Excerpt from WHIO
Creepy, crawly and concerning.
Overall tick populations are expanding across Ohio, according to Don Cipollini, a biology professor at Wright State University
The increase of tick populations also means an increased risk of tickborne diseases.
“It’s a multi-factor issue,” he explained.
Cipollini believes this includes a combination of climate change, as warmer more humid conditions are favorable for ticks and an increase of available hosts like deers and rodents.
“As tick numbers increase, as their hosts become more abundant and interact more with people, more and more, they bring basically these diseases closer to home,” he said.
Data from the Ohio Department of Health confirms this.
In the past two years data shows a 31 percent jump in tickborne diseases with 138 more cases of Lyme disease in 2021 compared to 2020.
