TICKING TIME BOMB: Suffolk at Center of Disease Surge

With ticks and tick-borne diseases now a national plague in the United States, SciLine, an educational program based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in July organized an online “Media Briefing: Summer 2026 Tick Update.”

Three specialists gave presentations and then took questions from journalists from across the U.S. The information provided is relevant to folks in Suffolk County, especially with it being described recently as the “epicenter” of tick-borne diseases in New York State.

The specialists were Dr. Pilar Fernandez of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University; Dr. Adela Chavez of the Department of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Dr. Alvaro Toledo of the Department of Entomology at Rutgers University.

If you would like to read the transcript of the webinar or see it on video, both are available at https://www.sciline.org/public-health/ticks-2026/.

Some of the information:

Dr. Fernandez, regarding how “climate and environmental changes affect tick populations and their geographic range,” said, “All the insects, arthropods, they don’t regulate their temperature, so they’re more susceptible to temperature.”

But also to be considered is how “hosts…white-footed mice, might be affected by changes in temperature and precipitation.”

She said, “We’ve seen a trend on what is happening at the forefront of the expansion. Definitely, there is a geographic expansion. We can see effects to areas that were too cold and now, with rising temperatures, we do see a geographic expansion.”

Also, she continued, “I think most of the people associate tick-borne diseases, especially Ixodes scapularis, which is the main vector for Lyme disease…with forests, which is true. I think there’s a lot of people that maybe don’t realize they might be exposed to other tick species in other areas.

“For example, the lone star tick…You can find them…more in grasslands.”

They “can create” the “meat allergy, the Alpha-gal allergy.”

As to “how quickly can disease transmission occur after a tick bite,” she said, “That is dependent on the pathogen that the ticks are transmitting. In the case of Lyme disease…research has shown that it has to pass 24 hours…That is why the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommends that people remove the ticks in the first day.”

As to whether “all tick bites are dangerous or is it only certain species and their different life stages,” Dr. Chavez said that with “certain species, the relationship between ticks and pathogens are very close.

“Some ticks also don’t bite humans. Ticks can be either a generalist or a specialist tick. In the case of the generalist tick, it means that it’s going to feed on several different species of animals, including humans.”

“In regards to tick control management,” she said, “Right now…most of the management that is done with ticks is either based on modifications of the environment, like cutting grass…But that only helps so much.

“The other type of control is the use of special chemicals, acaricides, that are targeting especially ticks. But the problem with acaricides, one, it’s toxic. So people, for example, [who] have ticks in their backyards need to call specialized people to come and apply those chemicals. It’s not like you can go to Walmart and get the chemical and apply it yourself.

“The other problem is that it doesn’t cover all the vegetation, so you might not get all the ticks.”

She also spoke of “a box that is available in the market where the animal can come inside of the box. The box has a bait, and then the animal can apply itself with an insecticide that kills the tick on that specific mouse.”

I asked in the chat about the four-poster deer treatment system, but the webinar ended before that got a response.

Dr. Toledo, asked whether certain people are “at greater risk for severe disease outcomes,” said, “There are risk factors associated with severe disease.”

One is “age. There are people, particularly elderly, that are at higher risk of developing severe illnesses compared to younger people. This is very well known for…human babesiosis…Older people can develop very severe manifestations.

“And other factors that are involved in the severity of disease are, for example, immune status. People that are immunocompromised, for whatever reason, maybe they are cancer patients and they’re receiving treatment or they are using some drugs to lower the immune response.”

As to “the proper way to respond” to a tick bite, “the first thing that you need to do is to remove the tick,” he said.

“You have a window of opportunity to remove the tick before it transmits the pathogen to you. The idea is to grab the tick and pull the tick up vertically, so you don’t leave the tick behind or the mouth parts behind, disinfect the area and watch for symptoms. In case you develop headache, fever…go to your doctor.”

In the question-and-answer period, Dr. Toledo urged the use of “repellents every time you go out to prevent tick bites and do tick checks every time you come back home.”

Dr. Chavez spoke about a need for people to wear light-colored clothes outdoors to make it “easier to spot a tick…crawling on you.”

“We also recommend to treat your clothes with permethrin,” she said.

It is not to be applied to the skin, but repellents that can be applied to the skin were discussed.

She also told about the vaccine now being developed by Pfizer, which will be available “once they know it’s safe.”

She said that, in reference to Alpha-gal, the allergy involves “fundamentally, meat. You can still eat chicken and you can still eat fish.”

She also said “do not burn” a tick or use Vaseline on it.

Dr. Chavez also spoke about how in Texas “there is a different kind of tick” needing a “very potent acaricide called coumaphos…because this is a tick found in Mexico and the United States doesn’t want it here. They call it the cattle fever tick.”

“In the 1900s,” she said, there were $1 billion in “losses” in Mexico because it causes “50% of the cattle” it infects to die.