THUNDER BAY – Tick season has returned.
While previous seasons have seen less tick activity in this region, mostly due to the extreme cold of the winter, this summer is not expected to follow that trend.
Thunder Bay and District Health Unit Entomologist Ken Deacon says the first of the May is the official beginning of tick season, and immediately the bugs had reason to be happy.
“It’s probably going to be a bumper crop,” Deacon said during a recent interview with CKPR Radio.
“I say that because last year was a really wonderful year for tick development. The winter was fairly mild it had good snow cover so there should be really … low mortality rate.”
The Health Unit is already receiving tick reports from across the city – from Current River through to Westfort.
This leads Deacon to believe that the ticks will be fairly wide spread this season.
A bad tick season is cause for concern because the local population is known to feature deer ticks. Unlike their wood tick counterparts, the deer ticks are known to carry Lyme disease.
But that fact shouldn’t keep you locked in your home until winter returns.
“If (the deer ticks) have embedded on you, it takes more than 24 hours for them to actually transmit the disease,” Deacon said. “So there is no reason to be concerned about going out and enjoying the wild in the area, but there is every reason to take precautions.”
(CKPR Radio)
