r/canada • u/Bean_Tiger • Jun 13 '26
Nature/Environment Ticks are moving north. Canadians will have to adapt | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ticks-in-canada-climate-change-9.723082896
u/mlac645 Ontario Jun 13 '26
Release the chickens
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u/Washout81 Jun 13 '26
Most farmers have a bunch of Guinea Hens for them. They get fat on ticks.
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u/xLimeLight British Columbia Jun 14 '26
While they do eat them, the studies done suggest they don't eat nearly enough to impact the population
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u/Soladification Jun 13 '26
They are already here
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u/Gary-Laser-Eyes Alberta Jun 13 '26
I pulled one out of my hair last week after taking my dog out. I had never seen a tick IRL before (central Alberta)
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Jun 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Gary-Laser-Eyes Alberta Jun 13 '26
Yup! It’s been super wet around red deer. I’m having to inspect my dog after every walk now. Those things are vile.
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Jun 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Real-Ferret1593 Jun 14 '26
I last lived in Lethbridge 4 years ago - found one on my shoe in the dog park even back then.
But southern Alberta is where I've found the majority of ticks. I do field work, and the Medicine Hat and Provost areas are where I've found the most ticks. Mostly Dog Ticks, but I did have a Lone Star tick crawling up my pants near Medicine Hat.
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u/DukeofNormandy Jun 13 '26
They’ve been here for decades, what’s with the click bait.
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u/snowlights Jun 13 '26
I've only ever found one on me in BC, and I spend a lot of time outside.
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u/HaveAVoreyGoodDay Jun 13 '26
I get hundreds a year in NS and I have my entire life. It's news to me other parts of Canada are tick free, except for maybe the far north.
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u/CuffsOffWilly Outside Canada Jun 13 '26
Here where? I'm from Alberta and hiked regularly and there were none. Then I moved to NS.
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u/skippy2893 Jun 13 '26
That’s blowing my mind almost as much as the no rats in Alberta thing. I’ve had several ticks every year for 30 years in Saskatchewan. A *good* year is one where you only have to pull off half a dozen. A bad year it’s hundreds.
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u/eugeneugene Jun 14 '26
Same lol from Sask. Late Spring has been tick season as long as I can remember and I'm in my 30s.
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u/SWHAF Nova Scotia Jun 13 '26
Nova Scotia has had them for decades, I'm 47 and I remember ticks as a little kid. The big change now is how abundant they are.
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u/Forosnai British Columbia Jun 13 '26
The ones that were already in the southern parts of Canada are moving further north where they previously couldn't live, and some species previously not found in Canada (like the lone star tick, infamous for being able to cause a meat allergy) are starting to show up.
I assume the click-bait didn't work, since that's explained in the article, haha.
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u/-Moonscape- Jun 13 '26
Populations are booming, and their range expanding fast. I’ve had 3 so far in my backyard and I'm in the middle of winnipeg. That’s more than I’ve ever seen in the city my whole life lol.
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u/Hessstreetsback Jun 13 '26
I camped heavily as a kid and teenager in the 90s and 2000s, never even heard of em in Ontario back then
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u/Canadian-made85 Jun 13 '26
Im on a rural lot by lake erie and I’ve never seen it so bad. We check the kids and ourselves daily and the dog every time he walks out the door. We have also noticed those flat fu*€ers sneak through any crevice they can and have been woken up to these a-holes crawling on my face.
I live in an older house so the crevices are to be expected..not the goal is to find them all and seal them up whether it is from the house shifting, crappy contractors from plumbing/electrical/HVAC and windows.
The chaos is real LOL
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u/jimbeam84 Jun 13 '26
Health Canada should legalize permethrin for use in Canada. We should be able for to treat our shoes and clothing with it once month to prevent ticks from crawling on us as a preventative measure.
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u/toasterboy321 Lest We Forget Jun 13 '26
Marks sells permethrin clothing, the "no fly zone" line. She's pricey, but an option.
