Spring is when tick season ramps up, here’s how to protect yourself

PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- Weekly emergency room visits for tick bites are at their highest level since 2017, according to the CDC.

Kelsey Wagoner is a family nurse practitioner in Plymouth with Saint Joseph Medical Group. She says this time last year; she saw a handful of cases and fewer messages about tick bites compared to this year.

“We've seen quite a bit recently. I would say, just in the past couple of weeks, at least ten in the office, like for my patients. And then that's not including like the patient messages that are coming through the MyChart portal, with like pictures and everything, asking us questions about tick bites,” said Wagoner.

Most of those cases were in kids.

“They're not as likely to let you know if they have anything on them. So definitely, checking kids after they come inside is important,” said Wagoner.

She says ticks like to travel up the body and find warm places, often where clothing fits more snugly.

“You usually find them like backs of your knees, lower legs, your hairline. So preventative measures, I would say, to wear, like DEET protectant, bug repellent when you're going to be out in those wooded areas, and then light, lighter colored clothing, so that you can pick out if you see a tick on your clothes, and then showering right after you're coming inside and then doing a full body check,” said Wagoner.

Wagoner says spring is when the tick season ramps up.

Mark VanderWerp is a board-certified entomologist and Manager of Education and Training at Rose Pest Solutions.

He says the group most at risk is younger children, often picking up ticks in their yard or neighborhood.

“Kids are very prone to tick attack. Where are you putting the swing set? Where's the toys? Where are they hanging out? Are they running around in the woods or at an edge of a wood? Or are they hanging out in, you know, manicured lawn? Big difference about what kind of a tick risk they're at in those two places,” said VanderWerp.

To have ticks, VanderWerp says you need wildlife, which ticks feed on. They also need leaf litter and decaying organic matter. He says Ticks like high humidity and to stay in damp, dense foliage.

To help protect yourself, you can move play areas, fire pits, or lounge chairs away from areas where ticks may be.

“You really only need to be about 10 or more feet away from the kind of tick hot spots. Again, they just don't move that much away from where they're hanging out. So, if you can just physically move yourself away, you can help out a lot. So yeah, mown lawn, wood chipped areas, of course, you know, reducing some of the canopy so you have a little bit more sunlight. All these things are going to be stressful to ticks,” said VanderWerp.

He says the faster you can get a tick off a person or a pet, the better, to prevent disease transmission. VanderWerp says there are many different species of ticks, all of which can carry disease.

“The most common, at least in North America, tick-borne disease, Lyme disease, everyone's heard of that. When are you most at risk? Actually, it's right now, spring and summer, and it's because that's actually when the nymphal and larval stages are active. Those are the ones that are much harder to see. They're a little smaller. People don't notice them as much,” said VanderWerp.

He says there’s one tick in our region that transmits it. “That's what we would call the black-legged tick. Sometimes it's called the deer tick,” said VanderWerp.

Just like humans, pets can also get tick-borne diseases and can bring ticks into your home, too. VanderWerp says the nature of a dog, for example, is to roam around, potentially into a tick-prone area. He says you could install an electric fence to keep the pet away from areas where there may be ticks.

He says it's important to make sure your dog is on the right medication, so if a tick gets on them, it dies or isn't able to reproduce.