Georgia’s drought brought unintended relief from the muggy tick season. But then, the rains came.
Consecutive weeks of May showers dropped 6-10 inches of rain and significantly improved drought conditions in central and North Georgia, according to the National Weather Service. And experts predict that renewed humid weather will make ticks more aggressive.
Nationwide, emergency room visits for tick bites were the highest they have been in a decade in March and April but tapered to typical numbers around May, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s Tick Bite Tracker.
Prime tick season in Georgia is mid-April to mid-July, according to Elmer Gray, an entomology research specialist with the University of Georgia.
In more recent weeks following the higher humidity levels, the Georgia Department of Public Health has seen an uptick in calls about ticks, said Rosmarie Kelly, an entomologist for the Georgia Department of Public Health who tracks tick bite reports for the state agency.
Kelly said the office received 16 tick calls during the drought in April. Since the rain started in late May, she is getting up to nine calls a day, Kelly said.
The unusual dry conditions in the state caused by the drought forced ticks to hide under the leaves to survive, Kelly said.
“It’s not only a drought, but the air in Georgia was not humid,” she said. “I’ve been in Georgia for a long time.”
Gray said humidity will change the ticks’ behavior. They become more active in “questing” for food in humid conditions, he said.
“The ticks quest. They hold onto a blade of grass in a trail’s edge and reach out for any coyote, deer or person that walks by,” Gray said.
Ticks are more likely to stay down in the leaf litter, the sheltering layer of dead leaves, during the hottest and driest “dog days of summer,” Gray said.
Ticks in Georgia can spread diseases such as Lyme disease, Alpha-gal syndrome and Anaplasmosis. CDC research shows that cases of Lyme disease are largely concentrated in the northeast United States. But the pesky arthropods have become a national topic of conversation: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a multimillion-dollar pilot program to combat tick diseases.
Alpha-gal syndrome makes the human body unable to process meat or dairy. It is spread by the lone star tick, according to the CDC. Georgia’s public health agency is working to map out where lone star ticks have the highest populations using help from field interns.
Nancy Hinkle, a UGA professor of entomology, said tick bite numbers are easily skewed by human behavior. Tick populations travel to follow white-tailed deer and thick vegetation, and they can end up in suburban areas after the wooded areas are split up by development, Hinkle said.
After a family of white-tailed deer suddenly showed behind Caroline Bria’s house in Sandy Springs, she began to check her son for ticks after he plays outside for more than three minutes. The ticks in her backyard cause additional stress, and the checks are now part of her regular routine.
“I remember one night when my 3-year-old ran up to me saying, ‘Mom, you didn’t check for ticks,’” Bria said.
If bitten by a tick, Gray advises cleaning your hands, washing your welts and waiting for symptoms to appear before heading to the doctor’s office. Symptoms for Lyme disease include fevers, chills or a bull’s eye rash, according to the CDC.
Gray added that it is unnecessary to go to the doctor’s office after one bite unless those indicators appear.
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