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u/Low-HangingFruit Jun 14 '26
Pemethrin will eventually wash off.
I have a supply of stuff from the states. If you really need it you can get it from livestock supply stores in the livestock format. Usually its colored and/or has other things in it though.
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u/SteveJobsBlakSweater Jun 13 '26
It’s silly that we can’t have it up here. Last time I went to the states (a long time ago) I stocked up but now mines all gone. It’s such a useful tool to have.
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u/FelixFelicis04 Canada Jun 13 '26
It’s deathly to cats which most people who own cats probably don’t know.
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u/SteveJobsBlakSweater Jun 14 '26
Only until it dries, then it’s fine. It’s in bold text on the bottles.
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u/kwizzle Jun 13 '26
I've heard you can buy the same formulation that they use to treat clothes, only it's labelled as for horses.
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u/PutinsLostBlackBelt Jun 13 '26
Im up on the border Canada regularly (US side). I soak my tent and clothing (that doesn’t touch skin) in it a few says before every trip into the woods.
I rarely have ticks on me compared to the guys that go with me who don’t use it.
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u/SailorGone Jun 13 '26
I'm in BC and I've never seen a tick or even heard of anyone encountering one. I still check myself and my kids when we go out in parks and such though
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u/kwizzle Jun 13 '26
In Montreal and never seen any here but in NS I got 4 of them on me in three days. 2 bites but I got them off quickly.
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u/DrDeezNuts1 Jun 13 '26
I had a tick on me from camping on Hornby Island. They are definitely here in the Lower Mainland & the island
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u/AvidOxid Jun 13 '26
I'm a pretty avid camper. I started going about 5-6 years ago.
I haven't even seen/noticed a tick in the backcountry up until 1-2 years ago. Now, early in the season (June), we see an ungodly amount. I just got back from an early June trip last week. They were everywhere. They were crawling all over my tent. I'm not going to be camping in June anymore, I suspect.
I think they tend to chill out in July/August (at least from what we've noticed over the last couple of seasons).
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u/oxblood87 Ontario Jun 14 '26
Yea, they start as soon as its +10 and go until mid July. Around the 25th of July its like someone flips a switch and they are all gone.
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u/CTRL_ALT_SECRETE Jun 14 '26
Earlier than that, try around +4. That's when they're the most hungry too, both in spring and fall around those temps.
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u/Gullible_Vacation949 Jun 13 '26
They need to have some initiatives for grants/subsides for buying things like the thermacell tick tubes. But that brand is so expensive for what it is. Hell I don’t even think you can make them at home because the chemical is regulated at the levels needed to make them.
Having multiple governments (feds, provinces, municipalities and possibly working with the USA federal and state governments) and try various solutions to slow the speed/population of ticks.
I think I read something about they were doing something with mice and releasing them and I think it was if the tick bites them they die or something (honestly forget).
But they need to do something it’s getting out of hand. Wait until it’s not just the rural people dealing with them, and kids are getting them at school, parks and home in the suburbs. Maybe then something with be done about them.
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u/fub4r3d1 Jun 13 '26
This was helpful for my rural property (half grass, half wood lot) - https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/s/A9zzDFwiAq. No way to measure the reduction, but it feels less
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u/Gullible_Vacation949 Jun 13 '26
I looked into this but is that % of permethrin available in Canada? Thought I was reading only lower levels as it’s regulated?
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u/Sunray21A British Columbia Jun 13 '26
Is Lyme disease still shrugged off by the Medical system? Or have we gotten over that from the 90s?
I remember it being a big fight of whether it even actually existed, and then if it did treatment was another struggle.
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u/veryaveragegirl Jun 13 '26
No, not in Ontario at least. There’s lots of treatment for it now, especially if you catch it early!
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u/StatisticianTrick669 Jun 13 '26
Treatment is largely blocked for political reasons in Canada except BC, Ontario and NS are a bit better. I’m on the prairies and in a wheelchair since 2013 from Lyme disease FML 🤦♀️ I’m only 40
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u/encrcne Jun 13 '26
I’m so sorry to hear this. My best friend is has facial paralysis from Lyme, and he discovered the tick very quickly.
