Tick season surging in South Okanagan

Photo: Contributed

Watch for ticks on animals and people in the South Okanagan

There seems to be an uptick in the number of ticks being discovered on people and pets in the Okanagan Valley.

Krissy Neilsen’s five-year-old daughter came to her and said she felt something on her head.

“I checked and saw right away that it was a tick. My husband removed it using tweezers, very carefully and managed to remove the head with the body,” said Neilsen last week in Summerland. “We called the doctor to be safe and he sent a requisition to the lab for us to drop it off to be sent for testing.”

“It’s hard to say where it came from. We do regular tick checks in our house. It likely came from somewhere around our neighbourhood in Summerland (near Cartwright and Prairie Valley) on Monday or out in our yard on Tuesday.”

Her doctor said to watch for a rash and a bullseye around the area. Luckily, her daughter has no rash and is feeling fine, said Neilsen.

Signs of tick-borne infections can include fever, headache, muscle pain, and rash and can show up right away or up to 30 days later.

“I have had more calls on ticks, and some of our outside workers have experienced an ‘uptick’ (pun intended) on the numbers of ticks out there this year,” said RDOS WildSafe BC community co-ordinator Zoe Kirk. 

“Cool springs with just enough moisture keep them happy.”

Last spring and into summer, Hoodoo Adventure participated in a study of ticks in the Okanagan Valley.

“We provided a safe collection location and many people dropped ticks to us,” said Hoodoo owner Lyndie Hill. “These ticks were sent to be studied for presence of Lyme disease and any other things dangerous to humans.”

In January, Hoodoo got the testing results of all the collected ticks and posted the information on their Facebook page.

“Over 200 ticks were collected, all of which were the Rocky Mountain wood tick. Sixty of the ticks were ‘biobanked’ at the University of Alberta’s Tick Biobank for Molecular Biology Studies and will be genetically tested for various pathogens in the next few months,” said Hill.

Results of this genetic testing were expected to be posted around March but that was before COVID-19 became a global pandemic.

“If a pathogen is found in any of those 60 ticks, the person who collected that tick will be contacted directly.”

According to B.C. Centre for Disease Control, the risk of Lyme disease in B.C. is lower and more stable than it is in eastern and central Canada and in the northeastern USA. In these regions, Lyme disease rates in humans and ticks have increased with climate change.

Of the 200 ticks collected at Hoodoo, about half were found on humans and half on pets, said Hill. Most of the ticks on people were found crawling on clothes, skin, or hair and hadn’t attached.

In contrast, almost all of the ticks found on dogs and cats were already attached and, in many cases, had been there for awhile as they were engorged, meaning filled with blood. A few of these ticks were fully engorged and had developed large egg masses.

Recent posts on several local Facebook pages caution to look for ticks in kids’ beds if they have pets who bring them into the house.

In the few cases where ticks were attached to humans in Hill’s experience, they were not discernibly engorged, so likely hadn’t been attached for long.

The 200 ticks came from a diversity of local areas, from backyards and lake level parks to mid-elevation hiking areas around Penticton, Summerland and other areas. There was not one area that appeared to be a ‘hotspot,’ said Hill.

Although wood ticks are by far the most common type of tick in our area, the smaller ixodes black-legged tick, which is the size of a sesame seed, has also been found around the South Okanagan.

“Ixodes is of interest as it is can carry the bacteria that can cause Lyme disease. The ixodes tick prefers a coolish, humid environment, so tends to live in treed areas around creeks and lakes. It is most active late fall through early summer,” Hill explained.

You can take precautions to avoid being bitten when you are out enjoying or working in the outdoors. Wear light coloured clothing with pants tucked into socks and shirt tucked into pants

Tips include checking yourself and dogs before getting into your car or going back inside and throwing your clothes into the dryer for 10 minutes after a hike.