For those in tick-prone areas of the United States, people are reporting that something big has changed … more ticks than normal. Reports of ‘boxes of ticks’ being dropped off on farms.. Dogs and people covered from knees down with dozens just from a quick walk in grass..
Numbers now prove that something may be very different this year..
Tick bites are sending Americans to the emergency room at the highest rate in nearly a decade, according to new CDC data.
During the second week of April, 71 out of every 100,000 emergency room visits were for tick bites — more than double the usual average of about 30 per 100,000, said the agency, which said this year’s numbers match data from 2017.
Oh … and on those boxes of tickets?
A once-rare allergy that can cause severe reactions hours after eating red meat is dramatically rising across the United States, according to preliminary findings by researchers at VCU Health and Virginia Commonwealth University.
The condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), is typically linked to bites from the lone star tick and is increasingly recognized as a growing health concern in many regions of the country. Different types of ticks cause the syndrome in other parts of the world.
The findings, presented last year at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 2025 annual scientific meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, show a 100-fold increase in positive test results for alpha-gal antibodies between 2013 and 2024. While these results are preliminary, the study represents one of the largest real-world analyses of AGS to date.
Keep on scratchin’…