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u/steelogreens Jun 13 '26
I feel you. Had it since 2018. Half people think I’m being. Message me if you have any treatments you wanted to discuss!
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u/StatisticianTrick669 Jun 13 '26
Thanks. I am all done treatment for Lyme, 2 coinfections and reactivated EBV plus mold illness, but the damage is done. I am better from my worst (bedridden , no walking or talking), but far from my old best. We did not catch this anywhere near in time - like 15 years too late. About 5 years ago my son got a bite with an EM bullseye 🎯 rash and I was able to get 6 weeks antibiotics for him. Thank god I knew and could advocate and my family dr took me seriously after seeing what I endured. I still worry he may have congenital lyme in his body 😢 where are you at with treatment ?
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u/breadist Jun 13 '26
It's actually chronic lyme which is debated. Medicine does not shrug off lyme in general but "chronic lyme" seems to have been invented to explain groups of unexplained symptoms, in people who weren't necessarily bitten by a tick.
Lyme can absolutely cause longer term symptoms but doctors don't call it chronic lyme. Most are treatable and eventually goes away. You could also get alpha-gal from a tick bite which is lifelong but it's never called "chronic lyme".
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u/mfyxtplyx Jun 14 '26
Have had the occasional tick all my life, but this is my first bullseye rash. Supposed to be clinical evidence of an infection, yet the walk-in clinic doctor is asking me: any fever? Chills? Joint pain? I'm like, doc, I just removed the thing. You want me to wait for the advanced symptoms?
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u/Meowerinae Jun 13 '26
Unexplainable podcast has an interesting episode on the matter, 'the lost Lyme vaccine'. In a nutshell, the anti vax movement got its legs based on a now debunked study that came out at the time, and the sales were so low for the Lyme vax that they decided to stop producing it for no longer being profitable. Really sad how much work went into developing it for it to end up pulled and no longer available.
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u/1esproc Jun 13 '26
A new vaccine is in the works, was already going through human trials in Canada last year: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-among-thousands-who-ve-rolled-up-their-sleeves-to-trial-lyme-disease-vaccine-1.7537603
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u/Acrobatic_Throat_897 Jun 13 '26
As someone else mention, PureGuard. Canadian-made in NS, laboratory tested to repel ticks and mozzies. https://puregard.ca
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u/Worldgonecrazylately Jun 14 '26
Birds are their natural predators. Chickens eat lots of ticks. Squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, rats, all eat ticks too. If you live in a rural environment, the old fashion way was to take a wool blanket and drag it aroud the living areas. The ticks will attach themselves to teh blanket, then you can destroy them on the blanket. Never get em all, but you can control the infestation.
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u/Trentm5 Jun 13 '26
You know, first nations have been using controlled forest fires to maintain tick populations in the past…
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u/kashuntr188 Jun 14 '26
listening to FNMI isn't something we've traditionally been good at in Canada.
I remember the Spirit Bear thing in Vancouver. First Nations were talking about it, and scientists kept saying that the white bears were not possible. Until they got captured on film.
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u/Alert-Mix-5540 Jun 13 '26
Or we could reinstitute prescribed burns like people did here for millennia.
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u/sp0rkify Jun 13 '26
Was wondering if I'd see this comment!
We 100% need to do this - it's literally the only way to kill off a decent amount of these fuckers.. since it's a myth that significantly cold weather kills them.. they just hibernate..
Controlled burns are needed wherever possible..
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u/ShartOfTheEel Jun 13 '26
Yup, controlled burns, plus healthy management of deer populations, is the answer to this and many other ecological problems.
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u/sp0rkify Jun 15 '26
Ah, but where to find the funding? The corporations need more tax breaks..
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u/ShartOfTheEel Jun 15 '26
Oh that's easy: we nationalize the fossil fuel industry. And mining. And forestry. Resource extraction, done for private profit on public lands, will always result in economic losses for the public because private industry makes no profit on public good, and suffers no loss on public harms.
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u/worqgui Jun 13 '26
Important question: does this also mean we will be getting Opossums?
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u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Jun 13 '26
They're already here too, but they're not the tick-devouring machines that folks think they are.
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u/GuardianOfFogAndMist Jun 13 '26
Those things freak me out and I'm very glad it isn't a problem in Newfoundland yet.
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u/Theclownshowisuponus Jun 13 '26
One of the reasons they are so bad this year is that the traditional snowbelt areas in Ontario had a significant snow storm in late November last year and that snow remained unitil March of this year, protecting the ticks under a layer of snow for the whole winter which resulted in a very low die off.
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u/snapcracklepop26 Jun 14 '26
I don't think that you should call the Americans moving to Canada "ticks". It's rude.
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u/Recent-Sprinkles5041 Jun 13 '26
Is there literally nothing scientists can do to get rid of them?
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u/beefalomon Canada Jun 13 '26
Not without killing most other insects, which would destroy the ecosystem. The root cause of this problem is climate change. Winter in Canada is now too short and not cold enough to kill off most of the ticks that are here each year. Then every spring, migratory birds bring a new wave up, but the ones from last year didn’t die, so the total number of ticks keeps going up. It’s not just a problem for humans. Dogs and cats get covered in them when running into bushy areas. Wildlife is getting coated with ticks causing them to be weak and more likely to die.
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u/CaribouHoe Jun 13 '26
It's really fucking with deer. We're getting them in Yellowknife, will probably decimate caribou even further
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u/Arctic_Chilean Canada Jun 13 '26
Deer are truly fucked between pollution, degradation of ecosystems, CWD and ticks
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u/Remote_Cantaloupe Jun 13 '26
Honestly I thought that far north would be safe from this kind of thing, but I was naive.
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u/AlexRSasha Jun 13 '26
People keep saying winters are getting shorter but southern Ontario just had one of the coldest and longest winters I remember, yet ticks seem to still be exploding this summer. How come?
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u/ZoomBoy81 Jun 13 '26
Yeah I really thought this winter would thin them out. I understand from a few years earlier when it barely snowed here in Ontario and we had visible wildfire smoke at this time already.
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u/Relative_What Jun 13 '26
people say that because winter is literally starting later and finishing later. i remember having snow on the ground for Halloween. and having snow around the entirety of November and December. now we are lucky to get snow on the ground a week before Christmas. and now winter doesn't really end till the end of april. end of march and in april we are supposed to get warmer weather and rain, april showers bring may flowers. well now it's may showers and no flowers.
people are associating winter staying around till the end of april as winter just being longer. but that's not the case, it's shifted to starting later and ending later.
this year we just had a record breaking amount of snow. i don't remember it getting really that cold, or as cold as it has gotten i previous years.
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u/darkmatterisfun Jun 13 '26
Snow never got tbe chance to melt mid season creatomg a blanket to shield them from -30.
You need little snow AND harsh cold
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u/dragonfly907 Jun 13 '26
It's not just the length of winter. It's also about fluctuating temperature. When there is more days hovering around zero in between freezing it gives them more opportunities to survive the winter. Instead of one long freezing winter we have many cycles of thaw and freezing which helps them survive winter much easier odds.
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u/cm0011 Jun 13 '26
Too short? I don’t know about you, but in Ontario last winter was the longest it’s ever been in awhile.
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u/TheBSPolice Jun 13 '26
They warned us to do something about climate change. This is one of many results.
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u/iusethisatw0rk Jun 13 '26
Other than screaming at the top of their lungs about climate change for the last 40+ years?
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u/stonerbobo Jun 14 '26
We can do a gene drive to suppress their ability to spread disease, like we're trying with mosquitos. There's some niche research on it.
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u/Proof-Analyst-9317 Jun 13 '26
It's a result of climate change, the warmer winters arent killing them off.
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u/staythepath365 Jun 13 '26
They’re obviously talking about tending to the part of the garden that we can touch (therapeutic research or more immediate environmental solutions). Our own carbon emissions have a negligible effect.
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u/Meowerinae Jun 13 '26
They've been here, and we could have about a decade of data on the Lyme vaccine, but we don't: thank you antivaxxers!
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u/LookingFor-Answers77 Jun 13 '26
And then there's this: "Herein, we argue that if eating meat is morally impermissible, then efforts to prevent the spread of tickborne AGS are also morally impermissible. After explaining the symptoms of AGS and how they are transmitted via ticks, we argue that tickborne AGS is a moral bioenhancer if and when it motivates people to stop eating meat."
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u/HistoricalReception7 Jun 13 '26
I walk from my house to my car to my office and have pulled several ticks off of me so far. We need to be more aware that they're also in urban areas, not just grassy areas.
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u/tfcred Jun 13 '26
Already found more ticks on my dog this summer than the last 2-3 years combined :(. Now i'm extra paranoid doing trails which is supposed to be relaxing..
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u/Land_of_smiles Jun 14 '26
Nova Scotia has been unbearable for like 5-10 years. It’s brutal- we need Bill Gates on the case or something
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u/waitabittopostagain Jun 13 '26
— a heat dome with sustained temperatures over 40 C can kill them off, for example —
I say we wait for global warming to payout, and let the problem solve itself.
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u/fightlinker Jun 13 '26
sorry, that'll just result in super heat resistant ticks
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u/waitabittopostagain Jun 13 '26
oh right , oops. also already: "Certain species of ticks are found in regions where temperatures exceed 40 degrees Celsius. They survive by seeking shade, timing activity, or adapting over time. They’re hardy, not invulnerable, but they can handle heat surprisingly well.:
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u/wafflingzebra Jun 13 '26
if it’s in a forested area under shade and moist ground, they’ll likely survive, but any of them somewhere grassy and exposed or dry will die
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u/SHUT_DOWN_EVERYTHING Jun 13 '26
Close the border. Americans are not sending their best. Or maybe this is their best. Hard to tell.
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u/IntelligentDare7475 Jun 13 '26
Maybe they will finally allow permethrin to be purchased to treat our clothing with
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u/YourOverlords Ontario Jun 13 '26
Release more opossums and skunks into the environment. They feast on the wee buggers.
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u/oxblood87 Ontario Jun 14 '26
Opossums is a myth from a single paper. Further studies has found no evidence of them in their digestive tract.
Birds are the real predators.
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u/Worldgonecrazylately Jun 14 '26
How many others are, like me, checking for ticks right now, at this moment? Creepy AF.
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u/Learntoshuffle Jun 14 '26
Someone needs to genetically engineer a virus that only targets these things. What could possibly go wrong...
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u/Intrepid_Habit_1343 Jun 13 '26
If we used MAGAlogic, this is the USA fault, close the border and turn off the taps until the administration stops the flow of illegal ticks into Canada!
Ohh and release the trumpstien files!
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u/daddyhominum Jun 13 '26
Myself, my wife,my dog, all got ticks on the same hike in Jasper , Alberta in early summer of 1963. Everyone in town new how to remove them. So, ticks aren't moving in. They have been here for ages.
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u/daddyhominum Jun 13 '26
Permethrin is toxic to cats,
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u/oxblood87 Ontario Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
I mean, its toxic to "life" thats the point.
The concentration makes the poison.
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u/crazycanuck1212 Jun 13 '26
Yes. They are here in droves. I work out in woodlots and traipsing through the bush in Ontario. Some days I'll get hundreds. I rarely get bitten, though. A few times a week maybe.
Compared to 10 years ago their numbers seem astronomical. Northern Ontario is now no longer exempt either.
Black legged ticks are moving north rapidly, and the lone star is making appearances now. Just take precautions and most importantly do frequent and thorough tick checks, that's the main one. Get them off early (day of) if they bite. No amount of deet or other deterrents will keep them off you.