Overview
- - CDC tracking shows weekly emergency‑room visits for tick bites are higher than normal nationwide and the highest for this time of year since 2017 in every region except the south‑central U.S.
- - The Northeast is seeing the sharpest rise with the Midwest close behind, and Connecticut labs report about 30 ticks submitted per day with roughly 40% testing positive for Lyme bacteria.
- - Health officials urge prevention: use EPA‑registered repellents like DEET or picaridin, wear permethrin‑treated clothing, walk in trail centers, shower after being outdoors, and run clothes on high heat.
- - If a tick is found, remove it promptly with fine tweezers from as close to the skin as possible, since Lyme transmission usually requires roughly 24 hours of attachment, and call primary care for rashes, fevers or questions about preventive antibiotics.
- - Experts expect risk to rise in May as tiny nymphs emerge and are harder to spot, while longer‑term drivers like warmer winters and shifting wildlife hosts continue to expand tick populations and diseases including Lyme, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and the red‑meat allergy known as alpha‑gal syndrome.