Why do tick counts appear to go up temporarily after deer reduction?
The deer tick has a two year life cycle. When deer numbers go down the maturing adult ticks that are seeking or “questing” a host deer to feed on will be left in the fields and woodland edges without a host. The numbers of adult ticks that are counted in the two years immediately following a cull will therefore appear to go up. They are in fact the same ticks that would normally have found a deer host (for a last blood meal before laying its 2000 to 3000 eggs), but instead are still on the ground to be counted. In the third year and in all subsequent years after a deer cull, the numbers of adult and of all stages of ticks falls dramatically. Reducing Lyme disease incidence (and Babesiosis and Ehrlichiosis) should be thought of as a long term goal with results seen as soon as the third year after a significant deer reduction.
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- Why do tick counts appear to go up temporarily after deer reduction?
