BREWSTER, NY—Despite prolonged stretches of frigid cold weather this winter, tick season and those pesky arachnids will soon be very active once again. How many ticks there will be varies from year to year, but unfortunately freezing temperatures do not kill them off. They lay dormant in winter by finding their way under leaf litter, and into the open spaces between soil particles, where they can survive more easily.

“New York State is consistently amongst the states with highest incidence for tickborne disease in the nation, and the Hudson Valley Region has some of the highest rates in the state,” explains Alison Kaufman, DVM, MPH, epidemiologist at the Putnam County Department of Health. 

The chance for getting a tickborne disease is directly related to the risk for encountering an infected tick, as illustrated in the New York State Department of Health’s Tick Risk Score by Region webpage. Tracking tick populations by regions, along with the proportion of those ticks that test positive for at least one pathogen, the state assigns a “tick risk score” by region. This analysis puts the Hudson Valley in the high-risk category along with the Catskills, Greater Niagara and the Capital-Saratoga regions, and behind the Finger Lakes region which has the highest risk score in the state.

Most people are familiar with Lyme disease because it is the most common tickborne disease. However, two other tickborne diseases, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, also occur regularly in Putnam County. “Reported cases of tickborne disease tend to seesaw back and forth from one year to the next due to a variety of ecological variables, but on average there are about 300 Lyme cases reported each year in the county,” says Dr. Kaufman. “There is much more year to year variability for anaplasmosis and babesiosis. Reported cases have tended to spike recently in alternate years, with the highest counts on record seen in 2023: 95 cases of anaplasmosis and 60 cases of babesiosis. We had much lower incidence in 2024 with only 29 cases of anaplasmosis and 16 cases of babesiosis. That may mean that we are in for another high incidence year in 2025, but there is no way to know for sure.” 

The numbers of ticks fluctuate from year to year as well. The ecological factors that impact this variability include such aspects as the abundance of acorns that feed the mice which carry juvenile ticks. Weather patterns also impact tick survival. It is suspected that changing climates have increased the geographic range of ticks and the diseases they carry. Human behavior, the one factor which we can control, also has a direct influence, in particular on the number of bites.

“Ticks are most likely to transmit disease to humans as juveniles called nymphs because they are so tiny that people often don’t notice they have been bitten,” Dr. Kaufman continues. “The biggest threat is in late spring to mid-summer, roughly from the middle of May to mid-August, when nymphs are active, and humans are spending more time outdoors. Adult ticks emerge and become active in the fall. They do survive the winters, so it is possible to be bitten by a tick year-round, with hunters and other winter recreational participants at risk.”

Last year to broaden education efforts, the Putnam County Department of Health launched a dedicated Lyme Disease and other Tickborne Illnesses webpage complete with easy-to-understand videos in English and Spanish. Preventing tick bites is the focus of primary prevention of all tickborne illnesses.

There is no one strategy that prevents all tick bites, so it’s best to use several strategies to reduce risk as much as possible. Being informed and avoiding places where ticks may be more common is one of the best ideas, but not always possible or realistic. Wearing protective clothing and using appropriate repellants properly goes a long way to reducing risk, but even with repellent, checking frequently for ticks and removing them promptly and properly is important. Recognizing symptoms of an infection is also important so that treatment starts early in the course of disease.

To alert residents and visitors to some popular locations where ticks are likely, the health department and the county’s parks and recreation department have posted more than 75 warning signs along the Putnam Trailway and at other recreational areas, including all Putnam sleep-away camps.

Michael J. Nesheiwat, MD, the outgoing interim commissioner of the health department, talks about the symptoms and advises that, “If you start feeling feverish or have chills, aches or pains, or if you develop a skin rash, it is possible you have been bitten by a tick and contracted a tickborne disease. You should visit your healthcare provider as soon as possible. They can decide on the best course of action for you.”

The mission of the Putnam County Department of Health is to improve and protect the health of the Putnam County community. The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) through 2029, serves a community composed of nearly 100,000 residents. Core services are provided through a lens of equity, and include community health assessment, disease surveillance and control, emergency preparedness, environmental health protection, family health promotion and health education. For more information, please visit the County website at www.putnamcountyny.gov, or visit our social media sites on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram @PutnamHealthNY.

Resources:

Lyme Disease Fact Sheets—CDC
(three fact sheets, each in English, Spanish and three other languages)
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/communication-resources/index.html

Lyme Disease and other Tickborne Illnesses Page—PCDOH
https://putnamcountyny.gov/health/tickborne

Tick Risk Score by Region--NYSDOH
https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/lyme/risk_score_map.htm