With the prospect of a warm summer ahead, Mount Allison University biologist Vett Lloyd warns New Brunswickers to protect themselves from ticks, who have been on the rise over the past couple of years.

Lloyd has been studying ticks for more than 10 years and said the tick population has become unprecedentedly high this season.

“We had two mild winters in a row and that means that instead of dying off during the winter, the ticks were able to sleep it out under the snow and under the soil,” said Lloyd. “Anytime an adult female gets a good blood meal, she can produce 2,000 to 3,000 little baby ticks, so there are a lot of ticks now.”

Ticks are parasites that suck blood to create more ticks. They often feed on the blood of wild animals that carry diseases, such as Lyme disease, and bacteria that can be transmitted to humans and pets if they get bit.

These diseases are called zoonotic illnesses, some of which can be fatal if left untreated.

Lloyd said researchers have seen an increase in the number of ticks in the southern half of the province, along the coast. They’re even starting to appear increasingly far north, carried by migratory birds and wild animals like coyotes, foxes and deer.

These ticks are also carrying new diseases, such as anaplasmosis and babesiosis, which can be fatal to humans more rapidly than Lyme disease, Lloyd said.

She said government doesn’t currently keep track of the tick population, so researchers use community reports and targeted tick sweeps to determine how the parasite is spreading.

To contribute to community reports, individuals can slowly drag a fleece blanket or an old towel over vegetation and grass in their backyard or a local park for a few minutes. If a small, black, multi-legged speck is observed, it’s probably a tick.

These reports can be submitted to etick.ca, a website created by researchers at Bishop’s University and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The site also includes other resources, including a map of the country that indicates high-incidence tick areas in red.

Other tick prevention tips 

Besides using etick, Lloyd recommends using bug spray — preferably ones that say they also work on ticks.

Lloyd said these sprays have probably been tested on ticks, making them more efficient to repel them than regular bug spray.

She also recommends people cover their legs with long pants when outdoors. However, if this is not feasible due to summer heat, she stressed the importance of frequent tick checks during walks and after coming back from being outside.

“Either in the middle of the hike, look at your own legs, look at your clothing, catch the ticks that are walking on you and get them off while they are still walking. They are not a risk,” she said.

“Once they stick their head into you and start sucking your blood, they are a risk, so get them off early.”

To make sure ticks are not latched on, Lloyd also advised people to take a shower after their walks or just take their clothes off and do a thorough tick check with the help of a mirror or someone else.

In the young stages, ticks can be about the size of poppy seed, while adults can be around the size of a sesame seed, so Lloyd encourages people to look for “freckle-sized” objects.

To protect pets from ticks, Lloyd said most anti-flea products will also have anti-tick medication.

She recommends pet owners talk to their veterinarian and get medication prescribed to prevent the spread of diseases in their households.

What to do if you are bitten by a tick

If you were bitten by a tick and didn’t realize it for a couple of hours, Lloyd said to not panic.

She said the first step to treat a tick bite is to remove it right away.

“The nice thing about ticks is that they don’t go fast, so it’s not an emergency in the sense of gushing blood or someone can’t breath,” she said.

Lloyd said there are various tick removal tools if people are squeamish about touching ticks, but they can easily remove them with tweezers or their hands if they have nothing available in their homes.

She said the best thing to do to make sure the tick didn’t give you a disease is to determine what type of tick it is.

She recommended people submit the picture of the tick in etick, where researchers will identify it.

People can also get their tick tested for diseases if they mail it to Geneticks, a private company in Canada that specializes in tick testing.

There is a fee to get ticks tested by Geneticks, and according to Lloyd, besides Geneticks, there’s only a few parts in the country where individuals can go to get ticks tested through the health-care system.

Pharmacist can prescribe preventative tick disease treatments 

Lloyd said many pharmacies can prescribe a single dose of antibiotics to people bitten by ticks, without cost, and even without a family doctor.

In 2023, pharmacists became publicly funded to assess and prescribe for seven illnesses and conditions, including Lyme disease prevention after a high-risk tick bite.

Lloyd said people only need to bring the tick in a bag, or take a picture of it, and show it to the pharmacist, who would then administer the antibiotic doxycycline depending on the severity of the case.

“It works if you catch the tick when it just started to feed, so that’s why it’s really important to do a tick check the same day you’ve been exposed,” said Lloyd.

Lloyd said that if left unchecked, a tick can feed on an individual’s blood for about a week, increasing their chances to infect its host with the diseases it’s carrying.

Based on this year’s survey results regarding early tick bite treatment outcomes, Lloyd said pharmacy treatment has proven quite accessible.

Anne Marie Picone, the executive director of the New Brunswick Pharmacist Association, agrees with Lloyd.

She said the provision of the single-dose treatment has helped reduce the backlog of patients going to the urgent care clinics due to tick bites.

“Anecdotal evidence from colleagues, from pharmacists that are members, are telling us that especially in certain areas, we are seeing increases in people coming in and asking for the service,” she said.

Picone explained that with the treatment being government funded, customers can come into most pharmacies in New Brunswick and get two paid-for tick assessments per year.

She said pharmacists will mostly treat those who have been bitten within 72 hours because, depending on their symptoms and complexity of the case, they might need to be referred to a doctor.

Additionally, Picone recommended people to reach out to their pharmacies first to make sure they have time to assess them.

According to Lloyd’s survey, 10 to 30 per cent of those who took the single-dose treatment can still get Lyme disease, however she believes having access to the treatment is still pivotal for the prevention of tick-caused diseases.

“Three times fewer people developed Lyme disease if they got the early treatment than if they didn’t,” she said.

Lloyd doesn’t want to deter people from enjoying outdoor activities, but she hopes they will be more cautious about ticks and the diseases they carry, especially given the emergence of newer zoonotic tick-borne illnesses.

“I always encourage people to go out, but then just be careful,” she said. “Take just the same way you put sunscreen to not get a sunburn, put bug spray and do a tick check afterwards just to be safe.”