There could be a serious up-tick.
The Big Apple is about to be bled dry — and not just because of ferocious tax hikes. This spring and summer, NYC could see an influx of biblical levels of disease-harboring ticks and mosquitoes, borne aloft by warming weather and booming vector populations.
It’s enough to have locals itching for an escape from the city.
Tick bites have been sending people to the emergency room at the highest rate in nearly a decade, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
In early April, 71 out of every 100,000 emergency room visits were for tick bites — with the lion’s share concentrated in the Northeast.
And that’s just the tick of the iceberg.
For every 100,000 ER visits in the Northeast, 163 were related to ticks, up from 52 in March.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we see more ticks this year than last,” Byron Backenson, director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at the New York State Department of Health, told The Post.
Although more common in the bucolic fields of the Hudson Valley and elsewhere upstate, tick populations have cropped up in all five boroughs, according to Fox News.
Backenson has heard reports of the eight-legged parasites infiltrating Central Park and Prospect Park, which wouldn’t come as a surprise, considering a Columbia University study found that ticks now inhabit 70% of NYC parks and are even latching onto Gothamites’ prized pooches.
Bloodsucker bonanza
What’s to blame for the tick, tick … boom? Experts point to a confluence of factors, including a spike in host animals. In 2023, a bumper crop of acorns caused an uptick in the numbers of deer, mice and other prime tick prey.
Warming temps (the mercury hit a record 90 degrees in Central Park on April 15) could also extend tick season, which traditionally runs from March until November, with peak activity from April to September.
“Our spring comes earlier and fall ends later, we definitely see the ticks are active for longer periods of time,” Backenson told The Post, adding that snow paradoxically helps shelter these blood suckers.
“Snow is actually beneficial for ticks,” he explained. “When they make it through the winter, that snow almost acts like an insulating blanket, if you will, and the temperature at the bottom of that snow cover is pretty constant and it’s just barely below freezing.”
It’s not just ticks that New Yorkers need to worry about, though.
The Asian tiger mosquito — a prolific disease vector that arrived in the US in the 1980s, before establishing itself in NYC in the mid-2000s — continues to spread across town.
Last year, the Big Apple ranked third on Orkin’s list of the most skeeter-ridden cities behind Los Angeles and Chicago.
And wet, hot New York summers — especially last year’s borderline subtropical squalls — don’t help as they provide an oasis for the invasive Asian Tiger mosquito.
“Its activity period is going longer and longer into November, even,” Laura Harrington, program director of the CDC Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-borne Diseases, told The Post. “We’ll see adults [mosquitoes] flying around in New York and so that’s very unusual.”
The Cornell University entomologist added, “The longer they’re active, a lot of these viruses really build up in the mosquito towards the end of the summer and that’s where you have the highest risk.”
Diseases that come with them
West Nile Virus remains the primary mosquito-borne pathogen in the city, present in all five boroughs. Meanwhile, a September study found that cases were running 40% higher than normal.
Now, new diseases are beginning to take root. In October, health officials confirmed the first locally acquired mosquito-borne case of chikungunya — a tropical disease marked by fever and joint pain — in Nassau County, Long Island, marking the first US case of its kind in seven years.
While this was likely an isolated case, Harrington said this reflects broader global disease trends.
“New York is an international city,” she said. “People are coming in from areas where there are endemic pathogens.”
In the same vein, ticks harbor over a dozen diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and babesiosis.
Lyme remains the biggest concern.
Over the last three years, the Empire State has averaged more than 17,500 new cases annually, with 19,000 recorded in 2023 alone.
“When I was working on Lyme disease stuff almost 30 years ago, [it] was not a great big issue outside of Long Island and the areas sort of just north of New York City,” said Backenson. “Over [the] course of that particular 30 years, we have seen the risk of acquiring Lyme move further North and further West across New York.
“Clearly, there are plenty of people in New York City who wind up getting Lyme as well.”
However, experts note that many of the New York victims contract it while traveling outside the city, as ticks need to be attached for more than 24 hours to transmit the disease.
Still, the Lyme-spreading black-legged tick boasts strongholds on Staten Island and certain parts of the Bronx.
Another growing concern is alpha gal-syndrome, a potentially fatal meat allergy that’s transmitted by the invasive Lone Star tick — an aggressive species that’s prevalent on LI. In 2024, a New Jersey pilot died after eating a hamburger while unknowingly harboring this condition.
How to keep yourself safe
Thankfully, there are ways to avoid these parasites’ plasma tax.
During the summer, the NYC Health Department conducts mosquito surveillance, placing traps throughout NYC to monitor the population and test for disease. When necessary, officials apply pesticides to curb outbreaks.
Individually, experts recommend using repellents such as DEET and eliminating standing bodies of water — a key mosquito breeding ground.
Tick prevention has proven far more vexing.
“I’ve been in this since 1992, and we still don’t have really great area-wide control for ticks,” said Backenson, explaining that spraying measures used for mosquitoes are ineffective for ticks.
Protection largely falls on the individual.
To reduce risk, Backenson urges people to wear light-colored long-sleeved clothing, treat gear with permethrin and tuck pants into socks when in wooded or grassy areas.
Exhaustive tick checks are essential, especially in late spring and early summer, when the nymphs can be the size of a poppyseed.
Backenson even advises throwing clothes “into a hot dryer for 10 minutes” to kill any stragglers.
A potential Lyme disease vaccine — which has shown over 70% efficacy in trials — is in the works, but no timeline has been provided.
Until then, vigilance is paramount.
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