A tiny, bitey plague on humanity

It might be October, but ticks, they are eternal. So let’s play with a tick app and learn what’s out there.

It's the "lone star" tick, not the Lone Star tick, and it's indigenous to the eastern U.S. as well as other places. Known for alpha-gal syndrome.

An adult female Asian longhorned tick, just hanging out on a plant stem.

The rock band Deer Tick performs at the Summer Sundae festival, Leicester, England, 19 August 2012.

Nope, I can't top this caption, provided by the photographer to Flickr and Wikipedia: "The dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, in its splendor of beet overtones and resistance to vilification. Found crawling on me in Beltsville," in Maryland.

The well known and questionably loved deer tick

Posted Thursday, October 29, 2026 12:00 pm

I don’t want a tick!

Who does? To learn more, visit tickzone.app/guides, ticklab.org and sullivancce.org/environment/invasive-pests/deer-tick to learn about symptoms of tick-borne illnesses, safe removal of ticks and much more.

By ANNEMARIE SCHUETZ

NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA — Thinking there are more ticks this year than in the past? You’re right.

The TickZone app, a free daily tick-risk forecast, rates Wayne and Pike counties in PA and Sullivan County in New York for tick counts—and the rest of the country too, of course.

TickZone combines CDC data at the county level for Lyme incidence and for tick surveillance; satellite land cover for each town (“Different ticks favor different ground: deer ticks live in dense forest and its leaf litter and meet people at the woods-lawn edge; dog ticks prefer open, grassy areas and trail edges; lone star ticks favor brushy edges and coastal scrub,” TickZone notes); and daily weather, because temperatures in particular matter. In other words, each score is a “comprehensive hazard over the ticks that bite people here,” and is out of 100 total.

Lyme disease

Wayne County has the 26th highest Lyme rate in the country. According to the CDC, the county’s rate was 411 cases per 100,000, which also makes it the fourth highest of the state’s 67 counties.

In Pike County, the CDC Lyme rate was 216 per 100,000, the 17th highest of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and the 121st highest in the country, said Nathan Burnett, founder of TickZone.

Deer ticks spread Lyme disease; lone star ticks (also found here) cause alpha-gal syndrome.

New York isn’t a tick-free place: Back in the summer, TickZone found that the towns of Forestburgh, Highland, Lumberland, Rockland and Tusten led Sullivan County for ticks and Lyme; the CDC Lyme rate was 393 cases per 100,000 people.

That rate was the 33rd highest of the 3,122 counties in the country, said Burnett.

And now? The official disease rates haven’t changed—the latest CDC data is from 2023. But realistically, things are probably better now that it’s October. We’ve settled down at a moderate risk overall, but adult deer ticks are still out and about.

Can’t keep a good tick down: Get local

TickZone recommends focusing on local tick data for a solid rating of risk.

Picking utterly randomly—yes, sure, nothing to do with where potential tick fodder I know live:

Pennsylvania

Honesdale Borough—Oooh: 52 as of late September. “Cool air slows ticks down, but they still climb the grass to quest on days like this. A check after time outside is smart.” Honesdale has deer ticks and just a tiny number of American dog ticks.

Lackawaxen Township—Not bad, not bad: 48. But the ticks are still active, so it’s always wise to do a tick check after you’ve been outdoors amongst the greenery. (Pike County, by the way, is home to the deer tick, the dog tick, the lone star tick AND regionally the brown dog tick.)

Link box
To learn more about Lyme disease, visit www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html.
And for pets, visit www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/lyme-disease-dogs,
www.vet.cornell.edu/animal-health-diagnostic-center/testing-laboratories/serology-immunology/lyme-disease, and
www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/lyme-disease-potential-unlikely-problem-cats.

New York

It’s home to the deer tick, the lone star tick and the American dog tick.

Here too, the ticks are slowing down, but the adult deer tick at least is still active into November.

Forestburg, Highland, Lumberland, Rockland and Tusten led Sullivan County for ticks and that’s still the case (consider all the forests there!). The rate is 62 out of 100 for Forestburgh, 64 in Highland, 60 in Lumberland, 53 in Rockland and 61 in Tusten.

The highest-risk towns in the state, by the way, are in Otsego and next-door-neighbor Delaware County (Hancock, Colchester and Tompkins).

So what do we take from all these numbers? The ticks aren’t gone until it’s reliably cold, and they’ll be back as soon as things warm up.

Even if you’re not thinking about ticks in your own skin, consider your animals (see sidebar, at right). Precaution doesn’t hurt and it can pay dividends.

Pets can get Lyme
Tick checks matter for your pets too. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) says that while animals such as dogs, cats and horses can be infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi), dogs are far less likely to become ill—the AVMA says the percentage is about five to 10 percent of infected dogs.
Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine adds the following:
“Dogs can display several forms of Lyme disease, but the most common symptoms are lameness, swollen lymph nodes, joint swelling, fatigue and loss of appetite. In addition, serious kidney complications have been associated with Lyme disease in dogs.”
And for horses, it continues, “Clinical signs of Lyme disease in horses include shifting-leg lameness, generalized stiffness, hypersensitivity to touch, weight loss and poor performance. Sometimes, the bacteria can infect the central nervous system, leading to neurologic symptoms.”
Cornell’s Feline Health Center notes that while cats can theoretically become ill with Lyme disease, it hasn’t happened outside of a laboratory setting. However, if during tick season, your cat develops fever, lethargy, diminished appetite, and apparently painful stiffness and swelling in the muscles and joints, you should call your vet immediately. “Studies in the laboratory setting show that cats that are treated promptly have a very good chance of full recovery,” the Feline Health Center said.