In recent years, ticks have been quietly expanding their territory across the United States, posing a growing threat to public health. Driven by climate change, changing land use, and an explosion in the deer population, these tiny creatures are now found in areas where they were once rare. They carry a variety of pathogens that can cause serious illnesses, from Lyme disease to the red meat allergy-inducing Alpha-gal syndrome. In some cases, tick bites can even be fatal.
Ticks are most commonly found in tall grass and wooded areas, meaning that a simple hike or even spending time in your backyard can expose you to a tick bite. In many parts of the country, the fear of ticks is changing how people live their lives, from the way they dress to how they enjoy their hobbies. Despite the growing threat, public health officials have been caught off guard, with emergency room visits due to tick bites reaching their highest levels since 2017.
The expanding range of ticks and the diseases they carry
Thanks to warmer winters, ticks are expanding their hunting season, with some experts using the word exponential to describe their spread. Tick species are now found in areas where people and doctors are not familiar with them. The lone star tick, for example, has spread rapidly across the eastern US and is now present in at least 21 states. This tick is responsible for Alpha-gal syndrome, which can cause a severe allergy to red meat.
In 2026, a pilot named Brian Weitzel from northern New Jersey died after developing Alpha-gal syndrome from a tick bite. He had a hamburger at a barbecue, went home to mow his lawn, and a few hours later was unresponsive on the floor. His family was left in shock, trying to figure out why he had died. This tragic case highlights the seriousness of tick-borne diseases and the need for greater awareness and prevention efforts.
Lyme disease is the most familiar tick-borne illness, with about half a million people treated for it each year. Cases have more than doubled over the past decade, mostly as a result of bites from the black-legged tick or the deer tick. These ticks, along with many others, are expanding their range rapidly across North America, carrying a variety of pathogens that can make us sick.
The lack of public health efforts to control ticks
Despite the growing threat of ticks, public health efforts to control them have been lacking. According to climate reporter Jonathan Mingle, 90 percent of vector-borne disease cases in the US are from ticks. Yet, despite this, 80 percent of what local city and county health agencies do in terms of vector control is focused on mosquitoes, with only about 10 or 11 percent doing any kind of tick control.
This lack of effort is due in part to a lack of funding and policy support for trying out, testing, and deploying new approaches to controlling ticks. As one veteran tick expert at the CDC explained, if you want to make a dent in this problem, you have to get to the deer. Deer are the engine driving a lot of these tick species spreading, and we just have way more deer than we did decades ago, especially in the eastern US and suburban parts of America.
However, hunting deer is not a feasible solution. Instead, a combined approach of vaccines and other methods may be more promising. Vaccines that could be delivered to deer or to rodents, which are another important host for these ticks, could help control tick populations. But without serious funding and research, these solutions are not being pursued.
In the absence of a functional government response, it’s up to individuals to protect themselves from ticks. Doing tick checks is one of the most effective ways to prevent tick-borne diseases. When you come home, do a thorough tick check, throw your clothes in the dryer, and use permethrin spray, which is an insecticide designed to kill ticks on your boots or pants when you go out for a hike.
Researchers have known these personal measures to be really effective if you keep doing them and stay vigilant. However, it only takes one time forgetting to do a tick check for you to be at risk. So, while personal measures are important, we still need a bigger public health response to this growing threat.
As winters get warmer, more and more days of the year when you’re outdoors, you’re going to encounter ticks who are hungry and looking for you. It’s time for us to fight back against these tiny but dangerous creatures and protect our health.
