Tick season is upon us yet again, and tick bite-related emergency room visits in the Northeast are higher than normal right now.
It’s hard not to resent these disease-spreading arachnids. Ticks spread pathogens like anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan virus, and Lyme disease.
David Allen is an associate professor of biology at Middlebury College. On Vermont Edition, he discussed three tick species you might encounter this season.
Blacklegged ticks
Also known as deer ticks, black legged ticks often feed on white-footed mice and white-tailed deer. They thrive in forest fragments separated by human development and agriculture — a common landscape in Addison County, Allen noted.
Blacklegged ticks carry Lyme disease. The most effective tick bite prevention method is to treat your clothes with an insecticide called permethrin.
Lone Star ticks
Vermont is home to 13 established tick species. Lone star ticks are not one of them, but they're getting closer. These ticks spread Alpha-Gal syndrome, an allergy to a sugar found in red meat.
Massachusetts recently joined more than a dozen other states in mandating doctors and blood labs report cases of Alpha-Gal.
The adult female Lone Star tick has a bright white spot on its back (hence the name). It has been found sporadically in Vermont, but the Vermont Department of Health and the Agency of Agriculture do not consider it an established tick because they have not found ticks in multiple life stages at the same site.
Winter ticks
Winter ticks build up big populations on moose, sometimes surpassing 100,000. In past year Vermont Fish & Wildlife has increased the number of hunting permits it issues for moose to reduce ticks' ability to spread.
While black legged ticks find three different hosts for each of its three life stages, the winter tick spends its entire life on one host.
If you find a tick of any species, report it to the Vermont Department of Health's tick tracker.
Broadcast live on Monday, May 18, 2026, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.
