Tick bites are on the rise in the US and UK. Here’s how to protect yourself

Experts share tips to avoid the blood-sucking pests that can transmit Lyme disease and other illnesses on to humans

I won’t go into gory detail about the tick I found latched behind my ear approximately 35 hours after a hike in early June.

Suffice it to say, the parasite was well fed, and I was horrified.

I am far from alone in making such a disgusting discovery.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emergency room visits for tick bites have been https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2026/2026-cdc-data-show-weekly-er-visits-for-tick-bites-higher-than-usual.html">unusually high in the US this year.

Thirty-one million Americans are bitten by ticks annually – and the number has been trending up for over a decade.

In the UK, ticks appear to be https://theconversation.com/ticks-are-becoming-a-growing-health-risk-in-the-uk-heres-why-211764">rising in number and species variety.