Ticks may be moving into cities, including some parks in New York City, in part because their animal hosts, like deer, are proliferating in cities too, Dr. They’re “becoming urbanized,” said Thomas Mather, a public health entomologist at the University of Rhode Island. study from February estimated that the average number of people diagnosed with Lyme each year in the United States between 20 was 45 percent higher than those diagnosed between 20.Īnd ticks are not just a problem for those in suburban or wooded areas. Untreated, Lyme can also cause arthritis, heart problems, severe headaches and nerve pain.Īlison Hinckley, an epidemiologist at the bacterial diseases branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that it’s important for people to take proper precautions around ticks, since “many of the tick-borne diseases are increasing, and Lyme disease is among them.” One C.D.C. The survey also found that 20 percent of the respondents knew nothing or very little about Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial illness that can cause flulike symptoms and a telltale “bull’s-eye” rash. And some evidence suggests that many people who live in tick-infested areas don’t take seriously the risks they can pose.Ī 2019 survey of nearly 2,000 residents of tick-ridden Connecticut and Maryland, for instance, found that 69 percent of those polled never, rarely or sometimes wore insect repellents and 43 percent never, rarely or sometimes conducted tick checks on themselves. Ticks, which like wooded, leafy areas where wildlife roam, are most active between April and September.

As scores of city dwellers in the United States have ditched their urban lives for more land and bigger homes, many may be facing new foes this spring and summer: bloodsucking ticks.

Seed ticks