Tick bites sending more people to ER than years past, CDC data shows
The Northeast has been hit especially hard, with 283 ER visits per 100,000 attributed to tick bites.
This summer is shaping up to be one of the worst tick seasons in recent years, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
Emergency room visits related to tick bites have spiked in 2025, reaching their highest point in five years nationwide, according to the CDC's Tick Bite Data Tracker. The Northeast has been hit particularly hard, with tick bites accounting for 283 ER visits per 100,000 during the peak month of May, up from 209 around the same time in 2024.
The CDC reported by July 6 that the number of emergency department visits for tick bites had already exceeded nearly 10 years of July records, with 92 visits per 100,000 reported across the nation. Children ages 0 to 9 and people over the age of 70 were the most common of these ER visitors.
Vector-borne illness, or disease transmitted by fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, has been on the rise in part due to climate change, said the CDC. With shorter and warmer winters becoming the norm, fewer disease-carrying ticks are dying off in the cold months, increasing the number that survive and can bite humans when the weather warms up.
Other factors, including land use, pest control and access to healthcare, impact how many tick bites are reported and if related diseases are spread amongst the local human and pet population.
Risk and symptoms of tick bites
Lyme disease is one of the most common tickborne illnesses, but the insects can carry several other diseases capable of infecting animals and humans.
Humans may contract a variety of pathogens from ticks, according to the CDC, including:
- Anaplasmosis
- Babesiosis
- Bourbon virus
- Colorado tick fever
- Ehrlichiosis
- Hard tick relapsing fever
- Heartland virus
- Lyme disease
- Powassan virus
- Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever
- Soft tick relapsing fever
- STARI
- Tularemia
- 364D rickettsiosis
The CDC notes that many tickborne illnesses have similar symptoms, with some of the most common including:
- Fever/chills. All tickborne diseases can cause fever.
- Aches and pains. Tickborne diseases can cause headaches, fatigue and muscle aches. People with Lyme disease may also have joint pain.
- Rash. Lyme disease, Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), ehrlichiosis and tularemia can cause distinctive rashes.
How to prevent tick bites
The best cure for tick-borne illness is prevention, according to the CDC, which suggests the following to protect yourself from bites:
- Know where to expect ticks. Ticks live in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas, or even on animals.
- Treat clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin or buy permethrin-treated clothing and gear.
- Avoid contact with ticks. Avoid wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter. Walk in the center of trails.
- Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone. EPA's helpful search tool can help you find the product that best suits your needs.
- Check yourself: Ticks gravitate to the areas behind the knees, the groin, armpits, neck, hairline, between the toes, and behind the ears, so check those areas each day after you come inside.
Contributing: Bailey Allen, Paste BN Network; Iris Seaton, Asheville Citizen Times