Good morning, Chicago.
As tick season approaches, experts warn that Illinois residents should be even more wary as the type of ticks in the state increases and the season lengthens.
Researchers discovered the Asian longhorned tick — an invasive species native to Japan, Korea and parts of China and Russia — in Illinois last month. First reported in the United States in 2017, the tick has since spread to 20 states.
“The role that this tick will play in the transmission of infections in humans is yet to be determined,” the Illinois Department of Public Health said in a recent statement.
Tick patterns tend to vary significantly from year to year, said Maureen Murray, assistant director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, but one consistency has been a movement in tick season.
“We’re seeing less severe winters, which might lead to more ticks,” Murray said. “Fewer ticks die during the winter, and ticks can be active sooner in the spring, just because it warms up faster.”
Chris Stone, a medical entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, said he suspects climate change is affecting the types of ticks in Illinois in a few different ways.
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