It’s already tick season in South Okanagan.
With a fairly mild winter, ticks are making their way out in full-force.
Donnelly Hort noticed a tick on her arm when she got home from a walk near the Rattlesnake Canyon area of Osoyoos last weekend.
“It was actually on my arm when I noticed it, while I was in my house,” said Hort on Sunday.
“No more walks through the orchard for me.”
Her husband quickly killed the blood-sucking tick.
Another person in South Okanagan noticed their dog had taken a tick home, following a walk in Oliver.
Tick season usually starts in April. Last spring and summer was a particularly bad year for ticks throughout the Interior.
The Rocky Mountain wood tick is the most common tick found but they aren’t known to carry Lyme Disease, according to Interior Health.
The Western blacklegged tick is common in warm, moist areas on Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast.
Bites from these ticks are said to be painful, and they are responsible for transferring the microorganism which causes Lyme Disease in humans.
Lyme Disease is debilitating and there are no cures if not treated right away.
It is only recently, that doctors in B.C. have been testing for Lyme Disease.
Another common tick is the brown dog tick, which mainly targets dogs and can spread indoors within small cracks and crevices after falling off of a dog.
In March 2020, a dog in Princeton reportedly had a confirmed case of Lyme Disease which can prove to be fatal for canines.
READ MORE: Princeton pooch tests positive for Lyme Disease
Two years ago, Penticton’s Hoodoo Adventures participated in a study of ticks in the Okanagan Valley by acting as a tick collection centre.
“We provided a safe collection location and many people dropped ticks to us,” said Hoodoo Adventurers owner Lyndie Hill.
“These ticks were sent to be studied for the presence of Lyme Disease and any other things dangerous to humans.”
More than 200 ticks were collected, all of which were the Dermacentor andersoni species (commonly known as the Rocky Mountain wood tick).
Sixty of the ticks were ‘biobanked’ at the University of Alberta’s Tick Biobank for Molecular Biology Studies. But then COVID-19 hit and the ticks have since been frozen and are awaiting testing for pathogens like Lymne disease.
The best defence against ticks is to cover all exposed skin below the waist when adventuring outdoors and to rigorously check for ticks after outdoor activities.
See a doctor as soon as possible if you notice a bull’s eye rash or other symptoms.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about ticks
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