'Infestation can occur in California': What to know about the tick time-bomb
The Weather Channel recently announced that most of the U.S. will be a “a tick time-bomb” in 2021, and displayed a map showing that in California, the threat ticks pose this year is slightly above average. And despite the drought — which would normally be a deterrent for ticks — scientists are noticing more of those bloodsuckers on the coast than ever.
To better understand how weather patterns this year might affect tick season in California, SFGATE spoke with Colorado State University tick researcher Daniel Salkeld, who sits on the board of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation and authored a recent and terrifying study concerning suitable tick habitats in California.
The study found that disease-carrying ticks once thought to mostly inhabit woodlands are also abundant near Northern California’s coastline, lying in wait within the grassy areas on sand dunes that people walk through to get to the beach. And here’s the kicker: in these coastal environments around the Bay Area, the study found that as many as 31% of the ticks carried harmful bacteria.
“The high rate of disease-carrying ticks in the coastal chaparral was really surprising to us,” Salkeld says. “When looking at all the tick-borne pathogens simultaneously, it makes you rethink the local disease risk.”
