Ticks On The Rise in Florida

Well, do I have some bad news for you. Tick and mosquito-borne illnesses were already a threat. But as the globe warms, so does the sunshine state. And as everything gets hotter, beneficially insects die, and pests fill the gap. The Florida Fish and Wildlife have already released a statement for 2019 for people to expect more ticks than ever before.

It’s reaching the point that anyone who spends any time outdoors should be concerned. You can find ticks just about in any background, wooded area, field, or even city at this point. And they’re transmitting Lyme, babesiosis, and all manner of disease from person to person.

Climate Change

And the real, major factor of this is climate change. When the winters aren’t cool enough to force the ticks underground, it merely gives them free rein to breed and propagate through the whole winter. The number of counties deemed high-risk for Lyme, which affects an estimated 300,000 Americans a year (many unreported cases), has increased by more than 320 percent since the late 1990s; Northern states such as Maine and Vermont used to be too cold for the deer ticks that carry Lyme, but are now crawling with them.

Warmer temperatures also reduce the amount of time it takes for ticks to mature. As a result, they can increase the period over the summer in which the parasites are active. The other driving factor is suburbanization. Deer ticks mostly feed on mice and deer — that’s also where they pick up the bacteria. So, the closer people are to them, the higher their chances of exposure. “Once you start to carve up the forest into little bits,” says Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, “you get an increase in Lyme risk.”

Ticks – Diseases

Most diseases are bacterial, so if the infection is caught early, antibiotic treatment is usually effective. More serious problems arise when people don’t realize they’ve been infected. Then the bacteria has a chance to spread throughout the body, including the nervous system. Lyme disease is notorious in this respect. Up to 20 percent of patients continue to experience symptoms such as severe headaches, joint pain, facial palsy, heart palpitations, and neurological issues, long after the course of antibiotics has ended, for reasons that are not understood. Lyme is rarely fatal. But, other bacterial tick-borne diseases can be, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is carried by dog ticks and wood ticks. Some tick-borne diseases are viral, and thus not treated with antibiotics. Powassan virus can cause permanent brain damage and lead to death; also potentially deadly are the recently discovered Heartland and Bourbon viruses.