As spring brings warmer weather to Saskatchewan it will also bring out pesky critters, including ticks.
The American dog tick, the province's most common tick species, has been appearing in places places in Saskatchewan it had never been previously, according to Phil Curry, entomologist and the Zoonotic Diseases Consultant for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health.
"In the last 15 years, the American dog tick in particular has really expanded its range, probably due to favourable climate, favourable habitat conditions," Curry said.
"It [also] gets spread around by birds and other animals."
Although it's only March, people have begun to see ticks already.
"If you're up in the northern parts along the forest fringe even all the way over to Alberta, people are starting to see ticks," Curry said.
Tick tracking
Since 2008, the province has detected 64 black-legged ticks, the species which carries Lyme disease.
Curry said black-legged ticks are found throughout the province "from Estevan to Lloydminster" and wherever you can find deer, but are usually found in forested areas.
The province does both active surveillance, where they will go out and search for tick populations, and passive, where ticks are submitted by the public.
