The rate of emergency room visits for tick bites has not been this high since 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign extension specialist Teresa Steckler said ticks are especially bad this year despite the recent cold winter.
"I’m really mystified," she said. "I was hoping that the really bad winter that we experienced this past January, where we got really cold weather for an extended period of time — which we haven't experienced in a several years — I was hoping that that would curtail some of the ticks, but I don't think it had any impact on them."
In northern Illinois, the most common tick species are dog ticks and deer ticks, which between them can transmit seven different diseases.
Steckler said ticks are extra dense in suburban areas surrounded by woods – where deer live.
"And ticks are — I would believe — overwintering on certain animals like deer,” she said. “It's just a perfect storm of the ticks being able to survive and thrive right now.”
To help keep ticks away from your skin, Steckler said people should tuck their pants into their socks and their shirts into their pants. She also suggested wrapping double-sided tape around the tops of socks so ticks crawling up the legs become stuck on the tape.
If you are bitten by a tick, remove it gently with tweezers and freeze it in a plastic bag with a rubbing alcohol-soaked cotton ball so it does not dry out. Save the tick in case you develop flu-like symptoms, which can be a sign of a tick-borne disease. If you save the tick, you can bring it with you when consulting a doctor. If you do not develop symptoms, you still can submit the tick using a form through Bite Map Illinois.
Even if your pets are treated for ticks, it's important to check their fur thoroughly when they come inside. If the tick hasn't latched onto their skin, it could transfer onto humans.
She suggested visiting the Illinois Department of Public Health's tick website, which has been recently updated to include safety recommendations and maps of where tick-borne diseases have been identified across the state.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
