Experts predict explosive tick season this year: How to stay safe

Experts warn the dangers of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses could be high this year.

This year may be bringing the perfect storm when it comes to deer tick numbers and the danger of Lyme disease and some other scary illnesses the nasty little bloodsuckers bring.

Some experts are predicting an explosive season because of two factors: a bumper crop of acorns two years ago which led to an exceptionally abundant crop of white-footed mice — the preferred host of black-legged ticks (the official name of deer ticks) in their larval stage.

That set the stage for a glut of nymph stage ticks, which is the point in their lifecycle when they are most likely to spread diseases to humans and their pets, said Richard Ostfeld, a distinguished senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York.

And the data collected so far this year seem to bear out that prediction. Continue reading the complete article, written by Linda Carroll here.