Jul 20, 2025 By Garrett Neese 6 min read

Whether it’s a long walk in the woods or a quick trip to check on plants in the backyard garden, going outside to connect with nature is a reliable way to relax in the summer.

The excursions can live on as summer memories – or, sometimes, in the form of an unwanted stowaway taking advantage of momentary contact with shrubs or tall grasses.

The ticks that latch on in those moments will cause an estimated 500,000 cases of Lyme disease and other tickborne maladies in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control estimates. The highest number of ticks are found in the Northeast and Midwest.

In Pennsylvania, the most commonly found variety is the blacklegged tick, or deer tick, which is responsible for transmitting Lyme disease.

Pennsylvania is typically among the top 10 states in the country for the disease, with the state Department of Health reporting 16,620 confirmed cases last year.

At WVU Medicine Uniontown Hospital, patients have come to the emergency room at all stages, from wanting to get a new tick removed to when they’re experiencing symptoms, said emergency room physician Julia Carter.

If a tick has been on for less than 24 hours, they will forego preventative treatment, Carter said. In those cases, she said, people can go first to their regular provider or an urgent care center.

All that’s needed is using cleaning supplies to grab the tick by its head and pulling up to remove the tick in one go.

“If you can remove it before it embeds or remove it an hour after it has, your risk of developing disease is going to be pretty low,” Carter said.

When it’s been attached for longer than 24 hours, Carter will prescribe a dose of antibiotics to lower their chance of infection.

Other patients will come in with symptoms of a tick bite, usually from Lyme disease.

Most often, there is a rash resembling a classic bull’s-eye – a red area in the middle, surrounded by a wider circle of redness.

Less frequently, they will experience more severe issues. Those can be multiple lesions, heart problems, nerve pain, or arthritis-type symptoms, Carter said.

Doxycycline, an oral antibiotic, is used to treat mild cases. For more severe cases, such as those requiring hospitalization, an intravenous antibiotic may also be added, Carter said.

Last year, the state launched an online dashboard tracking positive laboratory tests for Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

Greene County has the sixth-highest rate of Lyme disease incidence in the state this year, with 203.6 cases per 100,000 residents. Neighboring counties are also at elevated levels – 193.8 for Washington, 108.7 for Fayette.

Since 2021, the Greene County Conservation District has been conducting “tick drags” during the peak tick season from April to August through a program funded by the Department of Environmental Protection. Interns drag a 3-by-3 piece of white felt through the woods, flipping it over every 10 meters to check for ticks.

As of Tuesday, this year’s Greene County drags had nabbed 37.

They’re more likely to pop up in forested areas with lots of leaf litter, said Zachary Basinger, environmental permitting manager for the Greene conservation district. Ryerson Station State Park and State Game Lands 223 in Garards Fort are tested once a week, while other tests can be spread throughout the county.

Those drags are aimed at finding ticks in the nymph stage – about the size of a freckle.

About 35% of last year’s nymphs tested positive for the bacteria causing Lyme disease, versus 70% of adults, Basinger said.

To transmit Lyme disease, a tick needs to stay attached for 24 to 36 hours. And even if they’re less effective at transmitting the bacteria, the nymphs compensate by evading detection.

“Those ones, people don’t feel themselves as much,” Basinger said. “The big adults, usually you find them within that time period.”

Ticks find their next ride by “questing,” Basinger said – waiting in spots like tall grass for a host, whether human or animal, then climbing up and digging in with a mouth full of hooks.

Alyssa Nemeth, a veterinary technician at East Maiden Animal Clinic in Washington, said Lyme disease is the most common finding for animals brought in with tick bites. About 1 in 8 animals tested for Lyme disease in the county are positive, she said. Less common are anaplasmosis (found in 1 of 12 tests) and ehrlichiosis (1 in 100).

Symptoms can include lethargy, fevers, and a lameness that shifts from leg to leg. But many of the cases caught are asymptomatic, Nemeth said.

Most cases can be treated with a 28-day course of doxycycline. The animals will get retested after six months to make sure the treatment was successful.

“I would say nine times out of 10 it’s effective, and we don’t have to retreat,” Nemeth said.

Although tickborne illnesses come in all year, Nemeth has been seeing a spike in the winter numbers.

“Anything above 35 (degrees), ticks are out looking for a blood meal,” she said. “We just don’t get cold enough for long stretches of time anymore.”

In conference calls with other conservation districts in the state, numbers are up everywhere across the state, Basinger said. The ticks’ range has also expanded northward.

Carter counseled people to check themselves and their pets after any trip outside.

“The ideal situation is that you see it right away, you’re able to remove it, and it never becomes a problem that a medical provider has to address at all,” she said.

Basinger recommends pretreating clothes with a permethrin spray, which kills ticks and lasts for several washes. As another layer of precaution, he also suggests people use a body spray with repellents containing DEET.

When people return from outside, they should check for ticks on spots like their back, groin, knees and armpits — “anywhere they might like to hide,” Basinger said.

People should also try to reduce the surface area ticks might use to latch on, wearing long-sleeved shirts or tucking pants into boots.

Even with those steps, Basinger said, he’ll still find them on himself when he comes back inside.

“The biggest thing is prevention,” Basinger said. “That’s all we can do. They’re everywhere, and I don’t think they’re going anywhere. It’s only going to get worse.”