In a newsletter article on its website this month, the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources says that the frigid temperatures we’ve experienced this winter will not have much impact on the deer tick population. However, it says temperature spikes from warm to cold and back again might help.
Last summer, the state Health Department released a report showing the number of cases of Lyme Disease in 2016 rising across the commonwealth, including 227 cases here in Indiana County, the 14th-highest total in Pennsylvania.
The DCNR newsletter article says temperatures of 2-below zero and lower could kill twenty percent of the ticks in a given area, but that’s in a sterile environment. Deer ticks do not expose themselves to those temperatures, preferring to dig into the dirt and seek warmth underneath leaf cover. But when winter temperatures turn warm, ticks are lured to the surface, and a sudden onset of frigid air will kill them.
The bottom line: keep checking for deer ticks after you go outside, even in mid-winter.
