New York’s Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies anticipates a bad year for ticks in the northeastern United States. Its predictions are based on a simple trend: more mice mean more ticks, and an increase in Lyme disease the following year.
According to the Cary Institute, there was a mouse plague during the summer of 2016 in the Hudson River Valley. The U.S. Center for Disease Control reports that mice are responsible for infecting with Lyme disease up to 95 percent of the ticks that feed on them. That increase in mice means a thriving tick population this spring and, in turn, an increase in transmission of tick-borne illnesses.
Not sure what to do after finding a tick on your person? Here are a few pointers: