Tick Populations Remain High Despite Long Winter

Tick population numbers appear to remain strong along the East Coast of the United States, despite a particularly long winter season this year.

Despite things being 'business as usual' this winter for the rest of the globe, North America and Russia have seen an abnormally long and cold winter, with people in the central and eastern US waking up to snow flurries all the way into late March.

This is largely due to an abnormally high amplitude configuration along the jet stream that has lasted for months, according to past AccuWeather data. Even as things finally began to thaw, flooding concerns were cited for parts of the interior South and Midwest - regions not accustomed to dealing with heavy snow-fall buildup.

Insect populations have been known to experience noticeable declines in the wake of inclement spring seasons, when the internal clocks of many of these delicate creatures wind up exposing them to the elements too early in the season.

However, this does not appear to be what happened this year for one of the spring season's nastiest customers: ticks.

According to the preliminary results of an ongoing study being conducted in New Brunswick, N.J., the infection rate of Lyme disease - a bacterial infection commonly transmitted by blacklegged ticks -  among dogs and humans has actually seen a marked increase this tick season, compared to the infection rate in 2013.

While that may not be enough evidence to show that ticks are prevalent this season, the same study has also found evidence that this year's infections are being reported more and more north in the observed region, indicating that blacklegged ticks (also called deer ticks) are still very present in East Coast regions thought to have been most heavily affected by this year's winter.

Paul Curtis, coordinator of Cornell University's Wildlife Damage Management Program and associate professor of natural resources explained in Entomology Today that deer ticks remain abundant along the East Coast because "the persistent snow cover helped insulate overwintering ticks in the leaf litter."

When the ticks finally woke up, it was really all a matter of how much food was around and, according to Curtis, current deer populations, which are high in the absence of many natural predators, are more than enough to sustain a large tick population.

The New Brunswick study is ongoing and it is suggested that all current findings be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.