Illness is on the rise as ticks become more active in fall

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Several tick-borne illnesses have been reported at higher numbers in Maine this October than last.
The list does not include increases in Lyme disease.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention urged Mainers in October to be careful of tick bites, saying there are more cases of anaplasmosis, babesiosis and hard tick relapsing fever this year than last October.
If you think you’ve been seeing more ticks overall lately, you’re probably right: Deer ticks, which transmit these diseases, reach their adult stage in the fall and stay active from September into mid-November.
Maine saw a record-breaking 2,943 Lyme disease reports in 2023. As of Oct. 14, 2,544 cases have been reported this year.
Deer ticks can also transmit the other diseases that are found in high numbers right now.
Anaplasmosis causes fever, chills, headaches and muscle aches. So far, 888 cases have been reported. Babesiosis is caused by parasites transmitted through the tick bite and can cause flu-like symptoms or go unnoticed. A total of 265 Babesiosis cases have been reported so far.
Hard tick relapsing fever symptoms often appear two weeks after a bite and include a headache, nausea, fatigue, chills and aches. The fever often goes away on its own or can be treated with antibiotics. As of Oct. 14, there were 19 reported cases.
Deer ticks were first found in Maine in the 1980s in southern counties, then spread along the coast and farther inland, where they still have larger populations, according to MaineHealth’s Institute for Research. They’ve started to show up in northern Maine too.
Throughout the month, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s tick testing lab has gone from receiving about 10-15 ticks a day to 40-60, coordinator Griffin Dill said on Tuesday.
The increase is expected for this time of year based on the ticks’ life cycle, he said.