7 July 2025

Lest you think you don’t have to worry about ticks in the City of Pittsburgh, consider this:

On a walk in Schenley Park last week I saw two does and a fawn along the Upper Trail. The doe pictured above looked healthy but the other one, further away, had very red ears. Why? Through binoculars I saw that the insides of her ears were lined with hundreds of red-colored engorged ticks! There were ticks on the backs of her ears, on her face and on her neck as well. It was the worst tick infestation I’d ever seen. Ick!

Red-colored ticks? Red is the color of blood. It’s likely they were engorged blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), the ones that carry debilitating Lyme disease.

The infested doe is not spreading Lyme disease to ticks because deer are never infected by it. However she is spreading ticks — hundreds of potentially infected ticks — throughout Schenley Park. They will drop off in a new place when they’ve had their fill.

This spring and summer the Allegheny County Health Department is conducting black-legged tick sweeps in the City parks and so far they’re finding quite a lot of them.

At Pennsylvania’s Tick Research Lab — which is based at East Stroudsburg University with study locations all over the state — experts say they are tracking significantly more ticks this spring.

The Tick Lab recorded roughly two and a half times more ticks this May compared to the same time last year.

— WESA: Pennsylvania researchers see tick population and related diseases ticking up

Spring and summer are the easiest time of year to get Lyme disease.

Don’t become a Lyme disease statistic. Spray your clothes with Permethrin insect repellent. It’s not too late for Spray Your Clothes Day.

In my experience wearing long pants, long sleeves, and socks sprayed with Permethrin is far safer from ticks than if you use insect repellent on your skin.