are common. I lived in a rural area with lots of forests and a massive park in indiana. Never had issues with ticks for all 19 years of being raised there.. moved down to the south and got a tick on me in the first 5 months š«
I found one on me yesterday. Had to walk through a ton of vegetation during work, was wearing two layers of long pants and even sprayed my boots with a ton of tick spray.
1.8k
u/katemkat23 Jun 20 '26
The grass touched back