Expect another bad year for ticks in Thunder Bay, says entomologist

A local entomologist says 2017 is shaping up to be another bumper year for ticks in and around Thunder Bay, Ont.

Last year a record number of blacklegged ticks were submitted to the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU), and the numbers this year are likely to be similar, said Ken Deacon, the vector born disease coordinator for the health unit.

"I thought this last winter might be a real killer for [the ticks], because we had that thaw in the middle of January and then it hit really low temperatures," he said.

"But according to the submissions that we're getting to the health unit, we're right on track, the same as last year."

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It presents an education challenge, he said, in an area where the tick population has been rising over the past decade due to climate change, but people still haven't fully adapted to living with the insects.

"The ticks are here and they're here to stay and the only thing that's going to change is our behaviour," he said, "and we have to behave differently when we go out in the woods."

While both wood ticks and blacklegged ticks are present in the area, blacklegged ticks (also known as deer ticks) are the bigger concern, because they can transmit lyme disease.

Precautions

Deacon said he doesn't want to discourage people from spending time in the woods, but it is important that people take precautions to avoid being bitten by a tick.

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Some simple steps to take include wearing light coloured clothing, so that ticks are easily visible, tucking pant cuffs into socks, and doing a thorough tick check at the end of an outing.

If people do discover what they believe to be a blacklegged tick, they're asked to bring it into the health unit.

Surveillanceefforts underway

While hundreds of ticks were submitted to the health unit last year, it's also "trying very hard," to catch a blacklegged tick using what's called "active surveillance," Deacon said.

Active collection means sending out a team, and dragging a white sheetto try to find a tick in the wild.

They need to do that in order for the area's official lyme disease risk level to rise above its current low risk designation.

"We feel that it should at least be designated an area of risk," he said.

"If it's an area of risk I think it would be making the public more aware that they have to protect themselves from ticks."