More tick sightings likely due to more time spent outdoors: expert

May 3, 2020 | 3:17 PM

They hide in the tall grasses, waiting for their next meal.

Tick season is here and the crawling insects are finding their way onto pets and people.

But are there more ticks than usual?

“We don’t do regular tick surveillance, so we don’t really follow how the numbers change from year to year,” said Dr. Rob Higgins, and entomologist at TRU. “Last year was certainly a wet year, which means that the small mammals would have been a little bit more abundant than they might have been previously, that might have helped the tick population.”

Higgins says people might notice more ticks this year because they’re spending more time outside.

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“Sometimes when they’re really quite common and you’re walking along a trail, you can actually see them [waiting for a host] ahead of you as they’re sort of picking up on your approach,” he said, “but they’re quite common among game trails and hiking paths.”

Ticks will often find their way onto dogs. Dr. Paul Hunter at Columbia Summit Veterinary Hospital says he’s had a few dogs come in with what’s called tick paralysis.

“We’ve seen a few,” he said. “Typically an animal with it looks like they can’t stand or they’re weak in the back end and they wobble a bit.” Once the tick is removed, the animal will recover quickly.

Dr. Hunter recommends getting pets treated before they pick up a tick.

“Veterinarians would recommend you just do tick prevention,” he said. “It’s not that expensive, it’s 100 per cent successful in killing the ticks that will attach and it just kind of allays any fears that it might happen.”

The Rocky Mountain wood tick is common to the Kamloops area and does not carry lyme disease.

The western black-legged tick, which does carry lyme disease, is not commonly found here.

“This isn’t great habitat for that particular tick. It has occasionally turned up here, but quite rare,” Higgins said.

The tick season typically lasts from mid-February to around mid-May or June, which means people should be seeing fewer ticks soon.

by Jill Sperling

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