At home in Brooklyn, New York, my wife and I have discovered ticks on our dog, a pit-boxer mix who lacks the wherewithal to notify us of such an intruder. A few weeks ago, I found a tick—luckily, before it bit—on my arm while visiting Oakland, California. Outside editors have been coming across the disgusting creatures in northern New Mexico, northern Virginia, and coastal Massachusetts.
A decade ago, my little sister contracted Lyme disease in high school, so I have always been paranoid about tick bites. And with growing tick populations, ever more tick-related diseases, and a flurry of headlines about both, I’m sure I’m not alone.
There are hundreds of species of ticks, but the one to be most concerned about in the United States is Ixodes scapularis. The hard-body tick, also known as the blacklegged tick or deer tick, is a vector for a handful of diseases, including Lyme. “It causes far and away the most trouble in terms of health,” says Dr. Peter Krause, a senior research scientist with a specialty in epidemiology and infectious diseases at Yale Medicine.
Ticks are experiencing a largely unwanted…
